The Data General WiiN-PAD slate from the late ’90s #VintageComputing
Old Vintage Computing Research has written a very detailed history of Data General and also, specifically, their WiiN-PAD medical industry handheld (tablet). Looking inside:
That’s right: it’s PowerPC, the most unloved of the architectures (Windows) CE ever ran on — in fact, this is the first PowerPC Windows CE device I’ve ever found, and I’m the self-described biggest pro-PowerPC bigot in the world.
Here’s an unusual form factor Windows CE device, running on the operating system’s least used CPU, from a storied computer company near the end of its run, intended for medical applications, produced in very small numbers and cancelled within months.
As for the WiiN-PAD, I could find no record of new computer hardware developed subsequently under the original Data General name nor any company that produced any more of them, and it appears to truly have been Data General’s last official computer system. The WiiN-PAD’s IP, like most other components of the former Data General, is now part of Dell after it bought EMC in 2016.
Read this fascinating and detailed dive in the post here.
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