There’s a brand-new, funky, and modern laptop that is giving people nostalgic feels. News media outlets stumbled upon a new laptop called the Book 8088, sold on AliExpress for around $200 and bringing in features reminiscent of the IBM PC 5150.
IBM debuted this PC 5150 in August 1981. It was not the world’s first personal computer, but nonetheless successful thanks to its top-quality construction and expandability. The IBM PC 5150 was designed by lab director Bill Lowe, together with 11 other IBM engineers in Boca Raton, a city in Florida.
Now, there’s a brand-new and modern laptop on the market taking people back in time. Media outlets stumbled upon it like unearthing an artifact from the past. Here’s a look at its features.
Features
Called Book 8088, this netbook-sized personal computer may not be a pure reproduction of the 1980s IBM Personal Computer 5150, but it combines genuine original parts with newer hardware to recreate the 5150’s specs, allowing this modern laptop to do the same things 5150 does in a more cramped space.
Moreover, the Intel 8088 processor in Book 8088 is also very vintage. Plus, it has an open socket for an Intel 8087 coprocessor.
And that’s not all. Its Motorola 6845 CGA display controller is also original.
Most of the chips in this laptop do the same things the chips from the original IBM computer do, but taking up lesser space. Particularly, the 640KB RAM is provided by just one 512KB chip and another 128KB chip instead of being incorporated a few kilobytes at a time on the motherboard or through a bulky RAM expansion card.
A single 64KB EPROM chip in Book 8088 replaces the total of six 8KB ROM chips in IBM PC 5150.
Furthermore, several of its motherboard and graphics functions are also consolidated into CPLDs or complex programmable logic device chips. Essentially CPLDs are chips capable of simulating the capabilities of other chips.
Not only those but Book 8088 also has a hard disk functionality an integrated XTIDE controller provides, enabling people to connect 16-bit parallel ATA storage devices to the laptop’s eight-bit data bus.
It also has a CH375S chip powering up the USB port and an LCD screen connected to the laptop’s video hardware via a different board hidden underneath its thick display bezel.
Finally, Book 8088 also ships with MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.0, together with other software.
What customers say about it
AliExpress customers who got the chance to purchase this laptop share their insights about it.
One AliExpress customer said it is a “nice little computer, but with “flaws.” They wrote, “Nice little computer. Has its flaws but a lot of fun to Tinker around with. Runs just about anything that an 8088 could run. My biggest beef with it is that it has a lack of external connections and it does not have a very good screen. But overall, a nice little computer to Tinker with and play classic DOS games on.”
Another customer said it “worked out of the box” and is “such a fun machine.”
