Showing posts with label ibm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ibm. Show all posts

Thursday, March 22, 2007

IBM's Linux Watch

With all the innovation that has taken place within the last year in mechanical watch movements (Seiko Spring Drive, Tag Heuer Belt Drive), I thought now would be a good time to look back at a turn of the century prototype digital watch.


In 2001 IBM started showcasing its Linux Wristwatch, which I think goes a long way to explaining why they aren't the powerhouse of computing that they used to be. Featuring a tiny motherboard with an ARM processor (running at the equivalent of a 100Mhz Pentium), 8MB DRAM, and 8MB Flash packed into a case measuring 56mm W x 48mm L x 12mm H. It supported Infra Red, RF, and Bluetooth connectivity, and sported a four quadrant LCD touchscreen and a scroll-wheel for navigation. IBM researched/developed a few applications for the watch's OS including a WML browser, to-do list, calculator, and e-mail functions. The open source code would seemingly allow users to develop their own apps. A great piece of electrical engineering, but possibly not such a great business idea, although I believe that some of this technology has found its way into Citizen's new Bluetooth VIRT watch.