website/content/museum/dulmont-magnum.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
DULMONT Magnum	Computers	Portable	Australia	1984	Intel 80186	name company company_name specs comments oc_id source Magnum /companies/dulmont DULMONT label value NAME Magnum label value MANUFACTURER Dulmont label value TYPE Portable label value ORIGIN Australia label value YEAR 1984 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE No language but a software package label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 76 keys with function and arrows keys label value CPU Intel 80186 label value SPEED Unknown label value RAM 96 KB up to 384 KB label value ROM 128 KB up to 384 KB label value TEXT MODES 40-80 characters x 8 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES Unknown label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND Internal speaker label value SIZE / WEIGHT 32(W) x 27,5(D) x 5,5(H) cm. / 4.8 Kg label value I/O PORTS 2 x ROM cartridges, 2 x Serial, Parallel, Composite video, Expansion port label value BUILT IN MEDIA C-MOS battery-backup RAM label value OS MS-DOS label value POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit, Ni-Cad battery label value PERIPHERALS 2 x 5.25'' 360 KB F.D. unit label value PRICE Unknown author date text Alex paine (Australia) Tuesday 24th August 2021 Together with Clive Mackness and Colin Morris we first conceived the idea that became the Dulmont Magnum in 1979 at which time I was the International Development Manager for Dulmison. author date text Ian (England, United Kingdom) Tuesday 29th November 2016 This computer has just been featured as part of a working teardown on YouTube in Australia by a guy called Dave. https://youtu.be/st7H_vqSaQc author date text Yuri Thursday 31st March 2016 Somebody have schematic diagram Dulmont Magnum?\ Someone has a laptop in working condition? author date text David Payne (Melbourne, Australia) Monday 10th February 2014 A friend I''ve lost contact with had a Time Office Kookaburra. I think they were renamed thus when Time Office Computing, (nothing to do with Henry Luce), bought Dulmont. NO WAY was this the first computer or even the tenth Microcomputer designed or built in Australia! Try CSIRAC $ perhaps the Automatic Totalisers long before that. The first Australian DESKTOP computer was probably the EDUC-8 c1973-4. author date text Leskovez (Russia) Saturday 18th January 2014 If someone owns the laptop let me know. Laptop needed for the museum of computer technology. leskovezATmail.ru author date text Ivan Rozanoff (I am from Russia Tomilino village? under the Moskow ) Monday 3rd January 2005 HAPPY NEW YEAR!\ I am the crazy lover off old computers and your site! 764 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230329003534/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=764 2023-03-29

Like the HP-110 or the Sharp PC-5000, the Dulmont Magnum belongs to the first family of notebook computers with LCD screen (not yet back-lighted). Moreover, it was the first computer conceived and manufactured in Australia. It was also called Kookaburra (an Australian bird) for some export markets.

The Magnum was a PC-compatible system featuring an Intel 80186 processor, 96 KB of RAM, an 8 line LCD screen and several management software in ROM: word processor, spreadsheet, telecommunication, file manager, and appointment. Additional ROM software could be added thanks to two 128 KB cartridge slots. A rechargeable Ni-Cad battery pack allowed ten to twelve hours of continuous use, and a lithium battery kept the content of the RAM memory when the system was turned off.

Due to various RAM/ROM configurations in the system, the drive letters assignation was specific to the Dulmont: drive A corresponded to the software in ROM, drives B and C, to each optional ROM expansion, D to the internal C-MOS RAM, E and F to the external floppy disc drives.

---

Chris Todter adds:
I was the engineering manager for this project. Most of the information is accurate, although it actually came out about 2 years earlier, and definitely pre-dated the Sharp 5000, and the HP-110.
The speed got up to 8MHz, and the display was up to 40 lines by the time the company folded. It also contained patented power saving features whereby it would put the processor to sleep between keystrokes.