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Texas Instruments Avigo 10

Date of introduction:	September 16, 1997	Display technology:	LCD dot matrix
New price:	$299	Display size:	240 * 160 pixels
Size:	5.5" x 3.3" x 0.7"
Weight:	6.5 ounces	Serial No:
Batteries:	2*AAA + CR2025	Date of manufacture:	mth 09 year 1997
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	Taiwan
Precision:	17	Integrated circuits:	Inventec 6SI117, AM29F080, TC551001
Memories:	1024kB Flash-ROM 128kB RAM
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

The Avigo 10 PDA (Personal Digital Assistent) introduced already in the year 1997 uses a completly different approach compared to the Personal Organizers like the PocketMate 300. Instead of a spacy keyboard the smaller Avigo 10 uses a huge, touch-sensitive display with a resolution of 160*240 dots. A nice feature, especially for tables, is the ability to rotate the data, viewing it "landscape" rather than "portrait".

Next to the display are several buttons including a rocker switch that scrolls windows and messages, a power switch and a button to illuminate the backlight. The Avigo offers the usual array of PDA functions and has the capacity to upload applications. Using ist stylus, users can navigate through four main applications:

	Memo
	Schedule
	To Do
	Address

Another set of buttons along the bottom of the screen offers access to the:

	Calendar
	Expense Programm
	Calculator
	Spreadsheet

A third set of programms is accessible from the general applications button:

	Memory
	Sketch
	Security
	Sync

When inputting data into the Avigo 10 users have two choices:

A standard graphics keyboard.
The T9 keyboard from Tegic Communcations, known from the mobile phones with the three characters per key.

The Avigo 10 is bundles with a customized version of the Lotus® Organizer™ 97, the leading personal information management software. It takes control of the calendar, address book, task list, and more. Also included is the IntelliSync™ software to synchronize the appointments, tasks, contacts, and more, directly with Lotus Organizer 97 on the desktop PC.
The 1MByte Flash memory of the Avigo 10 with approx. 680KB available for the user could be expanded with a small 1MByte module. The Avigo handheld PDA is based on a modified Z80 microprocessor, which has a 16-bit memory address bus. That means it can directly access up to 64k bytes. The Avigo Operating System is able to access multiple megabytes of memory using a technique known as "banking" or "paging", selecting 16k banks of extended memory to appear in 2 memory regions as needed. Like most other computers, Avigo memory is designated as RAM and ROM. The ROM however, is EEPROM (electrically erasable ROM), and the operating system and applications can - and do -routinely alter its contents.

The 64k of base memory contains four 16k regions as follows:

	$0000 - $3FFF System ROM region
	$4000 - $7FFF ROM bank access region
	$8000 - $BFFF RAM bank access region
	$C000 - $FFFF System RAM region

The Avigo 10 had never the appeal of the Apple Newton or the success of the 3Com’s Palm Pilot series. With the introduction of the first Windows CE based PDA’s Texas Instruments discontinued the Avigo.

If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.