2 May
1999
2 May
'99
5:30 a.m.
On Sun, 2 May 1999, Francois wrote:
I have an LK-3000 and am in need of information.
When I took the thingy appart to replace the NiCads I noticed that there was
absolutly nothing in terms of CPU, RAM or ROM inside, only logic for the
display and keypad. From this I deducted that the smarts must be inside of
the module wich I didn't take apart since the label is placed on top of the
screws.
Does anyone has information as to what modules were availabe, any hardware
architecture information, any general information.
Many modules were made for it. There are the general purpose modules,
like the Calulator, and I think there was a Computer module but I'm not
certain (if there was then I don't have one but I want one). Of course
its primary goal in life was to be a language translator, and I happen to
have English-Spanish, English-Italian, English-Polish, English-Arabic, and
probably a couple others that I forgot (I have one unit with the Arabic
alphabet above the keys :)
I have one carthridge that was already popped open, so I looked inside and
found nothing extraordinary. Looks like a TI microcontroller of some sort
and a ROM or two. But yes, the smarts are definitely in the modules. The
actual handheld unit is really just a dumb terminal.
I believe the Nixdorf LK-3000 is the first (uh-oh, there's that
word again) handheld computer device, first introduced in 1978 or 1979.
The NiCad batteries shouldn't need replacing. If you just stick it in a
charger for a day then they should come back alive. The one I played with
hadn't been on in probably a decade or two and it came up after I left it
charging for a while. I used a 6V, 200ma power supply, center positive.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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