IPAQ

History

The iPAQ was developed by Compaq based on the SA-1110 "Assabet" and SA-1111 "Neponset" reference boards that were engineered by a StrongARM development group located at Digital Equipment Corporation's Hudson Massachusetts facility. At the time when these boards were in development, this facility was acquired by Intel. When the "Assabet" board is combined with the "Neponset" companion processor board they provide support for 32 megabytes of SDRAM in addition to CompactFlash and PCMCIA slots along with an I2S or AC-Link serial audio bus, PS/2 mouse and trackpad interfaces, a USB host controller and 18 additional GPIO pins. Software drivers for a CompactFlash ethernet device, IDE storage devices such as the IBM Microdrive and the Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 Wifi device were also available. An earlier StrongARM SA-1100 based research handheld device call the "Itsy" had been developed at Digital Equipment Corporation's Western Research Laboratory (later to become the Compaq Western Research Laboratory). With the acquisition of Compaq by Hewlett-Packard, HP discontinued the Jornada line of Microsoft Windows powered Pocket PCs, moving development and marketing of Pocket PCs to the iPAQ line.

A feature in Linux Magazine in 2001, described the iPAQ 3630 as a "highly promising platform" and depicted it running Pocket Linux, shown in summer 2000. The first iPAQ to be released was the H3100. It had a four-bit grayscale display, running on Pocket PC 2000. The H3100 was succeeded by the similarly-designed H3600. Changes included a colour display and a chrome coloured directional pad compared to the monochrome display and gunmetal grey d-pad of its predecessor. The H3600 was succeeded by the H3800 and H3900, which retained the same form factor, but had a different button layout.

In June 2003, HP retired the h3xxx line of iPAQs and introduced the h1xxx line of iPAQs targeted at price conscious buyers, the h2xxx consumer line, and the h5xxx line, targeted at business customers. They were sold pre-installed with the Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003 Operating System. The h63xx series of iPAQs running the Phone Edition of Windows Mobile 2003, the hx47xx series and the rz17xx series, both running the Second Edition of Windows Mobile 2003 were introduced in August 2004.

In August 2004, HP released the rz17xx and rx3xxx series of Mobile Media Companions. These devices were aimed at consumers, rather than the traditional corporate audience. Emphasis was placed on media features, like NEVO TV Remote and Mobile Media. They ran on Windows Mobile 2003SE.

In February 2005, the iPAQ Mobile Messenger hw6500 series was introduced to selected media at the 3GSM conference in Cannes, France. It was replaced a year later by the hw6900 series, running on Windows Mobile 5.

In 2007, the iPAQ rx4000 Mobile Media Companion PDA/media devices and rx5000 Travel Companion PDA/GPS devices were released. Both series of iPAQs work on the Windows Mobile 5 Operating System (WM5), as do the hx2000 and hw6900 series. The first HP Windows Mobile 6 device, the iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger, with the Windows Mobile 6 Standard Operating System (WM6), and numeric pad, was released in the same year.

The entire iPAQ line was completely revamped by the introduction of five new iPAQ series to complement the introduction of the iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger earlier in the year. The models announced were the 100 Series Classic Handheld, the 200 Series Enterprise Handheld, the 300 Series Travel Companion, the 600 Series Business Navigator and the 900 Series Business Messenger. The 100 and 200 Series are regular touchscreen PDAs without phone functionality running WM6. The 300 Series Travel Companion is not a PDA; marketed as a Personal Navigation Device, it is a handheld GPS unit operating on the Windows CE 5.0 core Operating System with a custom user interface. The 600 and 900 series are phones with integrated GPS and 3G capabilities, running the WM6 Professional. The 600 series possesses a numeric pad and the 900 series features a full QWERTY keyboard.

In December 2009, HP released the iPAQ Glisten, running on Windows Mobile 6.5.

As of April 2011, no new models have been announced. HP continues to advertise the 111 series and the Glisten on its website, however. As such, the status and fate of the iPAQ line is unclear.

In mid-August 2011, HP announced that they are discontinuing all webOS devices, and possibly mobile devices. It is unclear if this move will affect the iPAQ line, although they are producing several new iPAQs for the Dutch Railways as of November 2011.

Jacket-compatible

These older models are compatible with the iPAQ Jacket which can accept 1× CompactFlash, 1× PC Card or 2× PC Card slots.

iPAQ jacket PN 173396-001 PCMCIA (PC port) 1× internal Li-ion battery PN 167648 3.7 V 1500 mAh (upgradable).

OpenEmbedded

The OpenEmbedded distribution is (as of 2016) the only actively maintained Linux distribution for the iPAQ models, by way of the meta-handheld layer.

Familiar Linux

An alternative Linux-based OS available for the iPAQ was Familiar. It is no longer actively maintained since 2007.

It was available with the Opie or GPE GUI environment, or as a base Linux system with no GUI if preferred.

Both Opie and GPE provided the usual PIM suite (calendar, contacts, to do list, and notes) as well as a long list of other applications. Support for handwriting recognition, on-screen keyboard, bluetooth, IrDA and add-on hardware such as keyboards are standard in both environments.

The v0.8.4 (2006-08-20) version supports HP iPAQ H3xxx and H5xxx series of handhelds, and introduced initial support for the HP iPAQ H2200, Hx4700, and H6300 series.

Intimate Linux

On devices with added storage (primarily microdrives) there was a modified port of Debian called Intimate. In addition to a standard X11 desktop, Intimate also offered the Opie, GPE and Qtopia suites. (Qtopia was a QT-based PIM suite with an optional commercial license.)

NetBSD

NetBSD will install and run on iPAQ.

Plan 9 from Bell Labs

Plan 9 from Bell Labs runs on the iPAQ. The nickname of the architecture is "bitsy," after the name of the ARM-based chipsets used in many of the machines.

Ångström distribution

See Ångström distribution

Upgrades

The hx2000 series and some later models are upgradeable to newer versions of Windows Mobile. Upgrades could be purchased from HP. Windows Mobile 2003 could be installed on the H3950, H3970, h5450 and possibly other models of the H3xxx series with sufficient ROM capacity. Other "cooked" roms have been provided by the group known as xda-developers and are available for the hx2000 series, the hx4700 and others. These include Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5.

Internal Li-ion battery

iPAQ models 3100–3700 are fitted with internal Li-ion battery PN 167648 3.7 V 1500 mAh which can be replaced with a 2200 mAh unit. The same battery is used in the iPAQ jacket PN 173396-001 PCMCIA (PC port), which may also be upgraded to a 2200 mAh unit. The 3800/3900 series are fitted with a 1700 mAh cell as standard, also upgradeable to 2200 mAh. Compaq presumably upgraded the battery to cope with the faster CPU's power requirements.

RAM upgrade

It is possible to have the internal RAM of an iPAQ H3970 and hx4700 upgraded to 128 MB by using a specialist service to replace the surface-mount BGA RAM chips.