Micro Code

Michael's blog about teaching, hardware, software and the things in between

Blast from the Past part 2!

November 17, 2019 — Michael Engel

This piece is a bit more rare than the iPhone 2G and about two years older than the iPhone.

Before Nokia was destroyed by the hostile Microsoft takeover in 2013, they developed innovative early Linux-based mobile devices. The Maemo OS developed by Nokia is based on Debian, GNOME and a number of additional open source components. The Nokia 770 was the first commercially available system in this tablet series, followup devices included the Nokia 800 and 810. This was also the basis for Nokia's Linux-based mobile phones (N900 and N9, more on these in a later post).

This device runs on a 252 MHZ TI OMAP1710 SoC (ARM926EJ-S+C55x DSP) with 64 MB RAM and 128 MB Flash. The 4.1 inch display has a resolution of 800x480 and is usually used in widescreen format. Note that the system has no mobile wireless connectivity, only 802.11 and Bluetooth.

The Linux-based system previously used by Nokia is still being developed by the Jolla guys as Sailfish. Unfortunately, they seem to have only rather moderate success.

Nokia 770

Tags: Nokia, 770, tablet, Maemo