We called them "luggables". They're expensive, but having a server in a box with a monitor was worth it when you could lug it to a customer site and give a live demo of your server stuff. We were doing telephony stuff and you could put a $5000 dialogic pcie card in it and demonstrate call handling live. We can do that with software on a standard issue laptop these days, but the luggable helped seal the deal back in 2005.
from the still they are doing can you break glass with your voice myth.
High speed cameras use a lot of bandwidth a 1080p 60fps is about 4Mb/s. now imagine a 1080p at 2000fps. you need a bit of guts to store and process that
I had a 286 like that (but better build quality), just plug in 220volt and the plasma screen came to life! A 20 MB drive offered a lot of storage space too.
Luggables are a really cool concept, but their use cases are increasingly niche. It’s amazing what you can do with a computer the size of a power bank these days- but if you really need lots of processors, lots of specialized cards, lots of drives, or lots GPU or something (mobile), luggable is pretty cool.
I built one for work. I was going from location to location programming chip shooters and pick and place equipment. Large database back then of the different components and shape codes.
Now everything could be done remotely or with a standard laptop and Internet connection.
I saw a couple of DIY portable PC like this, a SFF in a suitcase, a portable 15" screen attached to it, hinge with a small keyboard, etc, in a kind of DIY enclosure.
I wanted to do it with my mini PC (a bee-link, it's like 4"x5"x2"), with a usb-c portable monitor (no external AC adapter needed), and my Lenovo Trackpoint Keyboard II (super slim, with a trackpoint so no need for external mouse), all in a small Aluminum Attache Case