Franklin Electronic Publishers, Incorporated

Xircom, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Franklin Electronics Publishers, Incorporated

Mark M Todorovich

Robert L Grieb

Paul K Kavanaugh

Paul R Bartholomew

A wallet for a personal information device in the form of a PCMCIA card such as an PCMCIA-card electronic organizer. The wallet includes an input device separate from the input device of the personal information device and two halves that may be folded together in a wallet-like fashion. One of the halves generally includes a touch panel input to allow a user to enter information, commands, instructions, etc., thereto. A personal information device is mounted to the second half of the wallet. When mounted, the wallet supplies via an electrical connection or induction communication the user-supplied information entered into the touch panel input to the personal information device. The wallet display may be powered by the personal information device via the electrical connection or self-powered. Upon coupling the personal information device to the wallet, the personal information device may supply a wake signal to wake up or automatically turn on the input device of the wallet. The wallet may further include an input/output connector for coupling via a cable the wallet to an external device such as another wallet, a personal computer, etc.

Wallet detachable retaining a personal information device and receiving a wake signal and a stay awake signal from the personal information device

Wallet for personal information device

A personal information device is provided in the form of a PCMCIA card and includes a PCMCIA I/O port that is adapted to be coupled to a PCMCIA port of a computer, a first memory that is directly accessible by the computer via the PCMCIA I/O port, second and third memories that are not directly accessible to the computer, and a controller. When the personal information device is inserted into the computer's PCMCIA port, the first memory directly receives and stores therein reprogramming data supplied by the computer. Immediately after the data is downloaded, or alternatively, upon disconnection of the personal information device from the computer, the personal information device's controller transfers to the second memory reprogramming code included in the reprogramming data stored in the first memory, executes the reprogramming code stored in the second memory, and then programs the third memory by utilizing the application code included in the reprogramming data stored in the first memory in accordance with the reprogramming code being executed. The downloaded application code may include organizer application code for the end user, diagnostic code or other types of code. In addition to being able to interface with a computer via the computer's PCMCIA port, the personal information device may communicate with a computer by using a docking station that includes therein a controller and that is capable of changing the baud rate of data serially supplied thereto so as to allow a computer and a personal information device communicating at different baud rates to serially communicate with one another.

Personal information device and method for downloading reprogramming data from a computer to the personal information device via the PCMCIA port or through a docking station with baud rate conversion means

Personal information device and method for downloading reprogramming

A number of memory locations are reserved in computer memory to store pointers which indicate an address within streams of sequentially arranged data. The data stream to be scanned is selected. To scan the information stored within the data stream, a single register is provided to increment the pointer corresponding to that data stream. The pointer information is then incremented and stored into the reserved memory location. The process of selecting, scanning, incrementing, and storing may repeat for each data stream to which access is sought.

Data stream addressing

A hand held electronic data processing device has an input keyboard and a display screen. A sixteen bit central processing unit (CPU) address bus addresses read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). However, a twenty bit register provides a twenty line address bus that is employed for addressing sequential data in ROM. A direct memory access (DMA) unit provides direct transfer of data from RAM to a forty bit register which controls the state of the pixels in a 240 character liquid crystal display (LCD). The keyboard is connected in an electronic matrix with rows driven by signals applied by system address bus lines. These various functions require exclusive use of the system address bus. Accordingly an address selector is employed to determine which of the functions is to capture the system address bus; the functions being (a) CPU address of ROM and RAM, (b) Register sequential address of ROM, (c) DMA address of RAM for delivery to LCD display, and (d) the driving of the rows of the keyboard matrix.

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Medford Lakes, NJ, United States of America

Mark M Todorovich