[mdlug] Mystery tech -- laptop

[Michael Rudas]

Garage sales can be wondrous things -- I just purchased what looks to
be a fascinating bit of older technology.  I'm still researching it.

I purchased (for US$12.50) what looks to be something between a PDA
and a low-end laptop -- it appears to be an early attempt at an
OLPC-like student-oriented PC.  Called a "DreamWriter I.T" and built
about 9 years ago, it features a stripped-down but full-sized keyboard
with touchpad, a roughly 9-inch 640x480 256-color LCD touchscreen
display, and nearly all the standard I/O ports, including a PCMCIA
slot (unfortunately, no USB).  It appears to have 16 MB of flash RAM
and (according to what I've found so far) runs an 80 MHz Hitachi SH-3
processor.  It's currently loaded with WinCE 2.11 and Pocket Office 97
-- but I may try to find a way to put Linux on it.

Of course the manufacturer and its successor-in-interest are LONG gone
-- NTS Computer Systems, Ltd. and Brainium Technologies were both
based in Canada and have disappeared without a ripple -- but, hey,
worst case I've got a decent 12V/2.5A switching power supply and a
cool NiMH battery pack...

Does anyone know anything about this unit?

~~ Mikey