Casio Cassiopeia IT-700 Manual de usuario descargar pdf (Pagina 7)

A review of the

CASSIOPEIA:

CASIO'S NEW BABY

Palmtop computing seems to be the go lately, with a number of companies producing their own

version of the handheld personal computer. Casio's contribution, the aptly named Cassiopeia,

stands out from the crowd with its stylish looks and extra features. We decided to review the

Cassiopeia along with a PCMCIA modem, to see what all the fuss was about.

by GRAHAM CATTLEY

The concept of truly portable com-

puting seems to have come of age with

the introduction of Microsoft' s

Windows CE, a scaled-down version of

Windows 95 designed specifically for

handheld personal computers. It's

interesting to note that the Windows

CE operating system was developed

well before there were any handheld

machines around to actually run it on.

In fact, the microprocessors found in

most palmtop computers were tailor-

made to run the CE operating system,

which just goes to show how influen-

tial Microsoft really is...

The Cassiopeia was one of the first

handheld personal computers (HPCs) to

hit the American market and, after a

year's delay, they've finally become

available in Australia. Based on

Hitachi's H3 RISC processor and sup-

porting a type II PCMCIA slot, the

Cassiopeia is available with 4MB of

RAM and contains Windows CE perma-

nently installed in 4MB of ROM.

Along with the operating system

itself, you get built-in pocket versions of

Word and Excel, as well as calendar,

task, and contact management software.

You also get a CD containing HPC

Explorer, which lets you easily transfer

files between the Cassiopeia and your

Win95 desktop computer via a high

speed serial link.

One of the major selling points of the

Cassiopeia is that it is Internet ready,

and that by using a PCMCIA modem

you can read your email and even surf

the net. With this in mind, I decided to

try out the Cassiopeia with a Comport

SA-MC218 28.8k PCMCIA modem,

kindly supplied by Casio's Australian

distributor, Mobex.

Communications

One of the first things you notice

about the Cassiopeia is that it doesn't

have a floppy disk drive. (It doesn't

have a hard drive either, but I'll get to

that later.) This would suggest that the

Cassiopeia is more of a souped-up per-

sonal organiser rather than a personal

computer, as any data entered into it

would be difficult to extract and use on

your desktop computer. This isn't true,

however, as the Cassiopeia is in fact a

full blown computer, and has not one,

but

three

different ways of transferring

data to and from other systems.

The most obvious of these is the

Type II PCMCIA slot on its right side.

The other two are a custom serial port

hidden behind a small flap on its left

side, and an adjacent IrDA infrared

port that allows it to communicate with

other HPCs. As it happened, I had

access to another HPC manufactured

by LG Electronics, and so was able to

try an IR file exchange between the

two. After I highlighted a file in the

Cassiopeia and selected 'Send' from its

file menu, it sat there waiting for a

response from the other computer. I

selected 'Receive' on the other HPC

The Comport PCMCIA modem is

shown here with its plug-in telephone

cord attached. It can handle speeds

up to 28.8k, and can be used with

mobile phones to make a truly

portable setup.

and aligned the IR ports on both

machines so that they faced each other.

Within a few seconds the file was

transferred — and all without cables,

disks or contact between the two

machines.

Hidden away around the side of the

Cassiopeia is yet another comets port

that allows the Cassiopeia to exchange

data with other digital equipment. This

is a 3.5mm stereo socket, but details on

this port were a bit sketchy, and I could

only find a brief mention of it in the

manual where it informed you that you

would need special software in order to

communicate with a Casio QV digital

camera. Quite why you'd want to trans-

fer images from a camera into your

Cassiopeia is beyond me, as its 480 x

240 display can only display four shades

of grey, and I don't think the results

would be very satisfactory.

As I said before, the Cassiopeia doesn't

use a hard drive; instead relies on a RAM

(lithium battery backed) to store all your

files and settings. The programs them-

selves are stored in ROM, and ,so you

have a potential 4MB to divide between

system RAM and file storage. If you

decide to install some extra applications

(the CE version of Internet Explorer for

example), then you may have to eat into

some of the available RAM to make

room. Using a simple slide bar interface,

you can allocate different proportions of

the available space between drive space

and available RAM. This defaults to a

50/50 split that gives you 2MB for avail-

able RAM and 2MB for file storage,

which seems to work well.

More power!

Surprisingly, the Cassiopeia runs on

only two AA alkaline batteries, and

these will last around two to three weeks

with normal use. Battery life is severely

shortened, however, when you try run-



ELECTRONICS Australia, September 1997

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