Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DigitalIceAge (talk | contribs) at 07:47, 18 December 2024. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is actively undergoing a major edit for a little while. To help avoid edit conflicts, please do not edit this page while this message is displayed. This page was last edited at 07:47, 18 December 2024 (UTC) (11 days ago) – this estimate is cached, update. Please remove this template if this page hasn't been edited for a significant time. If you are the editor who added this template, please be sure to remove it or replace it with {{Under construction}} between editing sessions.

The Linus Write-Top is an early tablet computer released by Linus Technologies, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, in July 1988. It was the first tablet computer released to the public with a pen input and handwriting recognition software. The Write-Top is compatible with software for the IBM PC and runs an Intel 8088–compatible microprocessor. Although innovative, the Write-Top was a commercial flop, and Linus Technologies folded less than two years after its introduction.

Development

Linus Technologies, Inc., was established in 1985 in Reston, Virginia, by Ralph Sklarew, Robert Nadeau, and Arthur Rodbell. The company was founded chiefly to market the Write-Top, which was largely the brainchild of Sklarew and Nadeau. Before founding Linus, Sklarew had worked as a developer of environmental monitoring systems for institutions such as NASA and has founded a company that marketed such systems for chemical plants in 1977. Nadeau, meanwhile, was a professor of English at George Mason University who was next-door neighbors with Sklarew in Virginia. In the early 1980s, Sklarew discovered that Nadeau had been working on a prototype for an electronic book reader in his home and expressed interest in developing the concept further into a commercial product. The two developed a system for digitizing handwriting for the IBM PC programmed in GW-BASIC, eventually delivering a prototype to venture capitalists. Development stalled for a year and a half until the duo met Arthur Rodbell, who had experience in raising seed capital and marketing for various companies. In late 1984, the three raised $11 million in funding from Venture First of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and in early 1985, Linus Technologies was founded. In 1986, the company hired Richard Mier, the recently departed vice president of marketing of Atari Corporation, to become Linus' president and CEO.

Sklarew, Nadeau, and others spent several years developing the Write-Top, with the final execution rendered by the industrial designer Peter H. Muller of Inter4m. Originally devised as a single-piece device, the final Write-Top was ultimately built out of two pieces, the system unit and the pen-enabled display; however, the two can be latched together to approximate a self-contained tablet. The Write-Top was publicly unveiled in March 1988.

Specifications

The Write-Top measures 11 by 11 by 3.5 inches (279 by 279 by 89 mm) and weighs roughly 9 pounds (4.1 kg) (when equipped with several options). The Write-Top runs the Intel 8088–compatible NEC V20 microprocessor, clocked at 7.16 MHz, and contains 640 KB of static RAM, upgradable to 2 MB with an optional, proprietary SRAM card. Besides containing the motherboard, the system unit includes a serial port, a parallel port, an PC keyboard port, a removable 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, a port for an optional exernal 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, and a slot for an optional 1200-baud modem. The pen-capable screen unit houses a transflective STN LCD capable of displaying CGA graphics at a resolution of 640 by 200 pixels. Aside from using natural light to evenly illuminate the display, the LCD also features a backlight.

As a tablet computer, the Write-Top features no built-in physical keyboard. Instead, overlaid on top of the LCD is a glass layer that allows the computer to be controlled using a stylus of nearly any material, including a mechanical pencil. When it originally shipped in 1988, the only application supporting the pen-enabled screen was Your-Right, a word processor developed by Linus with support for handwriting recognition. Users can write out single letters or a sequence of words on a field at the bottom of the screen, and the software interprets the handwriting as textual information and outputs ASCII text into the currently open document. At the time of the Write-Top's release, Linus also offered Code-Write, a software development kit for programmers wanting to create software with the same handwriting recognition algorithm as Your-Right. Besides these two software titles, the Write-Top is compatible with the vast majority of IBM PC software, albeit requring the use of an external keyboard in almost all cases.

References

1. ^ Atkinson, Paul (Autumn 2008). "A Bitter Pill to Swallow: The Rise and Fall of the Tablet Computer" (PDF). Design Issues. 24 (4). MIT Press: 3–25.
2. Delbourg-Delphis, Marylène (2024). Beyond Eureka!: The Rocky Roads to Innovating. Georgetown University Press. p. 168. ISBN 9781647124229 – via Google Books.
3. ^ Hamilton, Patricia (January 1989). "Handwriting goes high tech". D&B Reports. 37 (1). Dun and Bradstreet, Inc.: 20–23 – via ProQuest.
4. Lazar, Jerry (March 14, 1988). "Linus trains computers to read handwriting". Computer Systems News (357). UBM LLC: 24 – via Gale.
5. ^ Mathews, Renee (April 4, 1988). "Linus Write-Top Lets Users Write on Display Screen". InfoWorld. 10 (14). IDG Publications: 22 – via Google Books.
6. Bridges, Linda (May 31, 1988). "Linus designs write-top machine as electronic pen for busy users". PC Week. 5 (22). Ziff-Davis: 19 – via Gale.
7. ^ Muchmore, Michael W. (June 28, 1988). "Write on Portable's LCD Screen, Your Handwriting Becomes ASCII". PC Magazine. 7 (12). Ziff-Davis: 52 – via Google Books.
8. ^ Hawkins, William J. (December 1988). "Electronic Newsfront". Popular Science. 233 (6). Times Mirror Magazines: 28–30 – via Google Books.