Microtan 2000: your next palmtop computer !

Fed up of all these modern handheld computers, which costs $$$$ and don't bring more flexibility than a cheap organizer ?
With these costly toys, you have the choice to run dull predefined programs or build your own applications with some cross-development kit, but what if you are on the beach ?
Here is what you need : the palmtop computer for real programmers, integrating its own development environment, so you can develop everywhere !

Options of the demonstrated configuration:

8 KB internal RAM

infrared external alphanumeric keyboard

16 KB rom with TANBUG V2, EXBUG and BASIC

Lower-case option kit

Physical characteristics

125x80x10mm fits nicely in your palm

150g only, your pocket doesn't look like a satchel

huge 256x256 pixels LCD panel

hexadecimal keypad with extended functions

infrared port, transparent use with the optional infrared alphanumeric keyboard

4 standard R6 batteries, providing 30 days of continuous use

Features

genuine 6502 processor, running at 750 kHz

1 KB static ram, extendable to 8 KB static ram, and even 48 KB using the 40 KB dynamic ram extension (*)

64 characters set, upgradable to 128 with the Lower-Case Option Kit.

wired semi-graphics, giving a 64x64 graphics resolution, fully addressable

16 lines of 32 characters,

powerful single-step features thanks to the delayed-NMI electronics

a wide choice of development environments:1 KB rom TANBUG V1, 2 KB rom TANBUG V2 or up to 16KB rom with TANBUG V2, EXBUG, BASIC (**) and BASIC Toolkit

fully compatible with the MICROTAN 65 (***), protects your 20 years old software investments

(*) dynamic ram option soon available (is not battery backed-up)
(**) BASIC requires 2 KB ram minimum
(***) Microtan65 is a registered name of Tangerine Computers

Microtan 2000: order it today !

Want to impress all your friend with a really versatile handheld device ? The Microtan 2000 is the best example of "what's important is not what the computer can do, but instead what you can do with it". This is the no-limits palmtop, your imagination is in control.

1 KB ram Microtan 2000 with 1 KB TANBUG v1 or 2 KB TANBUG v2 development environment (please specify)	95 Euro *
1 KB static ram option (making for a total of 2 KB ram)	0.99 Euro
7 KB static ram option (making for a total of 8 KB ram)	4.99 Euro
BASIC65 rom option	4.99 Euro
lower-case option	1.99 Euro
8 KB ram Microtan 2000 with BASIC65 development environment	launch price: 99 Euro !
infrared alphanumeric keyboard	29 Euro

* shiping costs not-included. Non-EEC orders, please count 1.2 US $ for 1 Euro.
PGP-authentified E-mail orders to ffrances@ifrance.com

On your marks, get ready to enter the Microtan 2000 programming contest and win a free Microtan 2000 !

Yes, two Microtan 2000 are to be won (value: 99 Euro each), one for each of the two programming categories.
You may enter either the machine code competition, or the Basic competition, or both if you want to double your chances.
You may even submit several programs in each category, only the best program in each category will make its author win a Microtan 2000 !
We are in the process of naming the international jury responsible of evaluating the competition entries, and yes, all the judges' addresses will be given here (don't even think bribing these people, it would cost you more than a Microtan 2000)

Rules for the machine code category: valid programs must run on the 1 KB ram Microtan 2000, equiped with TANBUG v1 or v2 (programs must be compatible with both versions). Programs are allowed to use routines in TANBUG, but cannot use routines in other roms (e.g EXBUG or BASIC). By the way, the jury will run the programs on Microtan2000 palmtops without optional roms. Programs may be as large as 512 bytes, or even 1 KB if code or data is stored in the screen memory. Submitted programs may be of any type (office tools, productivity enhancers, games, demoes...), but will only be accepted in the format of dump images as saved by the F3 key of the on-line emulator.

Rules for the Basic category: valid programs must be BASIC-only programs running on the 2 KB ram Microtan 2000 with BASIC65. Calls to machine-code routines are forbidden. Location of the BASIC program must be standard, so the Basic code can not be larger than 1 KB. Data may be used outside of the Basic program (using PEEK and POKE) but it is forbidden to modify the used part of the stack and disturb this way the normal Basic interpretation process (again, calls to machine-code routines are forbidden). As for the machine-code category, submitted programs may be of any type and will only be accepted in the form of dump images.

How to get ready for the programming contest ? Even if you are completely new to the Microtan, you really have your chance to win your Microtan 2000. What's great with the Microtan is its simplicity. Being familiar with the 6502 processor is enough to enter the machine code category since the microtan hardware is really very simple (4 I/O addresses and you won't use them all). So you just have to concentrate on what you want to display on the screen, which takes half of the memory ! If you are not familiar with the 6502 processor, enter the Basic competition even if you only know other flavors of Basic. The one bundled with the Microtan is a vanilla Microsoft BASIC65 with no additional features, you will quickly write 1 KB of code ! You can start programming either with a real Microtan 2000 if you have already received your order, or with the above applet. However, since Java is securized, your browser won't let you save your masterpiece on your disk, even if you download the needed files on your local disk (3 Java classes, and rom images). Fortunately, the microtan class is both an applet and a program, so you will gain save capability if you run it as a Java program with a Java Run-Time Environment (you can download one from Sun). Here is the complete microtan emulator package for download.