====== Texas Instruments Avigo 10 PDA (1997) ======
===== Features =====
* CPU: Custom Z-80 8MHz
* Memory: 1MB Flash memory (approx. 680KB user available)
* Expansion: 1MB module
* Display: 160 x 240 pixels, with Backlight (EL)
* OS: Avigo OS
===== Usage =====
The Avigo PDA has a touchscreen you can use through the lightpen and 7 additional buttons below the touchscreen: (from left to right) POWER, LIGHT, ADDRESS, SCHEDULE, TO DO, MEMO, UP/DOWN.
===== Known Issues =====
This system does not work properly.
There is no documentation on the hardware available and more is required.
===== History and Trivia =====
The Avigo 10 (the only model of Avigo ever produced) is a Personal Digital Assistant ("PDA") that was marketed by Texas Instruments from the years 1997 through 2000. It was sold as a lower-priced competitor to the Palm Pilot.
Like the Palm Pilot, the Avigo has a touch-sensitive monochrome LCD screen, and can synchronize with a host PC using either a docking cradle or an infrared wireless connection. Unlike the Pilot, it has no built-in handwriting recognition capabilities; instead relying on the "T9" brand predictive text entry software, in addition to an on-screen keyboard.
Physically, the Avigo is larger than the Palm Pilot series, but smaller than the earlier Apple Newton, measuring 5.5 in. X 3.25 in. X .75 in. The casing is plastic, with a charcoal-gray matte texture. It has a hard flip-cover to protect the screen when not in use.
Electronically, the Avigo has relatively modest computing power for a device from that era. The CPU is a modified 8-bit Z-80 microprocessor running at eight megahertz. It uses bank-switching to exceed the 64 kilobyte memory restriction; a stock Avigo is equipped with one megabyte of flash memory, and 768 kilobytes of random access memory. The device is primarily powered by two "AAA" cell batteries, and uses a CR2025 lithium coin cell for RAM memory backup.
Some of the features of the Avigo that distinguish it from competing devices produced at the same time are:
* The aforementioned T9 predictive text input
* Support for running programs in the "landscape" orientation, in addition to "portrait"
* A larger screen than the Pilot, with no silk-screened writing area
* A built-in database application
* A slot for a memory expansion card (which expands the flash memory capacity to two megabytes)
//(info from Wikipedia)//
===== Links =====
* Texas Instruments' Avigo Page -- http://www.ti.com/avigo/
* AVIGOnet -- http://www.gho.de/avigo/
* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Avigo OS -- http://home.earthlink.net/~rdgill/avigo/
* Avigo at Datamath Calculator Museum -- http://www.datamath.org/Personal/Avigo10.htm
===== Other Emulators =====
* Avigo Simulator (dead link) -- http://users.bart.nl/~gv/avigosdk/simulator.htm
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009