Conference 7.286::atarist

217.0. "Atari's Pocket P. C." by RDGENG::KEANE () Wed Sep 07 1988 07:39

    Hello everyone
    
    	Following the previous note regarding TOS 1.4, here is a
    transcription of a news item I read this week. Atari seem to be
    getting their act together!, although whether it will benefit the
    ST is doubtful!
    
    "Atari has bought rights to sell and market the world's first pocket
    PC,DEveloped in the UK by Guildford based design house, Distributed
    Information Processing (DIP), the Pocket PC is based on a 5MHz 8088
    probably 128K of RAM and will be bundled in with a five-in-one software
    package for around 200 pound sterling. ...... The display is a super
    twist LCD 8 lines by 40 charc, keyboard is fully pushbutton. ...Cmos
    CCTS, powered by two AA batteries.Software on ROM, WP, calc, diary,
    time manager, address book. Spreadsheet is Lotus 123 compatible.
    Data transfer to host PC is either by "smartcards" that are loaded
    by the PPC, removed to a smart card reader/writer, that looks like
    a disk drive, and is attached to the normal PC disk bus;
     or by parallel cable interfaces, direct transfer from
    pocket PC ram to PC discs or vice versa. Max Ram is 256K, P.P.C
    will be launched at Comdex in US and Which computer show in UK in
    February. Developers of PPC were employed at PSION (Organiser) so
    are familiar with pocket products."
    	The article includes two pics apparently showing device in use.
    It is about the size of a large paper back book hinged down the
    long edge. The top opens up and contains the display, the lower
    portion the qwerty keyboard.
    
      
           

    
    Regarding my original note. The Atari Pocket PC has arrived. It is
    being shown at the Which Computer show being held this week. The
    product is as described in .0 at a entry price of 199 pounds.
    
    I believe the portable ST is also on show, I have not yet seen the full
    SP yet.
    
    Cheers
    Pat K.