Otrona

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Otrona was an early manufacturer of portable computers.

The American company's first major product, the Otrona Attache, came out in 1982 and folded up to the size of a fat briefcase painted off-white with orange trim. When set up for use, the carrying handle swung under the chassis to prop it up for easier viewing. A keyboard could be removed from one end, revealing a small monochrome CRT and two 360 kilobyte "half-height" 5.25 inch floppy disk drives. The system featured a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, used the CP/M operating system and had several programs in ROM.

The Attache was significantly smaller and lighter than the Osborne 1 and the Kaypro, other portable computers from the same time. The Attache also was both more capable and more expensive. Like the competition, the Attache was meant to run on AC power. A battery was not part of the package.

A co-processor circuit board bearing an Intel microprocessor could be added to the Attache, creating the "8:16" model. This brought some very limited compatibility with the IBM PC.

Otrona introduced a later model whose CPU was a 16 bit Intel microprocessor. This model was meant to be competitive with the IBM PC. Otrona redesigned the chassis; this model's CRT was hinged, pivoting upward for easier viewing. Despite the innovative packaging and what for the day was light weight, this model's PC compatibility still was low and its price was high.

The market acceptance of the IBM PC as a standard, the disappearance of the CP/M market and Otrona's very limited success at producing a PC clone led to the company's disappearance.

The Attache model sold in high enough numbers for it still to show up in auctions and flea markets. The later model barely made a mark at all and probably ranks as one of the rarest of the early PC clones.