Tadpole Computer

Tadpole Computer was a manufacturer of rugged, military specification UNIX workstations, thin client laptops, and lightweight servers.

History Tadpole was founded in 1994 and originally based in Cambridge, England, then for a time in Cupertino, California.

In 1998, Tadpole acquired RDI Computer Corporation of Carlsbad, California, who produced the competing Britelite and Powerlite portable SPARC-based systems, for $6 million.

Tadpole was later acquired by defense contractor General Dynamics, in April 2005.

Production continued until March 2013 but since then, they no longer sell any systems; and support for their products was provided by Flextronics. Flextronics discontinued Tadpole support around 2019. Vector Data, a Tadpole OEM, still provides legacy Tadpole systems and support.

An anonymous US intelligence officer had stated to Reuters in 2013 that a decade earlier the US secretly created a company reselling laptops from Tadpole Computer to Asian governments. The reseller added secret software that allowed intelligence analysts to access the machines remotely.

Products Tadpole laptops used a variety of architectures, such as SPARC, Alpha, PowerPC and x86. Although very expensive, these classic Tadpoles won favour as a method to show corporation's proprietary software (IBM/HP/DEC) on a self-contained portable device on a client site in the days before remote connectivity.

SPARC

The original SPARCbook 1Chronology of Workstation Computers (1991-1992) was introduced in 1992 with 8–32 MB RAM and a 25 MHz processor.Sub-$6,000 Sparc Notebook Announced, By Martin Marshall, InfoWorld, 27 May 1991, Page 32Advert: Meet the Notebook that Breaks the Mold: SPARCbook 1: Tadpole, Computerworld, 23 Mar 1992, Page 37 It was followed by several further SPARCbooks, UltraSPARCbooks (branded as Ultrabooks) – and the Voyager IIi.Tadpole release Sparc notebooks, By Yvonne L. Lee, InfoWorld, 21 Feb 1994, Page 33, ...The $10,950 SparcBook 3....The $7,500 SparcBook 3LC...SPARC notebook manufacturer promises desktop performance, by Michael Fitzgerald, Computerworld, 28 Feb 1994, Page 41, ...Tadpole Technology Inc. in Austin, Texas, announced its third SPARC notebook....The $10,950 SPARCbook 3 uses Texas insstruments, Inc.'s 50-MHz MicroSPARC processor... These all ran the SunOS or Solaris operating systems."Tadpole SPARCbook 3", computinghistory.org.ukSPARCbook 3000ST - The coolest 90s laptop, March 14, 2019, adafruit.comTable 11-1: Identifying Different SPARC CPUs, Page 256, Sun Performance and Tuning: Java and the Internet, By Adrian Cockcroft, Richard Pettit, Sun Microsystems, ...System(Kernel Architecture): Tadpole SPARCbook 1 (sun4m) / CPU Mhz: 25 / CPU Type: Cypress 601...System(Kernel Architecture): Tadpole SPARCbook 2 (sun4m) / CPU Mhz: 40 / CPU Type: Fujitsu MB86903...System(Kernel Architecture): Tadpole SPARCbook 3 (sun4m) / CPU Mhz: 85-110 / CPU Type: microSPARC II...Sparc-based notebook ready to debut: Tadpole system uses Cypress processor, runs Solaris operating system, By Cate Corcoran, InfoWorld Dec 28, 1992 - Jan 4, 1993, Page 23 In 2004, Tadpole released the Viper laptop.

The SPARCLE was based on a 500-600 MHz UltraSPARC IIe or 1 GHz UltraSPARC IIIi.

DEC Alpha

An Alpha-based laptop, the ALPHAbook 1, was announced on 4 December 1995 and became available in 1996. The Alphabook 1 was manufactured in Cambridge, England. It used an Alpha 21066A microprocessor specified for a maximum clock frequency of 233 MHz. The laptop used the OpenVMS operating system.HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation Retrieved September 15, 2011.

IBM PowerPC

A PowerPC-based laptop was also produced – the IBM RISC System/6000 N40 Notebook Workstation, powered by a 50 MHz PowerPC 601 and with between 16 and 64MB RAM – and designed to run IBM AIX."IBM RISC System/6000 N40 Notebook Workstation", March 8, 1994, Announcement Number: 194-062

x86 Tadpole also produced a range of x86-based notebook computers, including the Tadpole P1000, and the TALIN laptops with SUSE Linux, or optionally Microsoft Windows.Tadpole boosts power in Pentium-, Sparc-based notebooks, By Yvonne L. Lee, InfoWorld, 24 Jul 1995, Page 45, ...The two new notebooks, shipping now, include the SparcBook 3GX...and the Tadpole P1300, the first 133-MHz Pentium-based notebook...A Pentium notebook with 8MB of RAM and a 340MB hard disk cost $6,995...

Tadpole Computer

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