“Rumors have been going around in PDA circles about Compaq ‘s
handheld-related Project Mercury for some time now, and so we
deemed it necessary to dig up the facts and find out what this
hush-hush project really was all about. We did some digging, and
you wouldn’t believe our amazement when we found out that Project
Mercury contains all the rumored features – and even more
unbeliveable goodies!”
“Project Mercury is actually a backpack that is attached to
any Compaq iPAQ from the H3600 series (color series) like any other
expansion sleeve available for the iPAQs. The project in its entiry
though is bigger, as it includes using a downscaled version of
Linux instead of Windows CE to run the entire solution.
Another important fact is that it’s being co-developed with MIT as
a part of a five year project called Oxygen, exploring the future
of mobile devices computing called H21.”
“Compaq’s Cambridge Research Laboratory is involved as a
research partner and not just a supplier, and collaborates with MIT
on everything from devices, networks, middleware, speech, vision
and applications to services. The themes being explored in the
project includes pervasive wireless computing, handheld and
wearable devices, wireless communication, system software, and
applications and services for future devices.”