Duo Redux
In a past life, I worked for what was, at the time, the largest circulation daily newspaper in the United States. This paper was (and is) primarily focused on the business world. I was pleased, and stunned, when at age 25, I was tapped to be the computer guy for the Marketing and Advertising Sales departments of the paper. I ended up working in Manhattan for three years (1993-96) and even with the benefit of hindsight wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

One of my main areas of responsibility had to do with supporting our advertising sales staff. These folks are the salesdroids that call on the big ad agencies and their clients to convince them that advertising in the paper is clearly the best bet for their advertising dollar.

In 1993 we elected to outfit the sales staff with Apple Powerbook Duo computers. The lightweight subnotebook computer that docked into a desktop docking station that allowed for more storage, large displays, full size keyboard and mouse was pretty slick and the sales staff loved the small size of the portable. Since we were lugging a computer video projector along on sales calls, size and weight were a major factor. Time has dulled my recollection, but I believe the first units we bought were grayscale screens (Duo 210, 230, or 250), with later models being the color Duo 270c or 280c. I remember replacing lots of DuoDock lids so the thicker color units would fit into the desktop docks.

The Duos were a great success but, ultimately, were done in by two major shortcomings. The first, was that the PowerLatch connector that was at the core of the Duo concept was designed around a Motorola 68000 series PDS (Processor Direct Slot). In other words, the docking connector was designed to bring the processor signalling lines from the computer CPU to the edge connector (along with lots of additional lines to support things like power, video, I/O ports). When Apple made the jump to the PowerPC architecture, they were faced with either hobbling the next generation of Duo by using the old PowerLatch connector with its different and necessarily incomplete signalling or obsoleting all existing docks and connectors and introducing a new scheme with a new PowerPC Powerbook Duo. Understandably, Apple chose to implement the new PowerPC Duo — the Powerbook Duo 2300c — using the old docking technology to preserve compatibility. We opted not to go with the 2300 based on its high cost and the second major shortcoming.

The second major shortcoming of the Duo line was the lack of a CD-ROM unit in the laptop itself. Granted, at the time, there probably weren't any CD drives with a small enough form-factor to fit in a Duo chassis. My employer was willing to move to larger non-Duo laptops to get access to CD-ROM functionality for the salesdroids. We had begin working on CD-based sales tools. Some of these were quite slick, one of which I was involved with won a media award from a magazine that no longer exists. We started moving the salesdroids to Powerbook 540c computers after having the Duos fielded for less than three years. Like many other organizations, we avoided the Powerbook 5300 and its raft of introduction problems. I left the newspaper (on good terms, I hasten to add) in 1996 and so missed out on the possibilities presented by the Powerbook 1400 and 3400.


Although my exposure to the Powerbook Duo series was relatively brief, I've remained impressed by the concept and wondered if it might ever make a comeback in some way shape or form. Matthew Wright has an interesting article on the Duo at Low End Mac, that discusses how the idea might be updated and reintroduced for the 21st century. Matthew has some good insights and offers up some interesting ideas.

Of particular note is his reference to the iPod Dock Connector. Here is an example of the dock concept working out very well — after all the iPod is the most successful product in Apple history with over 60 million sold as of this writing. The Dock Connector is not CPU-specific, as there have been different CPUs used in the variety of iPods that have been made thus far. The Dock is used on every iPod, excepting the Shuffle. The proprietary iPod Dock Connector is also the cornerstone of the iPod accessory business. The iPod Dock Connector, instead of being an Achilles heel like the Duo's PowerLatch connector, has been a major factor in the product's success.

My 21st Century Duo system (although the name would have to change since we now have the Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors using the "Duo" moniker) would have several changes. I like the mechanical robustness of the old PowerLatch connector — although I would change it to make it more forgiving early on. New Mini Docks or other "clamp on" docks were sometimes a bit stiff and didn't come off the laptop as smoothly as one might like. My new system's desktop docking unit would be in the general shape of a minitower computer, with the laptop sliding into the docking unit in a vertical orientation and would accommodate tablets, UMPC-sized devices, and a variety of laptop screen widths. There would be versions of the docking unit that had their own CPUs and could function on their own as a standalone computer, while other versions would be wholly dependent on the docked computer for proceesing power. The connector used would be CPU agnostic and would permit high-speed networking of CPUs within the desktop minitower (if present) and the docked portable device, so that total computing power available would be greater with a unit docked than without. The desktop unit, like the old DuoDock, would have space for add-in cards (PCI-Express in the new box, versus NuBus in the old), hard drives, optical drives and other I/O devices. The new system would permit a full range of "clamp on" docks like the old MiniDock (below) as well.


Until such time as the Duo Redux appears, I've recently acquired a Powerbook Duo 2300c and DuoDock II to play with in my spare time. They're 11 years old and a generation newer than what I played with at the newspaper. It's funny when the trailing edge technology is still ahead of its time.