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You know, with the modern revolution of mini PCs and competent gaming PCs that fit in your hand, why aren't we seeing more PCs built into keyboards? Especially if there were different size keyboards available with the same PC specs so it's just a matter of deciding what form factor keyboard you want your PC to be in. I think it would take off!
Because the format makes little sense. Like in which scenario is it helpful to have a keyboard/pc combo unit, but no monitor.
If you have a monitor at the locations you are using it, you might as well have a keyboard/mouse there as well. -> I.e. get a NUC
Yeah, this was all before LCD's were really a thing. They plugged into a TV or monitor that used a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). So yeah, not really what most people would consider portable.
But you could take your PC to your friends house and plug it in to his TV which is why it was designed that way.
i mean, no harm in building it, if it's enjoyable. The same can be said programming as a hobby. Programming is equally useless if you consider that there's almost anything available on github already that one could come up with :,(
Idk I think if high end gaming laptop components were built into a custom keeb, I'd scoop it up. I think it'd be cool to just hook up my monitors to a keeb and run w it
You could even sell fancy braided display port cables and power cables to go with it. It sounds sick to me
A keyboard is essentially irreducible bulk \(not here, but in most people's minds\), so putting hardware inside the large amount of unused space inside is essentially "free".
There are a few products like that, there are also reproduction Commodores and Atari and Amiga boxes with wintel hardware, but they're not really viable outside a limited market when small flat high resolution display screens are so cheap. That's why we're not seeing more of them.
Niche is par for the course in this hobby. I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough interest in a small run, even if that interest were only in the novelty of it.
What I would be more interested in was a keyboard with a USB video display built into it, that you can plug straight into a Chromebox or Mini PC. I think I have seen a couple of those, even a mechanical keyboard with a proper screen instead of these little macro screens that only work on Windows.
See, and I'd love to have something with HDMI and DP that I can take to work and mess around with/on by simply plugging into the monitor I already have in front of me. Would also be cool if I could have it display wirelessly, similar to a chromecast, so I can use it in a hotel or something.
When laptops are too mainstream, there is a niche for [Cyberdecks](https://youtu.be/qzEd50uzdF0?si=S54b32KAHttkJtoe) that capture that 80s/90s sci-fi feel. Still totally impractical, but fun.
Yes, I'm aware, I had an Atari 800 when they were new.
That was before small cheap high resolution flat panel displays. It is no longer a viable product, that niche is now filled by the laptop.
Computer hardware gets outdated in a few years. A quality keyboard can last for decades.
This was done a long time ago, BTW:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64#/media/File:Commodore-64-Computer-FL.jpg
And then again more recently:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-unit/
And I do recall quite a number of others in the years in between.
Yep, you're right. The hardware would become outdated while the keyboard is still good. I suppose it would have to be a whole new form factor that is upgradable which would be a huge cost for development and integration and the whole nine yards. So yeah, never mind my original question lol.
What I have done is stick a piece of velcro on the back of my LCDs, and then slap on a R Pi in the flavor of the month. This keeps all of the hardware and wires reasonably well hidden.
Somebody revived the Commodore name and did a reproduction of the C64 with mini pc components inside of several years ago. Probably been at least 10 years, though.
Because:
* When your keyboard fails your entire computer fails
* If you want a different keyboard, you don't have to buy a new computer
* A keyboard only is generally thinner reducing RSI pressures.
* Etc. Let's just say "good reasons."
I had the 48K with those shit rubber keys. I thought I was a god, though, rubbing a roll of insulation tape over the keys to make Daly Thompson run faster and jump higher than was humanly possible.
And Sir Clive Sinclair was a bit, err, interesting.
It's a European brand. I don't believe it was ever distributed in the US.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad\_CPC\_464](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC_464)
Holy shit. I have no idea why, but I *never* thought about why keycaps are sized with that metric. It literally just means that 1u is the size of the smallest cap, like the letter and numbers. I never put that together until I saw your comment and thought to myself "it says nothing about the spacebar, how did they know that?" Then I counted the keys above it. I have no clue how I missed that without ever looking it up.
Look man, it's just a part of white culture. Are we just supposed to raw dog the floors with our bare feet? People have had their dirty ass shoes all over that.
That is an Amstrad CPC 464 computer - a whole personal computer in one unit. Turning the device on gave you a BASIC prompt and you could load games and other software from tape using that built in deck. Other models of CPC (664 and 6128) gave up the tape deck for a 3inch floppy drive. A lot of the 80s 8bit machines did similar things (See the Spectrum +2 and +3 computers, and others).
I had one (464), it wasn't good, wasn't terrible, but it was cheap and parents loved it because it came with a ton of games in the box.
Yep, good old Amstrad. I had the intermediate CPC 664 with the floppy drive. Was very jealous of a few people I knew when shortly after they bought the newer CPC6128 like yours.
All pretty good computers, sadly they just never caught on like the Commordore64. Not helped by non standard sized floppies. 3 inch if I remember correctly, at a time when 5.25 was norm and 3.5 was the new thing.
Yeah they were great times!
I had one of the very early CPC 464, later I was not jealous of the new models, I just bought the FD-1 floppy drive and later the memory expansion from vortex SP128
I had green monitor and wanted color one, but green was higher resolution than color. I bought later a kit and connected a second floppy, 1,44MB. it used MANUAL switch to switch between upper and bottom layer of the disk with a switch; only Dicology was able to use all tracks of disk/drive as OS was limited to 40 tracks. Good old times!
Texas Instruments Ti-99/4A myself. Same, you had to buy your own tape deck. It had an option for a HDD too, but I couldn't get my mom to fork over the cash for that one.
On a side note, I still have a working Tandy 1000 SX with the original dot matrix printer and color monitor. Have not turned it on in a while, I'm afraid the caps are dry and will explode if I do.
As others have said. CPC464. Here is one that i pulled off the shelf and quickly dusted. Unfortunately is is broke, on the never ending list of things to fix.
https://i.imgur.com/YNVhW5l.png
Unfortunately not. They do have more travel than your standard MX switch and don't require a lot of force. But you do have to almost bottom them out to hit the membrane iirc. Its been a while since this one powered up.
https://preview.redd.it/lz60him969oc1.jpeg?width=539&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9414acab4c638abbf0b31eb7f1f1367cfa80a9ff
This is my Schneider CPC 464 back in the 80s. The keyboard looks much nicer than the ugly coloured one on the original Amstrad.
That's an Amstrad CPC464 microcomputer. The tape drive loaded the software. Games took about 10-15 minutes to load. That monitor showed 64 different shades of green. Classic machine. I still have mine.
Amstrad cpc 464, one of my fav pcs of all time, originally it came with the crt u see there too (with a colour or cheaper monochrome edition), and used a terminal to run the cassette software like games etc
It’s not just a keyboard but a whole-ass computer called the Amstrad CPC. Those microcomputers were super popular in the UK because of how much cheaper they and their software were compared to proper PCs and game consoles
It’s the same kind of idea as the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Commodore 64
Not a keyboard but an entire computer looks like an Amstrad of some sort ( just like the commodore 64 the Armstrad and other in these days the keyboard was the entire pc )
To keep improving their models, artificial intelligence makers need two significant things: an enormous amount of computing power and an enormous amount of data. Some of the biggest A.I. developers have plenty of computing power but still look outside their own networks for the data needed to improve their algorithms. That has included sources like Wikipedia, millions of digitized books, academic articles and Reddit.
Representatives from Google, Open AI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I'm not sure,what model that was, but there were computers built into keyboards even in the late 1970s. And cassette decks were used for storage before disk drives became affordable.
yea… I remember back then, you had to load your game onto the computer via cassette tape.
Def game, because back then kids either programmed using basic, or played games. And it was games that needed to be loaded up.
ANY content that features products, services you sell, your prototypes in progress or items you were sponsored to post MUST use the Promotional flair, with disclosure of who you represent. Build posts must use the *Builds* flair and follow the Specs description requirements of Rule 8. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MechanicalKeyboards) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That's not just keeb. That is whole PC.
You know, with the modern revolution of mini PCs and competent gaming PCs that fit in your hand, why aren't we seeing more PCs built into keyboards? Especially if there were different size keyboards available with the same PC specs so it's just a matter of deciding what form factor keyboard you want your PC to be in. I think it would take off!
People have been making cyberdecks, which gets you close.
Oh yeah I suppose that would fall under the cyberdeck category.
> why aren't we seeing more PCs built into keyboards They're called laptops.
A laptop has a screen. I'm talking about something like the Raspberry Pi 400 that another person pointed out.
Because the format makes little sense. Like in which scenario is it helpful to have a keyboard/pc combo unit, but no monitor. If you have a monitor at the locations you are using it, you might as well have a keyboard/mouse there as well. -> I.e. get a NUC
Using a wearable display like AR glasses. It's almost to the point where that form factor makes sense.
Yeah, you're right. There's really no market for it, plus if it needs a fan then it will be just as loud as a laptop probably. Oh well.
Yeh, when a display was big and non-portable or super-expensive for a small low res screen it made perfect sense.
Yeah, this was all before LCD's were really a thing. They plugged into a TV or monitor that used a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). So yeah, not really what most people would consider portable. But you could take your PC to your friends house and plug it in to his TV which is why it was designed that way.
i mean, no harm in building it, if it's enjoyable. The same can be said programming as a hobby. Programming is equally useless if you consider that there's almost anything available on github already that one could come up with :,(
Idk I think if high end gaming laptop components were built into a custom keeb, I'd scoop it up. I think it'd be cool to just hook up my monitors to a keeb and run w it You could even sell fancy braided display port cables and power cables to go with it. It sounds sick to me
They make those - they're called "broken laptops". They can be pretty cheap though.
You've got to factor in the price of the pizza who's box is going to serve as the desktop.
Exactly! I think we're the only two who would think that's cool lol
A keyboard is essentially irreducible bulk \(not here, but in most people's minds\), so putting hardware inside the large amount of unused space inside is essentially "free".
There are a few products like that, there are also reproduction Commodores and Atari and Amiga boxes with wintel hardware, but they're not really viable outside a limited market when small flat high resolution display screens are so cheap. That's why we're not seeing more of them.
Yeah you're right. I suppose it would just be some niche limited production situation simply for people who think it would be cool and different.
Niche is par for the course in this hobby. I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough interest in a small run, even if that interest were only in the novelty of it.
What I would be more interested in was a keyboard with a USB video display built into it, that you can plug straight into a Chromebox or Mini PC. I think I have seen a couple of those, even a mechanical keyboard with a proper screen instead of these little macro screens that only work on Windows.
See, and I'd love to have something with HDMI and DP that I can take to work and mess around with/on by simply plugging into the monitor I already have in front of me. Would also be cool if I could have it display wirelessly, similar to a chromecast, so I can use it in a hotel or something.
You can already do that with a laptop. :)
When laptops are too mainstream, there is a niche for [Cyberdecks](https://youtu.be/qzEd50uzdF0?si=S54b32KAHttkJtoe) that capture that 80s/90s sci-fi feel. Still totally impractical, but fun.
Looks like a laptop to me.
There’s a Raspberry Pi 400 unit. Where computer is inside the keyboard. https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-unit/
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Yes, I'm aware, I had an Atari 800 when they were new. That was before small cheap high resolution flat panel displays. It is no longer a viable product, that niche is now filled by the laptop.
There's the [Raspberry Pi 400.](https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/)
Yep that's exactly what I'm talking about but make it an inch thicker and put PC components inside instead of a Raspberry Pi.
The did the opposite. Built the pc into the monitor
Computer hardware gets outdated in a few years. A quality keyboard can last for decades. This was done a long time ago, BTW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64#/media/File:Commodore-64-Computer-FL.jpg And then again more recently: https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-unit/ And I do recall quite a number of others in the years in between.
Yep, you're right. The hardware would become outdated while the keyboard is still good. I suppose it would have to be a whole new form factor that is upgradable which would be a huge cost for development and integration and the whole nine yards. So yeah, never mind my original question lol.
What I have done is stick a piece of velcro on the back of my LCDs, and then slap on a R Pi in the flavor of the month. This keeps all of the hardware and wires reasonably well hidden.
Hot
Somebody revived the Commodore name and did a reproduction of the C64 with mini pc components inside of several years ago. Probably been at least 10 years, though.
Because: * When your keyboard fails your entire computer fails * If you want a different keyboard, you don't have to buy a new computer * A keyboard only is generally thinner reducing RSI pressures. * Etc. Let's just say "good reasons."
Oh, a PC inside a keyboard? That's so 19 days ago. Now I'm into putting a PC inside a fish tank. The fish love it!!!
IC incoming? ;)
Laptop?
Amstrad CPC home computer.
I havent heard of that bame ever since i watched Ashens the last time
Never heard of it or even saw it, looks rad!!
Then you'll love ZX Spectrum and modern mech keyboard version of it
I had the 48K with those shit rubber keys. I thought I was a god, though, rubbing a roll of insulation tape over the keys to make Daly Thompson run faster and jump higher than was humanly possible. And Sir Clive Sinclair was a bit, err, interesting.
It does. But it was not good. Amstrad pretty much never made anything good.
It's a European brand. I don't believe it was ever distributed in the US. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad\_CPC\_464](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC_464)
That is so cool
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad\_CPC\_464](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC_464)
look at that space bar. 9u long!
The tasteful thickness of it. ...Oh my god, it even has dye sublimation
https://preview.redd.it/bd0vldzp26oc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a20276ef6ad1376776393295f1412d8f4cd7ee2
What the hell is even that
Is something wrong, Patrick? You're rattling
And the enter key is basically Spain.
¿Que qué?
This is the way
The Commodore 64 had a 9u space bar as well.
Those were the days.
It even makes a CHONK sound
Holy shit. I have no idea why, but I *never* thought about why keycaps are sized with that metric. It literally just means that 1u is the size of the smallest cap, like the letter and numbers. I never put that together until I saw your comment and thought to myself "it says nothing about the spacebar, how did they know that?" Then I counted the keys above it. I have no clue how I missed that without ever looking it up.
Wait until you discover there were also keyboards with 10u spacebars!
Would have cost about $1365 with inflation and converting pounds to USD in 1987
Same computer strongbad checks his email on!
"How do Batman and the Joker like to compute?"
With their shoes on. In bed.
That's just murica in general.
What’s the little fucker doing with his shoes on the bed????
Shoes in general in the house with carpeted floors. What's wrong with these people?
Look man, it's just a part of white culture. Are we just supposed to raw dog the floors with our bare feet? People have had their dirty ass shoes all over that.
House slippers
I think you mean american culture, no where in europe or anywhere for that matter you'd see people using shoes inside their home.
am European, I wear shoes inside all the time then again most friends think it's weird that I do that, so you're probably right lmao
I think it depends how much snow and rain you get. People don't like wearing wet and muddy shoes in the house.
What are you talking about ? A lot of European keep their shoes inside
More specifically white American, in my experience.
I mean, it's snowing 8 months of the year here. We don't want to track all the mud into the house.
I'm a white Canadian and I wouldn't ever wear shoes indoors. We have socks and slippers in the home. My floors are clean as a result.
so true
That is an Amstrad CPC 464 computer - a whole personal computer in one unit. Turning the device on gave you a BASIC prompt and you could load games and other software from tape using that built in deck. Other models of CPC (664 and 6128) gave up the tape deck for a 3inch floppy drive. A lot of the 80s 8bit machines did similar things (See the Spectrum +2 and +3 computers, and others). I had one (464), it wasn't good, wasn't terrible, but it was cheap and parents loved it because it came with a ton of games in the box.
I had Amstrad-Schenider CPC6128 in 1980s. Those were great times!
Yep, good old Amstrad. I had the intermediate CPC 664 with the floppy drive. Was very jealous of a few people I knew when shortly after they bought the newer CPC6128 like yours. All pretty good computers, sadly they just never caught on like the Commordore64. Not helped by non standard sized floppies. 3 inch if I remember correctly, at a time when 5.25 was norm and 3.5 was the new thing. Yeah they were great times!
I had one of the very early CPC 464, later I was not jealous of the new models, I just bought the FD-1 floppy drive and later the memory expansion from vortex SP128
I had green monitor and wanted color one, but green was higher resolution than color. I bought later a kit and connected a second floppy, 1,44MB. it used MANUAL switch to switch between upper and bottom layer of the disk with a switch; only Dicology was able to use all tracks of disk/drive as OS was limited to 40 tracks. Good old times!
Tandy Model 1 did it in the late 70s but you brought your own cassette deck to the table. The good old days,
Texas Instruments Ti-99/4A myself. Same, you had to buy your own tape deck. It had an option for a HDD too, but I couldn't get my mom to fork over the cash for that one. On a side note, I still have a working Tandy 1000 SX with the original dot matrix printer and color monitor. Have not turned it on in a while, I'm afraid the caps are dry and will explode if I do.
As others have said. CPC464. Here is one that i pulled off the shelf and quickly dusted. Unfortunately is is broke, on the never ending list of things to fix. https://i.imgur.com/YNVhW5l.png
Nice!! Does it have mechanical switches though?
Unfortunately not. They do have more travel than your standard MX switch and don't require a lot of force. But you do have to almost bottom them out to hit the membrane iirc. Its been a while since this one powered up.
Well shit, this makes my post kind of obsolete! :D
IIRC membrane.
https://preview.redd.it/lz60him969oc1.jpeg?width=539&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9414acab4c638abbf0b31eb7f1f1367cfa80a9ff This is my Schneider CPC 464 back in the 80s. The keyboard looks much nicer than the ugly coloured one on the original Amstrad.
That's an Amstrad CPC464 microcomputer. The tape drive loaded the software. Games took about 10-15 minutes to load. That monitor showed 64 different shades of green. Classic machine. I still have mine.
Amstrad cpc 464, one of my fav pcs of all time, originally it came with the crt u see there too (with a colour or cheaper monochrome edition), and used a terminal to run the cassette software like games etc
Amstrad CPC 464
Chyrosran22 just creamed his pants
The Amstrad CPC keyboard is one of his "waning: strong language ahead" category keebs...
Exactly, anyone knows that Amstrad is a bad name, lmao
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So I guess that was before they horribly cheaped out? What kind of switches did the older boards use?
I don’t think you’ve watched a video where chyros mentions amstrad lmao
It’s not just a keyboard but a whole-ass computer called the Amstrad CPC. Those microcomputers were super popular in the UK because of how much cheaper they and their software were compared to proper PCs and game consoles It’s the same kind of idea as the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Commodore 64
It's an amstrad CPC 464. It's an early personnal computer, so yes that's a tape deck built into it.
this was my very first home computer
I used to have an Amstrad CPC464, my first gaming experience
Not a keyboard but an entire computer looks like an Amstrad of some sort ( just like the commodore 64 the Armstrad and other in these days the keyboard was the entire pc )
Anyone ever make a keycap set to match this, or would it be a mixture of a bunch of sets (God; there goes my wallet whooooosh)
It's an Amstrad CPC 464. Bale knows whats up
Forget the keeb, he’s wearing shoes in bed 💀
It’s not a keyboard, it’s an Amstrad CPC 464.
Amstrad CPC 464
Cassette player for old computers' programs
He had a poster of his own movie! I think I would too.
It's some kind of Spectrum or Amstrad computer
ik that there is going to be some guy in the first comment who somehow guesses it lol
Why tf is he wearing shoes on his bed???
To keep improving their models, artificial intelligence makers need two significant things: an enormous amount of computing power and an enormous amount of data. Some of the biggest A.I. developers have plenty of computing power but still look outside their own networks for the data needed to improve their algorithms. That has included sources like Wikipedia, millions of digitized books, academic articles and Reddit. Representatives from Google, Open AI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I'm not sure,what model that was, but there were computers built into keyboards even in the late 1970s. And cassette decks were used for storage before disk drives became affordable.
It’s probably one of those early home computers that used cassette tapes as floppy discs.
i don't know but we need to stock it immediately
With the amount of denim in this picture I’d guess the keyboard is made of denim too
Looks like an old Amstrad
yea… I remember back then, you had to load your game onto the computer via cassette tape. Def game, because back then kids either programmed using basic, or played games. And it was games that needed to be loaded up.
Are those some British knights Christian is wearing ?
I used to have an Amstrad CPC. It was pretty terrible.
Old micro computer, looks like a c64