Bill Moggridge Dies At 69 - He Had Designed The First Laptop

William Grant "Bill" Moggridge, the man who designed the laptop died at the age of 69. Bill Moggridge was a British designer who is credited with the design of 'GRiD Compass' - which was a computer with physical keyboard and yellow-on-black display. Moggeridge had cofounded a design company called IDEO and served as the director of  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He had received a lifetime achievement award from National Design Awards along with the Prince Philip Designers Prize.

[caption id="attachment_42051" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bill Moggeridge | June 25, 1943 – September 8, 2012 | Wikipedia[/caption]

The GRiD Compass was first developed in 1979 and was then sold in April 1982. The first model [Model 1101] had Intel 8086, a 320 × 240-pixel electroluminescent display, 340 kb magnetic bubble memory, and a 1200 bps modem and the whole assembly weighed approximately 5 kgs. The computer ran its own operating system called GRiD-OS (priced ~ $8-10,000). NASA was the first customer of the GRiD Compass and it needed the 'laptop' for its space shuttle program.

All we say is thank you, Mr. Moggeridge. Rest In Peace!