Compaq Personal Jukebox

Robert (Bob) Supnik recently donated a Compaq Personal Jukebox. The PJB was the first commercial hard disk based audio player.

The PJB development was started in Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC's) Systems Research Center (SRC) in Palo Alto, CA just before DEC was purchased by Compaq. The first prototype, shown in the image of the poster, was completed in December 1988. The PJB was never produced by Compaq. The design was licensed to HanGo Electronics Co., Ltd. in South Korea in 1999 and they sold it as the PJB-100. This prototype has an Ethernet interface to update the audio files. The production versions had a USB interface.

The Compaq PJB prototype. This device contains a 4.7 GB laptop disk drive for storage.

Note the Ethernet interface. The production versions had a USB interface

This poster shows the Compaq PJB and a representation of what could be stored on it.

Click on this image to see a really large and detailed image.