I had one of these when they came out. It truly was a marvel at the time. I used it all the time as my side machine. It was great as a spreadsheet machine, it wasn't fast but it could run very decent financial models.
This article is the best I've ever seen about how the 'slate worked. It's super long, but really does a nice job on the technology.
(author) Hey, thank you! Did you ever try any of the telecommunications features or use any of Convergent's Taskware tapes?
I used the telcom features, you could "talk" to another WorkSlate and exchange files, and use it as a terminal. At the time I worked for Burroughs and we had access to the full range of Convergent products. I don't know how much was Convergent stock or had been adapted by Burroughs to fit into the Convergent workstations we used/sold.
Convergent was so much ahead of its time... Their modular machines were the realisation of what Apple thought about doing with their project Jonathan.
Yep, they were very much on the cutting edge. There was a ton of flexibility in how the systems set up. The networking part was very well done, you could have main units with disks, printers, etc. and use the remotes on people's desks. But as all things cool, they were expensive and ran face into lower cost PC's.
As we are all now familiar with the saying, "worse is better".
I've never seen this before. I love the design. It's like a drum machine for spreadsheets. And it's from 1983, the same year the Tandy Model 100 was released. A good year for gadgets.
Another computer from that time with a micro cassette is the P2000 from Philips.
And the Epson PX-8 Geneva, a 1984 CP/M laptop using micro-cassettes rather than floppies. I actually had one for a time that I got a few years later when they were discontinued and were sold for a fraction of their original price.
I love this since it’s a laptop! We’ve come a looong way
There is just one question remaining: where do I get one?
History on Ebay has them popping up. Check with the InfoAge Science Center, 2201 Marconi Rd., Wall, New Jersey, 07719. The Burroughs plant that supported them (Flemington) gave all that stuff away when they ended that product line.
A lot of eBay. unfortunately, is less than accessible from Ireland, where I live, but I will doubtlessly reach out to the InfoAge Center. It sounds like an interesting place anyway.