Info on RDI Brite-Lite

[br% at]

I have seen this product at trade shows.  The processor is a SPARCstation
IPC board, which RDI purchases from Sun.  They alter the monochrome frame
buffer output to drive an 1152 x 900 LCD panel.  The last tradeshow I saw
it in (Uniforum), they did not have the 1152 x 900 panel, but were showing
640 x 480.  I believe the 1152 x 900 panel is now available.

SPARCwise, it is an IPC, no more, no less.

RDI has written/obtained a software emulation of the MAC software.  At
press time, they were unsure of whether they would require you to put MAC
ROM chips in sockets on an SBus board, or whether they would ship their
own clean-roomed ROM code.  This is a legal issue, not an engineering
issue.

The DOS emulation is also 100% software, reportedly SoftPC.

It has a battery, the data sheet says 2 hours continuous use.  I never
tried it, it may be true.  Since it's an IPC, it has two SBus slots.  The
keyboard is okay.  There are the usual ports for SCSI, Ethernet, mouse,
audio and serial.  There is space for a 3.5" hard drive and a floppy.  You
can put 16MB in it. 

The case is like most laptops, a clamshell affair with the screen in the
inside of the lid.  I thought the industrial design wasn't great, but it
sure is functional.  The display panel they showed was mediocre compared
to the latest generation LCDs on PC laptops.  RDI claims to have
proprietary LCD techniques in enhance contrast or something.  Coulda'
fooled me.

It works fine.  SPARC operation is identical to IPC, since it is an IPC.
The screen streaks very badly, as you would expect.  The MAC and DOS stuff
is all software, and emulated, so it will be slow, but not excrutiating.

And you can close it up, and take it with you!  It weighs 13lbs with the
battery.

The product is designed by RDI.  Since they got the board from Sun,
designs means the LCD drive circuit, mechanical and other incidentals.  It
runs standard Sun software (like all compatibles).  Trigem, a big Korean
company manufactures it.  Both RDI and Trigem sell it.

Brian Rosen
Mars Microsystems, Inc       br at marsmcro.com