Atari Portfolio

DIP Research Ltd. based at the Surrey Research Park in Guildford, Surrey, UK developed the first MS-DOS-compatible palmtop PC, the DIP Pocket PC. It was IBM PC-compatible at the BIOS level, but not at the I/O port level. A prototype version was released in early 1989 as a proof of concept. Atari became aware of this release, and saw a market opportunity. It licensed the electronics & software design from DIP, and applied its production engineering expertise to create a consumer version of the product with a new case and keyboard. This product was marketed as the Atari Portfolio in the US & UK, and in other countries later on. In Germany, Italy, and Spain it was initially called the PC Folio due to trademark restrictions. Atari acquired the rights to the name Portfolio in Germany and Spain, but it was always called the PC Folio in Italy. DIP continued to evolve the electronics design (including expansion modules) and all the ROM software, supplying software updates to Atari over the production cycle.