avatar_Ygdrazil

PDA600 Software Developers Manual

Started by Ygdrazil, 09:19, 17 July 14

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Which Amstrad related non CPC computers do you own?

Amstrad NC100
6 (60%)
Amstrad NC200
8 (80%)
Amstrad PDA600
5 (50%)
Amstrad PCW
7 (70%)
Amstrad PC....
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 10

Voting closed: 07:32, 22 November 14

Ygdrazil




I have found the complete scans of the Software Developers Manual for the PDA600


I know it's not CPC related but still interesting reading....


If there is a general interest I am willing to upload the manual to the wiki!


Have a nice summer!


/Ygdrazil


http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/File:PDA600_SDM_frontpage.png

robcfg

Hi! Of course it's interesting! We also have PCW and NC stuff here, so please, upload it.

CraigsBar

Oh I wish my 2 pda600s had not died! The first got dropped and the screen smashed. The replacement wore out. :( oh well I then moved to palmos and now android. What's next I wonder?
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

TFM

Quote from: Ygdrazil on 09:19, 17 July 14
If there is a general interest I am willing to upload the manual to the wiki!


Yes, there is!
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

MacDeath

#4
All Z80 based Amstrad machines can be covered by the CPCwiki I guess...

So yeah : this includes PCWs, NCs and the "AmsPads" (or PDAmstrad ?).

This book could enable modern devs from the Amstrad family to do new apps and perhaps it could be great to have those pads (PDA) connected to some PCW or CPC as well... :P
After all, they have some RS232 port and could be "synched" via windows.

robcfg

Can they run SymbOS or FutureOS? XDDDDDDD


Tablet Edition, of course!  ;D

MacDeath

#6
well, Sure they should... :D


with a 240x320 display... do they have only 1bpp graphics ?



One of the main issue with those was the "soft plastic" which would become gelly and sticking and doesn't age well...
but there may be way to put some coating so it gets a "hard and non sticky" feel I guess...

Also they eat a lot of batteries...



www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ38F9GnDQM

glueing goo rubber...


also : unrelated but fun and quite CPC related as well :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TX2OvVFjNw

this dude have nice channel.

Gryzor


robcfg

Is it on the wiki? I'd sure like to take a look at it.

Ygdrazil

Quote from: Gryzor on 07:36, 08 October 14
So, we can now root the 600?


No need to root the PDA600, it's actually really easy to program  :-*

I still need to upload the rest of the manual though!

I am in the process of writing an article on how to program the PDA600 in three different ways.. I think this little brick(!) deserves some attention..

Interessting idea about running SymbOS on the PDA600 (handheld SymbOS  :P ).... I don't know if the PDA600 fullfills the requirements of bankswitching etc to run SymbOS! The MMU Is taken care of by the 14MHz Z180... but still interesting idea!

Regards,
Ygdrazil

Ygdrazil

#10


Hi there


I am almost done uploading the system developers manual for the PDA600 (just need to do a rescan of a few pages).


I am a bit curious...


How many of you owns a non CPC Amstrad computer...??


I have added a pool to clarify this question at the top of the top of this page :-)


Regards,
Ygdrazil

Quote from: Ygdrazil on 10:06, 08 October 14

No need to root the PDA600, it's actually really easy to program  :-*

I still need to upload the rest of the manual though!

I am in the process of writing an article on how to program the PDA600 in three different ways.. I think this little brick(!) deserves some attention..

Interessting idea about running SymbOS on the PDA600 (handheld SymbOS  :P ).... I don't know if the PDA600 fullfills the requirements of bankswitching etc to run SymbOS! The MMU Is taken care of by the 14MHz Z180... but still interesting idea!

Regards,
Ygdrazil

robcfg

I have NCs and PCWs, and I'd like to get one PDA600 for sure!

CraigsBar

A pcw for me. I did have a couple of pda600's but they both wore out after long fruitful lives.  Ok the last one was a issue of excessive stickiness rather than hardware fault.
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Bryce

I have an NC200, but no PCWs or anything else from Amstrad.

Bryce.

TFM

The successor of the PDA600 is/was awesome! Sadly Amstrad never released it. It would have kicked apples butt, like the PDA600 did in it's time!  :D ;D :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

arnoldemu

Quote from: TFM on 20:44, 23 October 14
The successor of the PDA600 is/was awesome! Sadly Amstrad never released it. It would have kicked apples butt, like the PDA600 did in it's time!  :D ;D :)
TFM do you have information about this that can be put onto the wiki?
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Ygdrazil

#16

Hi

Actually the successor of the PDA600 should have been released as the Amstrad PIC-700 (PIC standing for Personal Information Center)... The PIC-700 would have been a huge update compared to the PDA600.. It was based around a 32bit RISC CPU from Hitachi, lager screen res and a radio pager to retrieve information, messages etc.

Sadly the project was canned.. and information is very sparse....

The funny thing is that when I googled this subject years ago I found some pages from a former employees of Eden Group (the company behind the OS) describing both the PIC-700 and the OS..


According to my memory the PIC-700 was in a very advanced stage of dev, and actually handed over from Amstrad to another company..

The page had some photos of the device.. It was longer and thinner than the PDA600 and did not have the lid!

This might have been something I dreamed ... or something ... becourse I cannot remember the employees name nor find the pages again  :o

Some info can be found here:


(http://www.pencomputing.com/archive/PCM_5/review_amstrad_pic-700.html)

or here:


(Nigel Ballard's PDA comparison chart #59)


Regards,
Ygdrazil

Quote from: arnoldemu on 09:22, 24 October 14
TFM do you have information about this that can be put onto the wiki?

TFM

Thanks Ygdrazil, that's about what I know.  :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

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