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Info for avigo


====== 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