---
title: Texas Instruments Portable Professional Computer (PPC)
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Transportable
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- Intel 8086
params:
  name: Portable Professional Computer (PPC)
  image: /media/museum/photos/texas-instrument_ti-pc-portable_2.jpg
  company: /companies/texas-instruments
  company_name: Texas Instruments
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Portable Professional Computer (PPC)
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Texas Instruments
  - label: TYPE
    value: Transportable
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: November 1983
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: QWERTY full-stroke keyboard with arrow keys and separated numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: Intel 8086
  - label: SPEED
    value: 5 Mhz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: optional 8087 arithmetic co-processor
  - label: RAM
    value: 64k (up to 768k)
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 x 25
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 720 x 300 max.
  - label: COLORS
    value: 'yes'
  - label: SOUND
    value: Beeper
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: |-
      47 x 42 x 19 cm\
      12 kg with the monochrom monitor\
      14 kg with the color monitor
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Parallel/Centronics port, 5 expansion slots (non IBM compatible), 4 x serial ports (optional)
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: 5''1/4 disk-drive (320k) (second disk-drive and hard-disk optional)
  - label: OS
    value: |-
      MS-DOS 2.1 (CP/M 86, UCSD P-system, Prologue and Concurrent CP/M 86 also available).\
      Zenix was planned...
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in PSU
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Second 5''1/4 disk-drive, 10Mb or 20Mb hard-drive, RAM expansion cards, Voice recognition card, Ethernet, card (released ?)
  - label: PRICE
    value: |-
      64k model : 2965$ (USA, november 1983)\
      64k model : 3765 (France, 1984)
  tabs:
  - photos
  forum_thread: 466
  photos:
  - title: PPC
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to chrism3667 for the picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/ti_ppc_2.jpg
  - title: DETAIL
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to chrism3667 for the picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/ti_ppc_detail.jpg
  - title: CLOSED
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to chrism3667 for the picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/ti_ppc_closed.jpg
  - title: REAR
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to chrism3667 for the picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/ti_ppc_rear.jpg
  oc_id: 472
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608142726/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=472
    date: '2023-06-08'
---

Basicaly, the TI PPC was the transportable version of the TI PC, with which it was entirely compatible.

It was one of the few transportable systems to be available with an optional built-in color monitor, back in 1983. The standard version had a classic 9'' monochrome monitor built-in.

Unfortunately the advantages of the PC Portable compared to IBM's offer was not obvious. It was not really compatible (IBM disks could be read, and that was basically all) and IBM expansion cards could not be used.\
Despite this lack of real compatibility, some software were adapted to the TI Portable PC like for instance, Lotus 1-2-3 or VisiOn.\
A few programming languages were available: Basic, Pascal, C-Basic, Cobol and RM-Cobol.

The graphical possibilities were quite different and significantly better than for the IBM PC, with for example, a maximum resolution is of 720 x 300 pixels. To make a IBM PC graphic program to run on a TI PC you would have to use BIOS or DOS calls.

The TI PPC had only 64k RAM that could be expanded up to 768k using quite expensive memory cards.

Like its desktop brother, the PC Portable could eventually be equiped with a voice recognition feature (for almost the price of the computer itself !) that allowed to control the basic functions of the computer and some softwares, as a diary and a phone book. With the optional hard-disk installed, it was possible to store up to 8 hours of speech.

Another interesting feature was its Ethernet card indoduced in 1983, designed by a young company called 3COM.