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Build your own Itsy?
mgrennan writes "Compaq's development of the Itsy continues! The Western Research Lab (WRL) of Compaq is not only continuing their development of Itsy (a Linux Palm Top) they have even included links and source code on their site so you can build your own.
It would apear Itsy started life as an SA-1100 prototype for the ARM processor. With this board and the code from WRL you can do the same.
The groups latest added gismo to Itsy is Rock 'n' Scroll, a
user input method for Itsy that is based on tilting and
gesturing with the Itsy in the user's hand. As the user
tilts it from this neutral position on either or both axes, the display is scrolled. The tilt direction sets the scroll direction and the magnitude of the tilt sets the scroll speed. Small motions due to hand tremor and noise in the environment are filtered out so that scrolling is smooth and the user can easily stop scrolling. " Somebody build me one
while they're at it *grin*.
open hardware?
if these things get any smaller i am going need smaller fingers, or a watch addon.
How can I build my own without hardware specs?
Please try to stick to the facts, even in the headline.
I don't know about anyone else, but I personally want this thing to be manufactured. I'd buy one immediately -- and I'd more than likely develop productivity apps for it if given the chance.
The Itsy pages say that there are no product plans beyond the current prototype. Perhaps it would be helpful if the Itsy were to become a banner cause to the Linux world?
Anyone else feel like expressing the wish that this hardware see the retail shelf to Compaq? My e-mail is already on its way.
I've always stayed away from PDA's because they run all kind of incompatible OS (or non-powerful ones like wince). But one running Linux would be real cool.
I want one!
Let's all tell Compaq.
Let's all tell Compaq we want to buy them... Don't tell me a company would refuse to sell ?!
A user interface based on the ancient toy Labyrinth! I can only imagine how damn hard it will be to get the little ball representing your file into the right hole...
Nicolas Pitre's SA1100 port is a lot more up to date than the Itsy snapshot. Plus, Hugo Reinnes (the guy who is behind the Empeg) has just released a set of patches to run a 2.1 kernel on a SA1100 too.
If you're interested in an open hardware equivalent to the Itsy, check out the PLEB at http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~pleb
Linux _has_ been ported to Palm..
http://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/uClinux/
Unless it's backlit, you generally have to hold an LCD screen at one angle for maximum contrast; moving a handheld around would make it harder to see, I think.
I want it so bad! They've ported Doom to the Rock 'n' Scroll interface. I would NEVER get any work done.
I'm not sure why no one has mentioned the netwinder yet; it has the same processor, is cheaper (starts at around $600) and is prebuilt. Various efforts are underway to make it a portable platform (i.e. removing HD, making it sleep for lower power consumption, etc). It's not as small as the Itsy, but it is readily available. If you were really adventureous you could remove the main board and just use that (sans HD, netcard, sound. Obviously the display/KB is a problem, but there is already an application out that uses the IR port for wireless control from a Palm III.
Just my $.02...
Larry B
I've been waiting for something like this for years. The only surprise is that it would run Linux out of the box. I was expecting some skunkworks project to port Linux to an already existing palmtop.
Bottom line - make it and I'll buy it.
It was a joke, not a deep philosophical comment. The SA1100 doesn't have an FPU, so that was a humourous way of explaining why the PLEB will not (it used to point to a humourous link, but it looks like the links gone dead now).
Note: if anyone at Compaq needs an organ donor, I'm willing to donate a lung or kidney or something for one of these!!!
>> Let's all tell Compaq we want to buy them... Don't tell me a company would refuse to sell ?!
:-/
Seen how IBM sells OS/2 of late?
-- brandon s. allbery, sysadmin @ cmu electrical & computer engineering "Think, youth, THINK!"
oh yea, at a cost of around 3000 dollars. I have already tried to get one, for my Linux Digital Assistant project. It seems that they take great
stock in the value of their eval boards.
i am so very tired....
Ok I agree. You realy can't build an Itsy, but you can buy the ARM prototype board and download the Itsy source and start your own
design.
Maybe your not a hardware person.
There are 10 type of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Ok, this is just downright cruel; it's year-end-bonus time, and I have some $ burning a hole in my pocket. I would buy one of these in an instant, just to play with it and see if I can think up new applications.
Just a word to the Compaq researchers and bean-counters: if you sell it, I _will_ buy it.
Jon
I think not...(*poof*)
a development board with no software: it's not their
field. The PLEB project is working on a similar thing,
a small SA1100 board for experimenters. For an Itsy in
your car, get an empeg.
The Itsy wouldn't be cheap either. Even if they made
them in the 1000-ish quantity I'd expect it'd be around
$1000 each: still interested in a PDA without ethernet,
software, which you have to re-flash every time you want
to update the code at this price?
Gullivers' Travels? You just described every human-inhabited place on earth.
--
Aaron Gaudio
"The fool finds ignorance all around him.
"Every man is a mob, a chain gang of idiots." - Jonathan Nolan, Memento Mori
I used to joke as a support staff person and hand someone an etch-a-sketch when their laptop broke. Imagine, with this new Rock-n-Scroll tech, it is possible now... Just shake your computer and blammo, new screen.
Just a thought.