[ Thanks to Trevor
Warren for this link. ]
“…IBM plans to work on reducing the size of the X Server to
sub 1MB using the latest release — 4.4.1. Fonts were another major
issue. The reason being that the wristwatch had a LCD panel,
whereas the X Server would require a VGA driver for display. This
called for the researchers at IBM Bangalore to write their own
fonts. The solution was writing a driver that would emulate a VGA
display over the LCD display. The LCD display offers a maximum
resolution of 96 x 120 and that too with a Portrait display.”
“The watch uses the ADS 7843 (BurrBrown) touch screen display,
using which one can map the whole screen with respect to the four
quadrants. Thus a touch on the upper screen panel is captured and
depending on the co-ordinates captured, the requisite application
is run. Users can also interact with the watch with a Roller Wheel.
We have to admit that the X server on the Linux watch is a piece of
art especially, when you see it displaying all the various pixmaps
and the software applications that the watch runs.”
“The PIM (Personal Information Manager) that the watch runs, was
developed at IBM’s T.J. Watson research center and has an
approximate memory footprint of about 51kb. The PIM consists of an
organizer, WML browser, to-do list and a calculator. In future it
would have the capacity to read condensed e-mail messages too.”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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