NEXT-GEN HANDHELDS
The Unobtainium - Compaq's fully loaded handheld - is still out of reach, and there's no telling when the company's Project Mercury will let it out of the lab. But why wait for a commercial release that's years away when you can make your own today? Here's what Jim Gettys, the tease at Project Mercury who nicknamed the handheld, says you'll need to build your own gizmo-packed device.
Software
- Linux 2.4.7, using Debian's StrongARM distribution (either the full distribution, called Intimate, which has everything you might find on a desktop system, or the smaller, stripped-down system, known as Familiar, which runs on flash memory)
- XFree86 4.1.0 X Window System with the new RandR extension for rotation daemon
- Ohphone H.323 open source teleconferencing program
- Land Cam camera program
- VIC teleconferencing program for multicasts
- IPv6 and mobile IP for streaming audio in real time
- Less than 5-second delay when switching networks
Hardware
- VGA (640 x 480) CMOS imager
- Two-axis accelerometer, so you can turn the handheld any which way and it will automatically reorient in landscape mode
- Two PCMCIA slots
- Either a 3.3- or 5-volt PC card (Type I or II)
- Two extra batteries (2000 ma/hr)
- Programmable logic for interfacing with the camera and other peripherals. (It's how the gadget breaks down the image to lower resolution.)
- Headset jack and extra audio channel
- 32 Mbytes of additional flash memory
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