User:ThisIsNotABetter/IBM Palm Top PC 110

IBM Palm Top PC 110 (Palm Top PC 110) is a ultra-portable PC that came from IBM Japan in October 1995. . The CM character search Ultraman was appointed, and the nickname of "Ultraman PC" was obtained. Sony has nothing to do with Palmtop, who came in 1990.

History
This machine was jointly developed by IBM Japan Yamato Facility and IBM Japan and Ricoh joint project, and is a small but completely PC/AT compatible machine. With an A6 file size, a duralumin exterior, and a weight of 630 g including a battery, it was the smallest and lightest PC in the world at that time equipped with a color LCD capable of VGA display. Both are about half the standard sub-notebooks of the time and a quarter of the average laptop. This size was designed to fit in the developer's trouser pocket.

The CPU is a SL-enhanced i486SX-33MHz, and the memory is 4MB or 8MB (there was 16MB for third-party products). The display is a 4.7" DSTN color LCD. The screen is VGA (640 x 480 dots, 256 colors, but the external display can display up to 800 x 600, 16 colors). The housing is made of duralumin, which was adopted for lightness and strength due to its small size. The performance was below the standard at that time.

Do not follow HDD from the beginning, and  OS is 4MB integrity Flash Memory or PC Card, Download.

The densification technology of Japan IBM Nosu Research Institute was utilized.

Input

 * keyboard
 * It is almost a standard arrangement, but due to its small size, the structure has been devised. A step was provided on the surface of each key, and the central part was raised to prevent multiple keys from being pressed at the same time.


 * Pointing
 * A pointing stick is installed on the upper left of the keyboard, and buttons used for clicking and dragging are arranged diagonally above and below it. These buttons are also arranged on the right side with the opposite inclination, and are designed with consideration for operating by holding the left and right sides of the main body with both hands. The pointing stick was red, the left button was blue, the right button was green, and the body was black. It is said that it referred to the controller of NES.


 * Touchpad
 * A touchpad is installed in the upper center of the keyboard, and it is exclusively for the attached PIM software Personaware (described later). A transparent film was placed on the surface of the memo pad so that it would not be scratched, and several replacement films were included. In addition, a driver to handle as a PS/2 mouse in Windows was announced later by volunteers, and it became possible to use it as a PS/2 mouse compatible pointing device in Linux (because Alan Cox was developing Linux on PC110 for a while).

Front and back
There is a small LCD screen on the front of the main unit that displays the battery charge status. The raised parts on the left and right are the transmission / reception parts of the telephone (described later). There is also an audio headset terminal. On the back of the main unit, there are a telephone line connection terminal (Wing Jack), a telephone headset terminal, a keyboard / mouse connector that looks like a miniaturized USB Type A, and an infrared communication port. The Wing Jack allows you to insert the modular jack diagonally when you open the lid, so it can be stored very small. It was developed for this machine.

PC Card, Compact Flash
From PC Card insertion slot impurities. Type II x 2 Compatible Type III x 1, this is a white mouth. Pico / Beni) insertion mouthpiece. The PC110 is the first out-pin deployment in history.

Battery
A lithium-ion battery is used for mobility, and it is attached and detached from the right side of the main body. The lid is equipped with a speaker. It is the same type as a general lithium-ion battery for video cameras, and although it is unofficial, Matsushita Electric (currently Panasonic) video camera products could be used. It also has a built-in battery, so you can replace the battery while it is suspended.

Telephone function
This unit is also used for telephone, which is equipped with a stereo device of DATA 2400bps. It is used for receiving talk when the speaker here is used. Can be commented on. Make a call, select Personalaware's phone and come to the real button or come from the area book. When it comes to ears and mouth (this) and (masu) that come to. The basics of making a pager and the function of Voice Mail are also available.

Magnetic memory and personaware
4MB of flash memory is built in instead of the hard disk, and the minimum required for PC DOS J7.0 / V OS (the whole is attached with a floppy disk) and PIM software called Personalaware  are installed. It served as a simple PIM and menu, including itineraries and notes, a simple memo database, address book, email and fax features, or the ability to register and launch other applications. Faxing used the fax modem built into the PC 110, and was supposed to send documents created with a dedicated editor.

It also has a handwritten memo function, which allows you to record what you draw with a pen on the memo pad on the upper side of the keyboard, and you can save it as a 250x130 black and white bitmap file.

Port Replicator
The main unit is not equipped with serial port or parallel port, and a dedicated port replicator is required to use them. It is slightly larger than the main body and is connected via the expansion connector on the bottom of the main body. There was a serial port, a parallel port, a display port on the back of the port replicator, a PS2 port on the left side, and an external floppy drive connector on the right side.

Digital Camera Canon CE300
The Digital Camera CE300 dedicated to this unit was released by Canon. The swivel-type lens part protruded from the outside of the PC card TypeII card, and the camera had no viewfinder or LCD screen, and the image was displayed on the display of the PC 110. The number of image elements is 270,000 pixels. Macro photography was also possible.

Accessories
Strap
 * At the rear of the main body, a strap hole that can be screwed directly to the framework of the body is hidden by a plastic exterior. It was hidden because it failed to meet IBM's strength standards (which required it not to fall off when swung around with a strap). However, since the main body is engraved with screw holes, the user could attach screws that match it.

Exterior cover
 * Special colors (gold, silver, blue, red, green) of the duralumin cover (upper lid, lower lid) were sold by a third party. Since the original cover is removed and replaced, the warranty cannot be obtained. Also, IBM logo was not attached, and it was necessary to divert the original cover.

Variations
2431-YD0
 * PC DOS J7.0 / V model. Memory 4MB.

2431-YD1
 * PC DOS J7.0 / V model. Memory 8MB. (Add 4MB of memory to YD0)

2431-YDW
 * Windows 3.1 model. Memory 8MB. (YD1 comes with port replicator, floppy disk drive, IBM version Microsoft Windows 3.1 installed 260MB PC card Type III hard disk)

Prototype "Monolith" and ThinkPad 220
1991 IBM Japan released a notebook computer " PS/55 note", but it weighed 2.5 kg and was difficult to carry around. Therefore, the team that developed the PS / 55 note from the spring of the same year considered miniaturization, and the size was decided with the idea that "(VHS) It would be surprisingly interesting to take it out of the video case." .

The exterior prototype of the black housing was quickly completed and resembled the black rock-like " Monolith" that appeared in "2001: A Space Odyssey". Therefore, the development code name was named "Monolith".

The prototype inside the monolith was completed in August 1991. It weighs 500g, i386SL-20MHz, 2MB RAM, 640 x 480 dots VGA 16-gradation monochrome LCD, and is powered by 4 AA batteries. However, since the display is less than 5 inches and there is no backlight as it is now, it is difficult to see the kanji display, and commercialization has been postponed.

It was ThinkPad 220 that was developed based on that monolith. The first prototype was completed by the end of 1991. 1993 In May, 220 was exhibited with the monolith at "Business Show '93 TOKYO". In the summer of the same year, the 220 was sold out in a limited number of 5550 units due to the Multistation 5550 sold by IBM Japan at that time, and pioneered the genre of "'sub-notebook PC'". Since then, this genre has been passed down from the ThinkPad 230Cs to the current ThinkPad X series.

On the other hand, the person who saw the business statement wrote in PC communication that "put out a monolith" or give it a name and "put out a"'ThinkPad 110 "". It was the answer to these voices. The elaborate construction here and there can be seen as stuffing as much as possible with what we want to do, rather than answering the voices of enthusiasts. With the thought of the prototype monolith, the with "MONOLITH 1992" engraved on the PC110 board also shows that. It can be said that. The telephone function is not always practical (probably most people did not use it), but it is probably because they want to add as many functions as possible or ask the world about their possibilities. There were many more at the planning stage. It can be said that the idea of ​​combining the Internet, telephone, and camera with a computer anticipates the subsequent progress of mobile phone and smartphone.

User reaction
That's why the release of the PC110 was a long-awaited event for a certain group of people. The response was so great that PC magazine featured it. How to use and various experimental examples were exchanged between users. Just after that, Windows 95 was released, and Internet began to spread explosively, and various information was disseminated on the Web.

Many users also installed and used Windows 95 on the PC110. There was talk of installing OS/2 Warp, but it was at a level where I could barely confirm that it was working. There were also a number of websites that explained the installation of Linux. The current version of BTRON at that time, 1B / V3, could also be installed, and some books recommended it.

All of them are from product explanations and explanations to introductions of usage and usage examples, but most of them are characteristic in that they devote a considerable amount of time to the history of the PC 110. In addition, there were some cases where the story went on to disassemble the aircraft. This is due to the fact that the bottom must be removed in order to increase the memory, but magazines and the like have repeatedly published how they have devised how to fit various parts in this small aircraft. It may have been taken up. It is also a fact that sometimes it was necessary to disassemble and modify as described later. In particular, the Thorough Utilization Book was the first service to explain the dismantling process with photos and even attach a video to a CD-ROM. By the way, in this book, not only how to install the additional memory of the product, but also how to bring another memory and connect it without permission and clock up were explained.

Appearance in entertainment works
Not only was Ultraman from Tsuburaya Productions used as a character, but it was also used in some entertainment works due to the advancedness of the PC110, which was by far the smallest and lightest in the world at that time, and the design of the metallic body. It has appeared.
 * Geobreeders (Akihiro Ito, Manga / OVA)-PC110 is playing an active part in the work.
 * Ultraman Gaia (SFX TV program)

Weaknesses
The PC110 had some weaknesses. One is the lack of expandability of the main body. The new CompactFlash could only be used as a file system at the time, with a maximum of 15MB, much more expensive than it is today. The two PC card slots will be the mainstay, but the commercialization of the Type II hard disk card that was supposed at the time of development of the PC 110 was delayed, for example, if you want to install Windows 95, you have to use the Type III hard disk card. If you install it, both of them will be blocked by that alone. This was a problem because many users wanted to use a PC card with a hard disk because it became much easier to use with Windows 95. However, due to the Microdrive that came out later, this point was avoided.

A further problem is that it was fragile as a mobile device. Basically, the main body itself is strong, but the biggest weakness is that the hinge part that supports the lid is weak, so it is distorted by the impact of dropping it, and it is easy to wobble, and if it is left as it is, it will be gradually distorted and the surrounding wiring will be cut. There was a case that it ended up. Therefore, it was necessary to remove the cover of this part to restore the distortion. In addition, there were times when problems were caused by loosening the screws in the details.

Related items

 * IBM Yamato Facility, Japan
 * IBM Japan Nosu Office
 * ThinkPad
 * ThinkPad 220
 * ChipCard
 * WebBoy — Web browser for DOS
 * Toshiba Libretto — Toshiba VHS tape size PC released

External link

 * - Palm Top PC 110の発売が掲載されている

Category: IBM computers Category: ThinkPad Category: Portable Computer