DigiBarn virtual visitors comment on the GRiDpad

Comments by visitor Steve Flynn (Sept 2005)

The GridPad was manufactured by Samsung for Grid. It was modified from the Samsung PenMaster which never made it to commercial distribution. GRiD used the product upside down from the original configuration, though I can't remember why.

The PenMaster weighed under 5 lbs. ( a big deal at that time), was 11.5" x 9.3" x 1.48" (under 1.5" - another big deal at the time) It ran on a 386SL 20MHz processor with a 80387SX coprocessor with 20MB RAM and 40, 60, 80 or 120MB hard drive. It had a 10" diagonal backlit VGA display with 32 gray scales. There was a built in PCMCIA card slot, an internal fax/modem card, a floppy drive port and a standard keyboard port. Operating time was about 3 hours on NiCad battery pack

The product development work was done by IDE Inc. in Scotts Valley, CA. I was a mechanical designer and project manager at IDE on the PenMaster project. I left IDE and joined Samsung as Mechanical Engineering Manager developing the pen-based platform.