British computer engineer John Ellenby, 75, who was one of the brilliant minds responsible for bringing about the laptop computers we all enjoy, passed away last Aug. 17 in San Francisco.
Ellenby's son, Thomas, confirmed his death. The cause of death is yet to be determined.
John Ellenby, a native of Cambridge, England, attended the University College London where he studied geography and economics. He had his first encounter with mainframe computers in the 1960s during his year-long tenure at the London School of Economics. Ellenby then proceeded to work for Ferranti, a British electrical and engineering firm.
He later went to the United States to work for Xerox where he took part in developing the Alto II desktop computer. Note that the earlier prototype, Alto, inspired Apple's Macintosh and Lisa desktop computers, as well as Microsoft's Windows — all of which we enjoy today.
"He was good and aggressive and even daring, you might say," said David Liddle, former Xerox executive, according to the New York Times.
After leaving Xerox in 1979, Ellenby founded Grid Systems. When he got together an engineering and design team, which included William Grant "Bill" Moggridge, a British industrial designer, Ellenby started to work on what would be his first pioneering work. Three years later, Grid systems introduced the GRiD Compass model 1101, which was one of the earliest laptops ever produced.
The Grid Compass was designed with a magnesium alloy clamshell case, which allowed the screen to fold flat to the rest of the computer when closed. Its innards featured the Intel 8086 processor along with a 340-kilobyte magnetic bubble memory.
The Grid Compass used a 320 x 240 pixel electroluminescent display. It was also fitted with a 1,200 bit/s modem. Bear in mind that 8 bits equate to 1 byte. And no, it didn't use Windows, which didn't even exist in 1982. It ran on its own operating system, the Grid-OS.
The whole Grid Compass computer weighed 5 kilograms, which is roughly 11 pounds — almost 10 times heavier than some of the lightest laptops today. Albeit heavy, it was a revolution at the time. In fact, even with an $8,150 price tag, the U.S. government had a steady supply of them. The U.S. military, along with NASA, put the Grid Compass to use. Corporations such as Chevron and Bank of America also bought their share of Grid Compass laptops.
Ellenby later sold Grid Systems and founded Agilis and the GeoVector Corporation, which made advances in augmented reality.
Below is a video detailing the history and development of John Ellenby's Grid Compass.
