"Put a Rocket in your Pocket!"
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Designed as an updated version of Merlin 4, this computer will be the first commercial product developed as part of the Merlin Project. All information needed to build this machine (schematics, board layouts, part lists, addtional instructions, software in source and executable code, etc.) will be available on this web site to be used according to one of the two license agreements at the bottom of this page.
This design is almost identical to the Itsy machine developed by Digital, so you might want to check that out (though I don't think it is possible to get one of these). And there is also a very nice drawing in PDF format by Dwight Hughes of how he imagined what Merlin 4.7 would look like.
Unllike other hand held computers, Merlin 4.7 will not use a pen based user interface. A "chorded keyboard" and touchpad were chosen instead to allow one-handed use of the machine. The features page has more details, including the wide range of interfaces and expansion options.
The StrongARM SA1100, the UCB1100 and memory are basically the whole machine. The current hardware page is lacking many important details, but these should be added along the next few weeks.
The initial software for this machine will be a port of tinySelf to the ARM processor (to be developed on the current Merlin 4 prototype and ARM simulators). This will be able to communicate with other Merlin 4.7 machines using the built-in modem or infrared interface. When a desktop PC is running tinySelf (on top of Windows 95, for example), then it will also be able to connect to Merlin 4.7 - there will be no need for some special "sync" software.
This section describes the licenses available for the hardware design of the hand held Merlin. The system software will be distributed freely.
There will be two options for people wishing to build Merlin 4.7 (note - the texts below are very preliminary and contain information, like the name of the machine, which is certain to change before the final version. Notes in parentheses will indicate where this is the case):