The TurboTortoise
What is the TurboTortoise?
The TurboTortoise is a linux system, small enough to fit in a pocket.
To contact me, see the Mailme link at the bottom.
This page has been visited
times since August 28th 1996.
Design
- 3 parts, display, keyboard and CPU
- All parts clip together with no trailing cables, for storage
- Headmounted 864*256 display, red on black, floating in space, weight
under 60g. Colour 640x480 to follow.
- CPU belt clip or in pocket, 85*105*40mm(approx), weight under 350g
- Keyboard. Choice of arm mounted mini qwerty, or one hand chording keyboard.
What are its specifications?
- 16Mb ram
- 33Mhz 386sx (486/66 to follow)
- PCMCIA hard drive (Available in capacities up to 540Mb)
- 1 comm port
- 1 EPP printer port
- Private Eye display (virtual screen, 720*280 red on black, 12" floating in space)
- 4-12 hours battery life at full power.
- 12 bit stereo sound output, mono input for speech output, and recording.
- Weight, 350g approximately.
- IRDA infra red serial link
- Chording keyboard, 7 keys, 4 finger keys, 3 thumb buttons
Possible features:
- digital camera (see VVL1070 link on previous page)
- FM reciever (A cert, If I can overcome noise problems)
- Thumbpoint like mouse similar to ones appearing on laptops
- Soundblaster compatible soundcard, interfacing with the onboard radio/mic
- Ethernet network interface.
Where can I buy one?
I'm not sure at the moment this will ever go beyond one, maybe two
units. However I am investigating pricing on bits I'd need for
volume production. (cases, PCB's...)
I'd imagine first run of 10 might sell for $700 or so, coming down to
$500 after that (minus hard drive)
Maybe even $400 in real volume (>1000)
I'd like to be competitive with the higher end palmtops (psion 3a etc)
Tests it would have to pass before release.
- operating -10 - 50C
- Non-operating -20 - 60C
- Shock 3G 10Hz-1Khz
- Impact 1m onto hard surface, without damage
- Static protection, on all I/O.
Why Linux?
Linux is one of the few OS's I can port to this, while needing to write
practically no bios. Linux also has several usefull features, that make
it a good OS for this project.
-
Direct support of all the hardware on the chip I'm using with little
development needed.
- The ability to boot off an external hard
drive, using the serial link, for emergency maintainance.
- A standard, uncustomised OS, that makes OS upgrades possible
- Lots of free software
- Ability to run a windowing system (Xwindows) with minimal effort
Some technical details
The main CPU I'm using is the AMD Elan 300. I was initially going to use
the Intel 386EX, but switched to this chip, due to the incredible number of
peripherals onboard.
It's possible to make a booting linux system with the elan 300 with only
5 chips, the CPU, 2 DRAM, a buffer and a flash rom.
This would support PCMCIA, EPP paralell port, serial (needs level xlator) and
a CGA LCD screen, as well as an ISA bus.
For more data on the chip, look on AMD's web site.
A 486 in thesame form factor is available, I'll be trying to make a system
basedaround this, after I get the first prototype up and running.
The finished system will hopefully run for 5 hours or so, flat out,
This will be a very pessimistic minimum life though,
8 or more hours should be easily acheivable if nbot in constant use.
For example, using a basic text editor, with CPU slowed down, display active,
keyboard active, batteries should easily last over 50 hours.
Using a private eye for a display. (I think, I can just about convince the
onboard LCD controller to interface to this, with a bit of prodding, not
going to be easy though, but would eliminate the need for at least 5 chips
for the display controller)
Drive will initially be 85Mb, and rise when I can afford it.
Total system weight I'm aiming for is about 200g+ batteries. (which
may be 200g for 12 hours life (4*NiMh 2500mah cells (7/5 AA))
I'm currently investigating cost of PCB production.
After exhaustive testing, I'll be potting the entire assemblage in
silicone resin, that is flexible, as well as being translucent, and
allowing for repair if needed.
Programming of the flash rom, will be once it's insystem, via the JTAG
port of the Elan.
Using linux with this core means I don't have to worry about 99% of the
bios, as linux is the bios, a kernel supporting PPP, TCP/IP, NFS, PCMCIA
IDE drives will fit in the boot rom, letting it boot off the hard drive,
or in an emergency through the serial port, using a fileserver.
Why the name?
Well, it shares several attributes with the tortoise
- Ability to sleep for long periods
- Very low power use
- It's about the same shape, if you wedge one side of the shell up
- Survives moderate drops onto hard surfaces
-
Likes cabbage
- Not a favorite food of penguins
And several attributes it doesn't share
- Ablility to wakeup instantly
- Rather faster at arithmetic
- Bigger memory
