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The HP 200LX Palmtop PC (F1060A, F1061A, F1216A), also known as project ''Felix'', is a
personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in part ...
introduced by
Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
in August 1994. It was often called a
Palmtop PC A handheld personal computer (PC) is a miniature computer typically built around a clamshell form factor and is significantly smaller than any standard laptop computer, but based on the same principles. It is sometimes referred to as a ''palmto ...
, and it was notable that it was, with some minor exceptions, a
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...
-compatible computer in a palmtop format, complete with a monochrome graphic display, QWERTY keyboard, serial port, and
PCMCIA The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was a group of computer hardware manufacturers, operating under that name from 1989 to 2009. Starting with the PCMCIA card in 1990 (the name later simplified to ''PC Card''), ...
expansion slot.


Description

Input is accomplished via a small
QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden ty ...
-keyboard with a numeric keypad, enclosed in a clamshell-style case, less than about 25% of the size of a standard
notebook computer A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
. The palmtop runs for about 30–40 hours on two size AA alkaline or Ni-Cd rechargeable cells and can charge batteries (both Ni-Cd and NiMH) via a 12 V DC wall adapter. The HP 200LX has an
Intel 80186 The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external data bus multiplexed with a 20-bit address bus. The ...
compatible embedded
central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...
named "Hornet", which runs at ~7.91
megahertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one ...
(which can be upgraded or overclocked to up to 15.8 MHz) and 1, 2 or 4  MB of memory, of which 640  KB is
RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...
and the rest can be used for
expanded memory In DOS memory management, expanded memory is a system of bank switching that provided additional memory to DOS programs beyond the limit of conventional memory (640 KiB). ''Expanded memory'' is an umbrella term for several incompatible tec ...
(EMS) or memory-based storage space. After-market updates can bring the memory chips to up to 64 MB, which frees the PCMCIA slot for
modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more c ...
or
ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1 ...
card use. The Silicom, Accton 2212/2216, Netgear FA411, and Sohoware ND5120 network cards were compatible. Being
IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
/ XT compatible and running
MS-DOS 5.0 MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...
from ROM, the HP 200LX can run virtually any program that would run on a full-size PC compatible computer as long as the code is written for the
Intel 8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allo ...
,
8088 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers a ...
or 80186 CPU and can run using CGA graphics. It can also run programs written for the 80286 CPU, provided they do not require the use of protected mode. It has a 16-bit
PCMCIA The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was a group of computer hardware manufacturers, operating under that name from 1989 to 2009. Starting with the PCMCIA card in 1990 (the name later simplified to ''PC Card''), ...
Type II expansion slot that supports 5 V at 150 mA maximum, a
SIR ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
compatible
infrared port The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...
and a full
serial port In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. ...
(but with a proprietary mini connector for space constraint reasons). The built-in software suite runs from ROM and includes the Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.4 spreadsheet, a calendar, a phone book, a terminal, Lotus cc:Mail and a capable scientific/business calculator (among other applications). With a large
compactflash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...
storage card and a serial
mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
, even
Microsoft Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0 is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, launched in 1990. It features a new graphical user interface (GUI) where applications are represented as clickable icons, as opposed to the list of file names seen in its predeces ...
can be run on the palmtop. Running Windows was limited by the hardware, and the maximum version that could be run was Windows 3.0 in Real Mode. However, Word 1.x and Excel 2.x for Windows would run (since they could run in Real Mode), allowing for the authoring of MS Office format-compatible files. The 640×200 resolution CGA compatible 4-shade gray-scale LCD screen has no back light. An
electroluminescent Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical and electrical phenomenon, in which a material emits light in response to the passage of an electric current or to a strong electric field. This is distinct from black body light emission resulting fro ...
technology back light installation is available from a third party since 2004, but keen eyesight is still required to use the small palmtop effectively without resorting to using its 2× and 4× zoom modes. While true CGA displays do not allow for redefinable fonts in text mode and support a
hardware code page In computing, a hardware code page (HWCP) refers to a code page supported natively by a hardware device such as a display adapter or printer. The glyphs to present the characters are stored in the alphanumeric character generator's resident read ...
437 __NOTOC__ Year 437 ( CDXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aetius and Sigisvultus (or, less frequently, year 1190 ...
, the HP 95LX supports
code page 850 Code page 850 ( CCSID 850) (also known as CP 850, IBM 00850, OEM 850, DOS Latin 1) is a code page used under DOS and Psion's EPOC16 operating systems in Western Europe. Depending on the country setting and system configuration, code page 850 i ...
instead. Starting with the HP 100LX the LX series even supports user-switchable text mode ROM fonts for both code page 437 and 850 as well as software-definable RAM fonts (for codepages 437G, 437T,
852 __NOTOC__ Year 852 ( DCCCLII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * March 4 – Trpimir I, duke ('' knez'') of Croatia, and founder of the Trpim ...
,
866 __NOTOC__ Year 866 ( DCCCLXVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * April 21 – Bardas, the regent of the Byzantine Empire, is murd ...
via KEYBEZ). Lotus 1-2-3 internally uses the Lotus International Character Set (LICS), but characters are translated to code page 850 for display and printing purposes.


Model variants


HP 100LX

The ''HP 100LX Palmtop PC'' (F1020A for the 1 MB, F1022A for the 2 MB model), also known as project ''Cougar'', is the direct predecessor of the 200LX. It was released in 1993 and available in International English, U.S. English, French, German and Spanish variants with localized keyboard and messages. It is almost the same, including the Hornet CPU and
MS-DOS 5.0 MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...
, but with earlier built-in application versions.


HP Palmtop FX

The ''HP Palmtop FX'' is a variant of the HP 100LX with up to 2 MB flashable memory in 1993. FAT flash disk images could be created and written to drive F: by a special FLASHDSK.EXE utility. According to one source, it was developed for a Korean insurance company.


HP 200LX AIA

The ''HP 200LX AIA'' was a 2 MB double-speed variant of the HP 200LX manufactured for the insurance company '' American International Assurance'' (AIA).


HP 1000CX

The ''HP 1000CX Palmtop PC'' (F1203A for the 1 MB in March 1995, F1222A for the 2 MB model in February 1997), also known as project ''Puma'', is an economy version of the 200LX with its Hornet CPU but without any built-in software except the MS-DOS 5.0 operating system in ROM. It was in widespread use among, for example,
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...
warehouse managers, who loaded their own logistics software onto the machine. It has a black clamshell, while the 200LX has a dark green casing.


HP OmniGo 700LX

The ''HP OmniGo 700LX Communicator Plus'' (F1206A), codenamed "Columbia", was a project of the HP calculator branch in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. The HP OmniGo 700LX is essentially a 2 MB HP 200LX including its Hornet CPU redesigned to
piggyback Piggyback, piggy-back, or piggybacking may mean: Transport * Piggyback (transportation), something that is riding on the back of something else Art, entertainment, and media *Splash cymbal piggybacking, mounting a cymbal on top of an already ...
a Nokia 2110
GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
mobile telephone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while ...
for wireless mobility. The HP 200LX motherboard was factory-modified to support a second PCMCIA slot for a Nokia Data Card. Owing to the relatively large size of the Nokia telephone, the HP OmniGo 700LX has a large, pebble-shaped casing, making it a handheld with a phone attached. It was announced in late 1995 as part of plans for a collaboration between HP and
Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
. Shipment starting in March 1996. The production of the HP OmniGo 700LX ceased after the Nokia 2110 mobile telephone was rendered obsolete by later telephones. The device can be seen as a forerunner to the first
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...
, Nokia's Communicator 9000.


Related models


HP 95LX

The ''HP 95LX Palmtop PC'' (F1000A for the 512 KB, F1010A for the 1 MB model) introduced the basic design in April 1991. It was known internally as project ''Jaguar''. It had a
NEC V20 The NEC V20 is a microprocessor that was designed and produced by NEC. It is both pin compatible and object code compatible with the Intel 8088, with an instruction set architecture (ISA) similar to that of the Intel 80188 with some extension ...
CPU (an enhanced
Intel 8088 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and ...
clone with
Intel 80186 The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external data bus multiplexed with a 20-bit address bus. The ...
instruction set compatibility and an additional
Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibil ...
emulation mode, running at 5.37 MHz), but was hampered in running PC applications because of its quarter-CGA resolution LCD screen and MDA compatible (instead of CGA) graphics chip. The HP 95LX for the most part only displayed graphics in a special LX graphics mode. It ran MS-DOS 3.22 and had Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.2 built in. It also included a CR2032 battery for memory backup when the AA mains ran out.


HP OmniGo 100

The ''HP OmniGo 100 Organizer Plus'' (F1305A/F1310A) was designed as a more sophisticated successor to the LX series, and incorporated the
HP-12C The HP-12C is a financial calculator made by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and its successor HP Inc. as part of the HP Voyager series. Functionality The HP-12C is HP's longest and best-selling product, in continual production since its introduction ...
calculator functionality. It was GUI based, controlled by pen input or keyboard. However, it lacked the versatility of running unmodified DOS programs. The normal operation mode was with DOS-based PEN/GEOS 2.1 and
Graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
handwriting recognition running on
Datalight ROM-DOS 6.22 Datalight was a privately held software company specializing in power failsafe and high performance software for preserving data integrity in embedded systems. The company was founded in 1983 by Roy Sherrill, and is headquartered in Bothell, Washi ...
. It was not widely accepted as a calculator replacement, and Palm and Pocket PCs became acceptable as PDAs. Equipped with 1 MB of RAM, it was based on the Vadem VG230/V5H, a highly integrated system controller with 16 MHz NEC V30HL CPU, instruction set compatible with the
Intel 80186 The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external data bus multiplexed with a 20-bit address bus. The ...
.


Current usage

Although this product line was discontinued by HP in order to introduce their
Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...
product line (starting with the HP 300LX), a strong interest in this hardware continued. It was the last palmtop from HP which ran the MS-DOS operating system, for which there is much software from desktop PCs, and it came with a useful bundle of software including 1-2-3 and
Quicken Quicken is a personal finance management application originally developed and offered by Intuit, Inc. Intuit sold Quicken to H.I.G. Capital in 2016, and H.I.G. sold Quicken to Aquiline Capital Partners in 2021. Quicken runs on Windows and Mac ...
. Compared to machines with Windows-based operating systems such as CE, DOS programs are more compact and efficient and, with programs such as Software Carousel, many applications programs could be loaded at once. Third-party upgrades, repairs and renovations are available to maintain and extend the device. Because of its small size, the HP 200LX was very popular in Japan, so much so that its demise prompted an open-source initiative led by a group named to design and market an
AMD Élan Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufact ...
SC400-based replacement to fill its place in 2001. However, only one prototype was ever built before the company responsible for the project filed for bankruptcy in 2003. Some argue it was a
scam A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers hav ...
as hundreds of people lost deposits they placed on the new palmtop in advance. The project leaders argued that key electronic components were unavailable due to strong demand from the mobile phone manufacturing industry.


Common problems

*A common problem with the HP 200LX case is related to the injected-molded case top. The right hinge to case blend had poor flow in the process, resulting in the formation of a crack which propagates across the hinge under stress, causing failure. This can be reinforced and repaired using super glue, among other methods (industrial super glue advised). * Another weakness of the design is the failure of the case opening latch. This problem can easily be repaired by placing a thin slice cut from rubber eraser, left over silicone kit, or 'super sponge' within the latch as a "spring". * Only high quality AA rechargeable batteries should be used in the HP 200LX, as battery leaks can destroy the LCD's flat video cable. * Aging models may lose pixel columns from the display. This is caused by detachment of one or more pins of one of the SMD (Surface Mounted Device) chips in the display itself. In many cases this may be repaired by reflowing (resoldering) of the pins on the offending chip, either with an SMD reflow tool, or a soldering iron with a very fine (0.2 mm) tip. * Under heavy use, the space bar and enter bar can become detached. This requires keyboard replacement. * ''Fixing unresponsive keyboard keys''. Inside the HP 200LX, the keyboard connects to the main board via a "ribbon" that has graphite pads which make physical contact to gold pads plated onto the main board. Unresponsive keys occur when this connection grows weak. This can be fixed by applying conductive silver paint (such as from a circuitwriter pen) to each graphite pad on the "ribbon". This is delicate work, and putting the HP 200LX back together after disassembly may be problematic for those who have little experience with electronics repair. However, the conductive silver paint will fully fix the problem if applied with care. An alternate cause can be corrosion of the motherboard pads to which the graphite pad connects. This can be solved by polishing the pads with fine steel wool.


Exceptions to 100% IBM PC compatibility

* The HP 100LX/HP 200LX's
digital-to-analog converter In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC, D/A, D2A, or D-to-A) is a system that converts a digital signal into an analog signal. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) performs the reverse function. There are several DAC archit ...
cannot play audio tones; instead, it monitors battery life and charging. * The device does not provide the
BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the b ...
service (
INT 13h INT 13h is shorthand for BIOS interrupt call 13 hex, the 20th interrupt vector in an x86-based (IBM PC-descended) computer system. The BIOS typically sets up a real mode interrupt handler at this vector that provides sector-based hard disk and ...
) for reading from a
hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...
. Drivers have been partially written for this purpose (to boot MINIX 2.0).


Other notes

* The HP 200LX was used on board the NASA Discovery OV103 Mission
STS-95 STS-95 was a Space Shuttle mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998, using the orbiter ''Discovery''. It was the 25th flight of ''Discovery'' and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program ...
(the last mission of Senator
John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...
) in an Electronic Nose (E-Nose) experiment (the device was developed jointly by Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
)). The experiment, as managed by Dr. Dan Karmon of JPL, was successful. * The HP 200LX can play video, and sound files using software from Stefan Peichl in relatively low quality. It is also capable of sound recording, though this is, again, in relatively low quality. There is no known compatible PCMCIA sound card for the HP 200LX. However, a Yamaha MU10 MIDI sound generator (a.o.) works through the serial port using Voyetra or GSPlay MIDI programs, and Terrence Vergauwen uses a PCMCIA parallel port card plus an OPL3LPT (Adlib compatible sounds card thru parallel port) for gaming. * Software and hardware is available which will allow the HP 200LX to surf the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
. *The serial numbers printed on the HP machines 100LX, 200LX, 1000CX and OmniGo 700LX have the following meaning: : ''XXYWWNNNNN'' : ''XX'' = the country of manufacturing (e.g., SG = Singapore etc) : ''Y'' = the year of manufacturing; last digit (e.g., 6 = 1996) : ''WW'' = the week of the year of manufacturing : ''NNNNN'' = the number of the specific unit manufactured in specified week


Easter eggs

There are many easter eggs built into the HP 200LX. The known ones are listed as follows:


Hidden gallery

This easter egg is on the HP 200LX in the built in game, "Lair of Squid". During the startup screen of the game, if the user types the word "gallery" ("gallerie" on a French palmtop; "siegergalerie" on a German palmtop; "galeria" on a Spanish palmtop) they are placed in a "part" of the maze that contains photographs of the primary software developers that worked on the HP 200LX. The user may exit from this gallery by exiting through the door at the end of the corridor. The software developers in the photographs are listed starting from left to right, then left to right and so on as follows: * Andy Gryc * Pat Megowan * Everett Kaser * Bill Johnson * Lynn Winter * Susan Wechsler * Eric Evett The last panel on the right of the corridor contains a thank you message: The photographs of the developers have been described as "a-maze-ing".


Self-test poem 1

This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press SCON] to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing NTER14 times, to step through the various screens, the user comes to a screen of example text in the form of a
limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2 ...
poem. The poem is as follows:


Self-test poem 2

This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press SCON] to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing TRLENTER], then holding down LTwhile pressing NTER13 times, the user comes to a cryptic poem, relating to business issues faced by the software development team. The poem is as follows:


Self-test poem 3

This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press SCON] to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing TRLENTER], then holding down HIFTwhile pressing NTER13 times, the user comes to an allegorical poem, about the history and future of the HP LX palmtops. The poem is as follows (note that the project names for the HP 95LX, the HP 100LX and the HP 200LX are 'Jaguar', 'Cougar' and 'Felix' respectively, and that 'Felix' was the first LX to include
Quicken Quicken is a personal finance management application originally developed and offered by Intuit, Inc. Intuit sold Quicken to H.I.G. Capital in 2016, and H.I.G. sold Quicken to Aquiline Capital Partners in 2021. Quicken runs on Windows and Mac ...
):


Hidden development aid in 'More Applications'

This easter egg is in the built in System Manager of the HP 200LX. This 'easter egg' is probably more of a development tool than an easter egg, but, in any case, the user may display the function by first pressing the blue ...key to start 'More Applications'. The user may then hold down LTwhile pressing 94 times, followed by 10once. As long as the LTkey is held down, the user will observe columns of data about System Manager compliant (.EXM) programs registered with the System Manager, along with other arcane program information.


Hidden hex calculator

The HP 200LX includes an undocumented calculator application named HEXCALC, written by Andrew Gryc. It provides arithmetical and logical operations in binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal system. The utility can be added to the applications menu by an entry with the following fields: * Name: He&x Calc * Path: D:\BIN\HEXCALC.EXM


See also

* HP 110 /
HP 110 Plus The Hewlett-Packard HP 110 (aka HP Portable and HP 45710A) is an MS-DOS compatible portable computer released in 1984. It uses a Harris 80C86 running at 5.33 MHz with of RAM. It has an 80 character by 16 line monochrome () liq ...
* DIP Pocket PC / Atari PC Folio /
Atari Portfolio The Atari Portfolio (Atari PC Folio) is an IBM PC-compatible palmtop PC, released by Atari Corporation in June 1989. This makes it the world's first palmtop computer.
*
Poqet PC The Poqet PC is a very small, portable IBM PC compatible computer, introduced in 1989 by Poqet Computer Corporation with a price of $2000. The computer was discontinued after Fujitsu Ltd. bought Poqet Computer Corp. It was the first subnoteb ...
* Poqet PC Prime *
Poqet PC Plus The Poqet PC is a very small, portable IBM PC compatible computer, introduced in 1989 by Poqet Computer Corporation with a price of $2000. The computer was discontinued after Fujitsu Ltd. bought Poqet Computer Corp. It was the first subnotebook ...
* ZEOS Pocket PC *
Ben NanoNote The Ben NanoNote (officially the 本 NanoNote)Melanson, Donald"Qi Hardware's tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping" ''Engadget'', 15 March 2010 (accessed 1 November 2012) is a pocket computer using the Linux-based OpenWrt operating system. An ...
* Sub-notebook (
HP OmniBook HP OmniBook was a range of laptop personal computers created by Hewlett-Packard, introduced in 1993. The range was discontinued following the acquisition of Compaq by Hewlett-Packard in 2002, with the Compaq Presario, HP Compaq, and HP Pavilion l ...
) *
Netbook Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...
*
Palmtop PC A handheld personal computer (PC) is a miniature computer typically built around a clamshell form factor and is significantly smaller than any standard laptop computer, but based on the same principles. It is sometimes referred to as a ''palmto ...
*
Ultra-mobile PC An ultra-mobile PC, or ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this d ...


References


Further reading


The HP 200LX: A Review
by Rob Tillotson.
Sy's HP 200LX review


External links


200LX Software S.U.P.E.R. software mirror, over 1500 programs and 200 databases for the 200LX

HP 200LX
Old-Computers.com Museum
HP Palmtop Paper Online (Thaddeus Computing; Buy-Sell-Repair)






* ttp://enose.jpl.nasa.gov/publications/99-0780.pdf Results From The Space Shuttle STS-95 Electronic Nose Experiment
HP Palmtop Ring Homepage

Skolob's Hewlett Packard 95LX Palmtop Page (Information and FAQ on HP 95LX)


installation DOS/Windows, captures d'écran.

DOS/Windows installation, screen captures.
Compatibility of the Sohoware ND5120 network card.
{{HP 200LX Computer-related introductions in 1994 IBM PC compatibles