Compaq and Toshiba riding Pegasus OS to new PDAs
Jilted once before, Compaq Computer Corp. and Toshiba America
Information Systems Inc. are again developing PDAs for a Microsoft
Corp. handheld PC operating system.
The two leading notebook manufacturers plan to announce by midyear
multiple handheld PCs based on Microsoft's forthcoming small-footprint
operating system, code-named Pegasus, sources close to the companies
said.
Houston-based Compaq is expected to be the first out of the gate in
June with a handful of Pegasus PDAs, sources said.
One unit will be an organizer-type device with infrared
communications, another will be used primarily for desktop
synchronization, and a third will support WAN communications via
wireless networks such as narrowband personal communications services
or two-way paging, sources said.
Toshiba, of Irvine, Calif., will release by midyear at least two
Pegasus devices that feature functionality similar to the Compaq
units, sources said.
Most of the forthcoming Pegasus devices will sport gray-scale LCDs and
infrared ports, sources said.
"As long as there's built-in communications and synchronization with
the things that you have on your desktop ... I would be interested,"
said Frank Nagle, IS manager at Micro Linear Corp., a semiconductor
maker in San Jose, Calif.
Compaq and Toshiba were heavily involved in Microsoft's previous PDA
operating system effort, called WinPad. But Microsoft dissolved that
project more than 18 months ago, after it could not get the operating
system's resource requirements low enough to allow development of
sub-$500 devices.
Sources said pricing for the new devices is expected to begin at $500.
The two notebook leaders join an expanding roster of PC and consumer
electronics vendors, including NEC Corp., Epson America Inc., and
Casio Inc., that are committed to building Pegasus-based devices,
sources said.
Pegasus is based on a kernel of Microsoft's Win32 API set scaled down
for handheld PCs. But unlike traditional PDA operating systems, which
offer little more than personal information management and PC
synchronization, Pegasus will have built-in Internet access, E-mail,
and the ability to view Microsoft Word and Excel files, company
officials in Redmond, Wash., said.
"It's not just a [personal information manager]. It's not just an
Internet PC. We are creating a device that operates [as an extension]
of your Windows PC," said Craig Mundie, senior vice president at
Microsoft's Consumer Platform Division.
Pegasus will be equipped with a subset of Microsoft's Internet
Explorer browser and its own mail client, said Paul Maritz, group vice
president of platforms at Microsoft.
Because Pegasus is an instruction-set-independent operating system
similar to Windows 95, it will not support most off-the-shelf
applications. Instead, vendors will scale down their applications to
fit into Pegasus' footprint of 4M bytes of ROM and 2M bytes of RAM,
Maritz said.