HP 200Lx
Encyclopedia
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
introduced by Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
in 1994. It was often called a palmtop computer, and it was notable that it was, with some minor exceptions, a MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
-compatible computer in a palmtop format, complete with a monochrome graphic display, QWERTY keyboard, serial port, and PCMCIA expansion slot.
Description
Input is accomplished via a small QWERTYQWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
-keyboard with a numeric keypad, enclosed in a clamshell-style case, less than about 25% of the size of a standard notebook computer. The palmtop runs for about 30-40 hours on two size AA
AA battery
An AA battery is a standard size of battery. Batteries of this size are the most commonly used type of in portable electronic devices. An AA battery is composed of a single electrochemical cell...
alkaline or Ni-Cd rechargeable cells and can charge batteries (both Ni-Cd and NiMH) via a 12V DC wall adapter.
The HP 200LX has an Intel 80186
Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
compatible embedded central processing unit
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
named "Hornet", which runs at ~ 7.91 megahertz (which can be upgraded or overclocked
Overclocking
Overclocking is the process of operating a computer component at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, but some manufacturers purposely underclock their components to improve battery life. Many people just overclock or 'rightclock' their hardware to...
to up to 15.8 MHz) and 1 to 4 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of memory, of which 640 KB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
is RAM and the rest can be used for expanded memory
Expanded memory
In DOS memory management, expanded memory is a system of bank switching introduced April 24, 1985 that provided additional memory to DOS programs beyond the limit of conventional memory. Expanded memory uses parts of the address space normally dedicated to communication with peripherals for program...
(EMS) or memory-based storage space. After-market updates can bring the memory chips to up to 64 MB, which frees the PCMCIA slot for modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
or ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
card use (Silicom and Accton 2212/2216 supported). Being IBM PC/XT
IBM Personal Computer XT
The IBM Personal Computer XT, often shortened to the IBM XT, PC XT, or simply XT, was IBM's successor to the original IBM PC. It was released as IBM Machine Type number 5160 on March 8, 1983, and came standard with a hard drive...
compatible and running MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
5.0 from ROM, the HP 200LX can run virtually any program that would run on a full-size PC compatible computer as long as the code is written for the Intel 8086
Intel 8086
The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture of Intel's future processors...
, 8088
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 microprocessor was a variant of the Intel 8086 and was introduced on July 1, 1979. It had an 8-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte address range were unchanged, however...
or 80186
Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
CPU and can run using CGA graphics. It can also run programs written for the 80286 CPU, provided they do not require the use of protected memory. It has a 16-bit PCMCIA
PC card
In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
Type II expansion slot that supports 5 V at 150 mA maximum, a SIR
Infrared Data Association
The Infrared Data Association defines physical specifications communications protocol standards for the short-range exchange of data over infrared light, for uses such as personal area networks ....
compatible infrared port and a full serial port
Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...
(but with a proprietary mini connector for space constraint reasons).
The built-in software suite runs from ROM and includes Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software . It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.-Beginnings:...
spreadsheet, a calendar, a phone book, a terminal, Lotus cc:Mail
Cc:Mail
cc:Mail is an obsolete, store-and-forward LAN-based e-mail system originally developed on Microsoft's MS-DOS platform by Hubert Lipinski in the 1980s. At the height of its popularity cc:Mail had about 21 million users.-Message store:...
and a capable scientific/business calculator (among other applications). With a large compactflash
CompactFlash
CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...
storage card and a serial mouse
Mouse (computing)
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
, even Microsoft Windows 3.0 can be run on the palmtop. The 3.0 Windows installation was somewhat limited by the hardware, however early versions of Word and Excel for Windows 3.0 ran fine, allowing for the authoring of MS Office format-compatible files. The 640x200 resolution CGA
Color Graphics Adapter
The Color Graphics Adapter , originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC....
compatible 4-shade gray-scale LCD screen has no back light. An electroluminescent technology back light installation is available from a third party since 2004, but keen eyesight is still required to use the small palmtop effectively without resorting to using its 2x and 4x zoom modes.
HP 95LX
The HP 95LX introduced the basic design in April 1991. It was known internally as Project Jaguar. It had a NEC V20NEC V20
The NEC V20 was a processor made by NEC that was a reverse-engineered, pin-compatible version of the Intel 8088 with an instruction set compatible with the Intel 80186...
CPU (an enhanced Intel 8088
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 microprocessor was a variant of the Intel 8086 and was introduced on July 1, 1979. It had an 8-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte address range were unchanged, however...
clone with Intel 80186
Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
instruction set compatibility and an additional Intel 8080
Intel 8080
The Intel 8080 was the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and was released in April 1974. It was an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility...
emulation mode, running at 5.37 MHz), but was hampered in running PC applications because of its quarter-CGA resolution LCD screen and MDA compatible (instead of CGA) graphics chip. The HP 95LX for the most part only displayed graphics in a special LX graphics mode. It ran MS-DOS 3.22 and had Lotus 1-2-3 built in. It also included a CR2032 battery for memory backup when the AA mains ran out.
HP 100LX
The HP 100LX (also known as Project Cougar) is the direct predecessor of the 200LX. It was released in 1993. It is almost the same, including the Hornet CPU and MS-DOS 5.0, but with earlier built-in application versions. It also came in a 1 or 2 MB model.HP 1000CX
The HP 1000CX is an economy version of the 200LX with its Hornet CPU but without any built-in software except the MS-DOS 5.0 operating system in ROM. It was in widespread use among, for example, Coca-ColaCoca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
warehouse managers, who loaded their own logistics software onto the machine. It has a black clamshell, while the 200LX has a dark green casing.
HP OmniGo 700LX
The HP OmniGo 700LX was a project of the HP calculator branch in SingaporeSingapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. The HP OmniGo 700LX is essentially a HP 200LX including its Hornet CPU redesigned to piggyback a Nokia 2110
Nokia 2110
The Nokia 2110 is a cellular phone made by the Finnish telecommunications firm Nokia, first announced in 1994. It is the first Nokia with Nokia tune ringtone...
GSM mobile telephone for wireless mobility. The HP 200LX motherboard was factory-modified to support a second PCMCIA slot for a Nokia Data Card. Owing to the relatively large size of the Nokia telephone, the HP OmniGo 700LX has a large, pebble-shaped casing, making it a handheld with a phone attached. The production of the HP OmniGo 700LX ceased after the Nokia 2110 mobile telephone was rendered obsolete by later telephones.
HP OmniGo 100
The HP OmniGo 100 was designed as a more sophisticated successor to the LX series, and incorporated the HP 12 calculator functionality. It was GUI based, controlled by pen input or keyboard. However, it lacked the versatility of running unmodified DOS programs. The normal operation mode was with DOS-based PEN/GEOS and Graffiti handwriting recognition. It was not widely accepted as a calculator replacement, and Palm and Pocket PCs became acceptable as PDAs. It was based on the Vadem VG230, a highly integrated system controller with 16 MHz NEC V30HL CPU, instruction set compatible with the Intel 80186Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
.
Current usage
Although this product line was discontinued by HP in order to introduce their Windows CEWindows CE
Microsoft Windows CE is an operating system developed by Microsoft for embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinct operating system and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows...
product line (starting with the HP 300LX
Hp 300lx
The HP 300LX was one of the first handheld PCs designed to run the Windows CE 1.0 operating system from Microsoft. Unlike other HPCs of the time, the resistive touch screen had an enhanced screen resolution of 640x240 with 4 shades of grey, rather than the standard 480x240 resolution of other...
), a strong interest in this hardware continued. It was the last palmtop from HP which ran the MS-DOS operating system, for which there is much software from desktop PCs, and it came with a useful bundle of software including 1-2-3 and Quicken. Compared to machines with Windows-based operating systems such as CE, DOS programs are more compact and efficient and, with programs such as Software Carousel, many applications programs could be loaded at once.
Third-party upgrades, repairs and renovations are available to maintain and extend the device. The supply of spares and new machines is limited as there is no new production so there is a second-hand market, with prices, in some cases, exceeding the original list prices.
Japan
Because of its small size, the HP 200LX was very popular in Japan, so much so that its demise prompted an open-source initiative to design and market an AMD Elan SC400-based replacement to fill its place. This 'Morphy One' club organization created blueprints for the device but no prototype was ever built for reasons which remain unclear. Some argue it was a scam scheme as hundreds of people lost deposits they placed on the new palmtop in advance. The project leaders argued that key electronic components were unavailable due to strong demand from the mobile telephone manufacturing industry.Common problems
- A common problem with the HP 200LX case is related to the injected-molded case top. The right hinge to case blend had poor flow in the process, resulting in the formation of a crack which propagates across the hinge under stress, causing failure. This can be reinforced and repaired using super glue, among other methods.
- Another weakness of the design is the failure of the case opening latch. This problem can easily be repaired by placing a thin slice cut from rubber eraser within the latch as a 'spring'.
- Only high quality AA rechargeable batteries should be used in the HP 200LX, as battery leaks can destroy the LCD's flat video cable.
- Aging models may lose pixel columns from the display. This is caused by detachment of one or more pins of one of the SMD (Surface Mounted Device) chips in the display itself. In many cases this may be repaired by reflowing(resoldering) of the pins on the offending chip, either with an SMD reflow tool, or a soldering iron with a very fine (0.2 mm) tip.
- Under heavy use, the space bar and enter bar can become detached. This requires keyboard replacement.
Exceptions to 100% DOS compatibility
- The HP 100LX/HP 200LX's digital-to-analog converterDigital-to-analog converterIn electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
cannot play audio tones; instead, it monitors battery life and charging. - The device does not provide the BIOSBIOSIn IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
service (INT13) for reading from a hard diskHard diskA hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
. DriversDevice driverIn computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
have been partially written for this purpose (to boot MINIX(2.0)dead link.
Other notes
- The HP 200LX was used on board the NASA Discovery OV103 Mission STS-95 (the last mission of Senator John GlennJohn GlennJohn Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
) in an Electronic NoseElectronic noseAn electronic nose is a device intended to detect odors or flavors.Over the last decade, “electronic sensing” or “e-sensing” technologies have undergone important developments from a technical and commercial point of view...
(E-Nose) experiment (the device was developed jointly by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)). The experiment, as managed by Dr. Dan Karmon of JPL, was successful. - The HP 200LX can play video, and sound files using software from Stefan Peichl in relatively low quality. It is also capable of sound recording, though this is, again, in relatively low quality. There is no known compatible PCMCIA sound card for the HP 200LX.
- Software and hardware is available which will allow the HP 200LX to surf the InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. - The serial numbers printed on the HP machines 100LX, 200LX, 1000CX and OmniGo 700LX have the following meaning:
- XXYWWNNNNN
- XX = the country of manufacturing (e.g., SG = Singapore etc)
- Y = the year of manufacturing; last digit (e.g., 6 = 1996)
- WW = the week of the year of manufacturing
- NNNNN = the number of the specific unit manufactured in specified week
Easter eggs
There are many easter eggs built into the HP 200LX. The known ones are listed as follows:The Gallery Easter Egg
This easter egg is on the HP 200LX in the built in game, 'Lair of Squid'. During the startup screen of the game, if the user types the word 'gallery' ('gallerie' on a French palmtop; 'siegergalerie' on a German palmtop; 'galeria' on a Spanish palmtop) he/she is placed in a 'part' of the maze that contains photographs of the primary software developers that worked on the HP 200LX. The user may exit from this gallery by exiting through the door at the end of the corridor. The software developers in the photographs are listed starting from left to right, then left to right and so on as follows:
- Andy Gryc
- Pat Megowan
- Everett Kaser
- Bill Johnson
- Lynn Winter
- Susan Wechsler
- Eric Evett
The last panel on the right of the corridor contains a thank you message:
The photographs of the developers have been described as 'a-maze-ing'.
The 1st Self Test Poem Easter Egg
This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press [ESC][ON] to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing [ENTER] 14 times, to step through the various screens, the user comes to a screen of example text in the form of a limerick
Limerick (poetry)
A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line or meter with a strict rhyme scheme , which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century...
poem. The poem is as follows:
The 2nd Self Test Poem Easter Egg
This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press [ESC][ON] to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option.
On pressing [CTRL][ENTER], then holding down [ALT] while pressing [ENTER] 13 times, the user comes to a cryptic poem, relating to business issues faced by the software development team. The poem is as follows:
The 3rd Self Test Poem Easter Egg
This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press [ESC][ON] to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option.
On pressing [CTRL][ENTER], then holding down [SHIFT] while pressing [ENTER] 13 times, the user comes to an allegorical poem, about the history and future of the HP LX palmtops. The poem is as follows (note that the project names for the HP 95LX, the HP 100LX and the HP 200LX are 'Jaguar', 'Cougar' and 'Felix' respectively, and that 'Felix' was the first LX to include Quicken
Quicken
Quicken is a personal finance management tool developed by Intuit, Inc.Quicken runs on Windows and Macintosh systems. Previous versions ran on DOS. An online version is also available. The last version of Quicken for Macintosh computers was Quicken Essentials for Mac released in February 2010...
):
The 'More Applications' Easter Egg
This easter egg is in the built in System Manager of the HP 200LX. This 'easter egg' is probably more of a development tool than an easter egg, but, in any case, the user may display the function by first pressing the blue [&...] key to start 'More Applications'. The user may then hold down [ALT] while pressing [F9] 4 times, followed by [F10] once. As long as the [ALT] key is held down, the user will observe columns of data about System Manager compliant (.EXM) programs registered with the System Manager, along with other arcane program information.
Further reading
- The HP 200LX: A Review by Rob Tillotson.
- Sy's HP 200LX review
External links
- HP 200LX official website (HP 200LX manual in PDF format)
- HP 200LX FAQ
- HP 200LX Old-Computers.com Museum
- Daniel Hertrich (HP 200LX technical expert)
- HP 200LX technical information (RAM Upgrades, CF Cards, etc)
- HP Palmtop Paper Online (Thaddeus Computing; Buy-Sell-Repair)
- Articles concerning the NASA STS-95 E-Nose experiment
- http://www.palmtoppaper.com/PTPHTML/51/5100001a.htmhttp://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/51/5100001b.htm
- http://enose.jpl.nasa.gov/publications/99-0780.pdf
- HP Palmtop Ring Homepage
- Skolob's Hewlett Packard 95LX Palmtop Page (Information and FAQ on HP 95LX)
- OmniGo 100 information
- Page d'un utilisateur HP 200LX (français) installation DOS/Windows, captures d'écran.
- web page of a HP 200LX user (english) DOS/Windows installation, screen captures.