Telxon Features Healthy Mix of Pens and Wireless

The obvious should be clear to everyone by now: engineer a device that solves people’s current problems and they will come.

Telxon Corporation, which has been solving large scale information and automation problems for years, has introduced two new pen computers that feature a good combination of flexibility, wireless connectivity, and real-world applicability.

The new models, dubbed the PTC-1140 and 1180, are hand-crafted units that feel comfortable when held. The PTC-1140 is the physically smaller unit featuring a 7″ (18 cm) sidelit VGA display, while the 1180 includes a 9.5″ (24 cm) screen. Both units display 640 x 480 pixel resolution with 64 shades of gray.

While both devices come standard with MS-DOS 5.0 and the PenRight! application development environment (see related story on the next page) enabling it to run with a wide range of applications, Telxon’s most interesting offering includes its range of wireless connectivity options for the devices. These communication options range from Telxon’s short-range MicroRadio, which enables users to connect to compatible peripherals such as printers without cables, to wide-area communication using the ARDIS wireless network.

For in-between applications, Telxon offers its DATASPAN 2000, a cellular spread spectrum data network capable of speeds up to 230 Kbps, along with support for up to 1000 handheld units on a single, dedicated network.

The spread spectrum radio operates in the 900 MHz band in the United States and is currently available. The European version will operate in the 2.4 GHz band and will be available in October 1994. The MicroRadio option operates in the same frequencies and will be available towards the end of 1994. The 1140 and the 1180 are currently in pilot production, and will be widely available in June 1994.

Targeting Health Care

Telxon’s traditional customers include industries ranging from retail, transportation, and financial services. Recently, Telxon has begun an impressive initiative to integrate wireless, pen-based computing into the health care industry. To coordinate this effort, Telxon has inaugurated its Healthcare Technology Group which will target the special concerns of this industry. Its mission is to convince health care professionals and administrators that deploying Telxon’s pen computers, linked with its spread spectrum communication system, provides flexibility and cost efficiency in such a dynamic environment.

In an impressive first step, Telxon conducted a wide-scale test of its mobile solution at the West Virginia University Hospitals (WVUH), 376-bed teaching hospital. The problem was how to increase the availability of bedside access to hospital information without the cost and complexity of hard-wired, fixed terminals.

A wireless solution seemed to fit the problem since it would not only enable health care providers to use the devices from multiple locations traditionally not served with terminals, but also enable each computer to be used with greater cost efficiency. Dwyne Patrick, director of clinical and information management systems for WVUH, pointed out that standard bedside terminals are not only bulky, but receive only about 20 minutes of use per day.

In the WVUH study, Telxon equipped doctors and nurses with both the 1140 and 1180 pen computers communicating over the RF spread spectrum network. Telxon also selected to work with CSE, a leading health care systems integrator to leverage the company’s special knowledge of the health care industry.

According to Telxon, they will continue to follow this model believing that it provides the best range of solutions. For example, Telxon announced that it has formed strategic alliances with Health Care Expert Systems, Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa, and TDS Healthcare Systems Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia.

Clearly, health care is a field ripe for automation and integration of information management resources. However, it also illustrates a critical lesson in the early pen computing industry: build products that solve customers existing problems. If you have to convince customers that a problem exists, your time is probably better spent elsewhere. Telxon appears to be applying this rule with good result.

Telxon Corporation
3330 West Market Street,
P.O. Box 5582
Akron, Ohio, USA 44334-0582
(800) 800-8001
(216) 873-2058

Summary: PTC-1140

• Dimensions: 8.75″ x 6.25″ x 1.5″ (22 x 15.9 x 7 cm)
• Weight: 3 lbs., 6 oz. (1.53 kg)
• CPU: F6680A at 12 MHz
• Screen: Monochrome 7″ (18 cm) VGA transflective sidelit LCD
• Resolution: 640 x 480 (64 shades)
• Memory: 3 MB internal RAM, 256 KB Flash system EPROM, 768 KB Flash application EPROM
• Storage: optional external 40 MB hard disk, 20 MB PCMCIA memory card
• PCMCIA: One Type II slot
• Ports: RS-232 serial, XT keyboard, RJ-41 barcode port (optional)
• Battery: Removable NiCad
• Pen: Cordless, electromagnetic, three 393 watch cells
• Software: MS-DOS 5.0, PenRight! 3.5

PTC-1180 (as different from the 1140)

• Dimensions: 12.25″ x 9.5″ x 2″ (31 x 24 x 5 cm)
• Weight: 4 lbs., 12 oz. (2.2 kg)
• Screen: 9.5″ (24 cm) VGA transflective sidelit LCD