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What's new in my pocket computers pages?
Friday, October 15th : Ricoh RDC i-700 received
Device securised this morning! No page for it yet; will be one some day.
Wednesday, September 15th : Sharp MI-10 added
Created a page for the Sharp MI-10 i've received.
Friday, July 23rd : new homepage, new machines listed
My collection reached 49 units yesterday as i've received 2 new watches. Added them to the list (no pages yet) and changed the homepage to a weblog format.
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This feature will soon be available
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Casio PA-100B
"Business Execution Support Tool"
Professional-use PDA
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** THIS ITEM IS NOT FOR SALE! **
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A USER MANUAL
or IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A RESELLER/REPAIR STATION,
I'm sorry, but I will not reply to user manual requests or to dealer location inquiries anymore.
Please read my FAQ page that might help you if you have any of these questions in mind.
Feel free to contact me for any other question or comment regarding this machine!
Special features :
Details to come
Weak points :
Details to come
Related machines in my collection :
Casio vertical market PDA :
 Casio PD-5000
Casio touchscreen PDA :
 Casio Z-7000 Zoomer
Initiator of the touch-screen PDAs era :
 Apple Newton
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Internet is the greatest thing... I've first heard about this machine almost a dozen years ago in the online museum of a japanese collector. There were a couple pictures, including a few screenshots where i could see the machine display a windowing GUI.
Since then, i've never stopped wondering what the machine could be, and ultimately, i lost all hope in ever finding one.
And then i eventually found one! It seems that the machine commercial distribution never spread outside the japanese ground, although there were plans for it to reach USA, as this page (archive from a '95 magazine) explains.
What i know about the machine, however, didn't expand a lot since i got one. I basically learned more from the page above than from the scarse documentation (in japanese, thus i had to rely on pictures only!) i got with the device.
My PA-100 is, as far as i know "not working", most likely because it would miss the necessary ROMs that would provide it with whichever OS/application it needs to run.
Now, the machine comes under the "Business Execution Support Tool" brand. Casio did release quite a few regular (albeit higher-end) PDAs by that tag, so i am a little surprised that the PA-100 would need specific ROM packs to run. Then again, it could make sense, as i've learned in the same page that GEOS was also intended to be ported on the machine, so it would be realistic to assume that there was no "built in" OS or application, and the machine would offer a choice of flavors in the shape of ROMs pack of the user's choice.
Now, why would this one come without a ROM pack is a mystery...
Anyway. Apparently, Casio had high expectations for this little buddy. A nice design, interesting balance in computing power (resource-consuming handwritting recognition tasks were left to a dedicated processor, thus freeing the 8086 compatible main processor for other, application-oriented tasks), and high versatility (assuming the ROM pack guess proves right), all of this with Casio trademark low battery consumption that could have the machine running for weeks on simple AAA batteries.
However, over a dozen years later, very few have heard of the PA-100 outside Japan. I, for one, am happy i have, and even more, i'm happy i finally got one!
As a bonus, it came with this nice little wireless printer :
| Processor : | 8086 compatible |
OS : | Proprietary ? |
| RAM : | ?? |
ROM : | ?? |
| Graphic display : | ?? |
Text display : | ?? |
| Display : | B&W |
Input : | Touch screen |
Built-in Applications :
Details to come
Open to other applications :
Through ROM packs?
Ports :
Details to come
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