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Mitsubishi AMiTY VP and Windows 3.1

ppgrainbow Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 11:48 AM
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Reviving a old topic from more than two years ago...

bibliophilezen is selling the Mitsubishi AMiTY VP on eBay for $98. Have a look: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mitsubishi-Amity-tablet-VP-Toshiba-libretto-/200771135900

Is anyone planning to get their hands on a Mitsubishi AMiTY VP tablet computer for Christmas. I'm considering getting it. However, I have some concerns here.

When I do get the AMiTY VP tablet computer, I'm gonna ways to attempt to install MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1 w/Pen extensions.

The AMiTY VP comes with a 133 MHz AMD Am5x86 processor (equivalent to a 75 MHz Mobile Pentium) with a C&T 65548 integrated graphics card with 1 MB of display RAM capable of displaying 640 x 480 @ 65,536 colors. The tablet computer has a 810 MB 2.5" IDE hard disk with 16 MB of EDO memory, upgradable to 48 MB and it has Windows 95 OSR 2.1 pre-installed.

Windows 95 and Windows 98 chokes with just 16 MB of RAM and it uses a lot of disk space! Unfortunately, there might not be any drivers for Windows 3.1, because the unit dropped support for it.

I have found a couple of display drivers for Windows 3.1 when installed on the AMiTY:

1. http://www.win31.de/edrivers.htm
2. http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/downloadDetail.jsp?pf=true&soid=106032

The first link has the generic SVGA drivers for Windows 3.1 (only capable of displaying 640 x 480 @ 256 colours) and the second link has the C&T 65548 drivers which may not work correctly with Windows 3.1.

Now tell me this. Since the unit has no floppy drive, how will I be able to transfer the files when I attempt to install MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 on the AMiTY VP unit? When that is successful, where can I try to find the drivers for Windows 3.1 on the AMiTY VP?

Thank you for your time.

(If I've run out of options, I will have to get the Fujitsu Stylistic Pen 510 instead.)

Edited by ppgrainbow 2012-12-15 11:49 AM
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 12:57 PM
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That will almost certainly take a 2GB disk to get you past the disk space problem.

Anything here?
http://web1.toshiba.ca/support/isg/drivers/archives/files_Archive/Index/display_drivers.htm
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ppgrainbow Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 1:29 PM
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C:Amie - 2012-12-15 4:57 AM

That will almost certainly take a 2GB disk to get you past the disk space problem.

Anything here?
http://web1.toshiba.ca/support/isg/drivers/archives/files_Archive/Index/display_drivers.htm


As you pointed out, all there is are C&T 65548 display drivers for Windows 3.1. No AMiTY VP pen drivers that will work with Windows 3.1 as far as I know.
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 3:01 PM
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It was a nice little machine...48mb is the largest memory it will hold, and since there is only one memory slot available on the back side...that is it. I eventually tried larger memory chips but to no avail...even though they would physically fit...the bios only recognized 48mb.

A larger hard drive is no problem. But you would be smart to format the thing and copy all the files you will need to it before inserting it into the Amity. Much faster. I actually stuck a 6gb 2 1/2" drive in a USB enclosure to do mine with. I then formatted the drive to boot to DOS 6.2. Then I copied the entire Windows 98 SE cd to a folder I named Win98. I also copied the entire IE6.0 cd to another folder I named IE60. The last thing I did was download all the drivers and put them in a folder named drivers.

After I stuck it in the Amity, it booted to DOS just fine, then I installed Windows 98 so I would have a dual boot device, either DOS or Win98. And installed all the Windows drivers.

The device will recognize ATA memory cards or CF memory cards with an adapter, but will not boot from them or will not boot from the pcmcia slot. The Amity VP also had a proprietory pcmcia CD that are near impossible to find, so using a CD with one is just about useless.

Oh yeah, be sure you have a ps/2 compatible keyboard as you will need it. Lastly, don't expect to use the numerical keypad on the thing as there is no DOS driver support for it.

For wifi I used any pcmcia wifi card and they all worked fine...as will a serial mouse in the same port. I thought that with 48mb and Win98 the thing ran pretty well...no choking or anything...pretty decent speed. I just didn't like being limited to VGA standards.

Most import...don't lose the stylus, it is one of those magnetic thingies...a normal stylus does nothing.
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ppgrainbow Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 8:05 PM
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Rich Hawley - 2012-12-15 7:01 AM

It was a nice little machine...48mb is the largest memory it will hold, and since there is only one memory slot available on the back side...that is it. I eventually tried larger memory chips but to no avail...even though they would physically fit...the bios only recognized 48mb.

A larger hard drive is no problem. But you would be smart to format the thing and copy all the files you will need to it before inserting it into the Amity. Much faster. I actually stuck a 6gb 2 1/2" drive in a USB enclosure to do mine with. I then formatted the drive to boot to DOS 6.2. Then I copied the entire Windows 98 SE cd to a folder I named Win98. I also copied the entire IE6.0 cd to another folder I named IE60. The last thing I did was download all the drivers and put them in a folder named drivers.

After I stuck it in the Amity, it booted to DOS just fine, then I installed Windows 98 so I would have a dual boot device, either DOS or Win98. And installed all the Windows drivers.

The device will recognize ATA memory cards or CF memory cards with an adapter, but will not boot from them or will not boot from the pcmcia slot. The Amity VP also had a proprietory pcmcia CD that are near impossible to find, so using a CD with one is just about useless.

Oh yeah, be sure you have a ps/2 compatible keyboard as you will need it. Lastly, don't expect to use the numerical keypad on the thing as there is no DOS driver support for it.

For wifi I used any pcmcia wifi card and they all worked fine...as will a serial mouse in the same port. I thought that with 48mb and Win98 the thing ran pretty well...no choking or anything...pretty decent speed. I just didn't like being limited to VGA standards.

Most import...don't lose the stylus, it is one of those magnetic thingies...a normal stylus does nothing.


Thank you very much for the help. I don't know why Mitsubishi would have stuck with a processor equivalent to a 75 MHz Pentium when processor speeds varied between 200 MHz to 300 MHz at the Pentium MMX level. The lack of MS-DOS support for the integrated numeric keypad sucks. I also believe that there is no driver support for the numeric keypad for Windows 3.1 or even older versions of Windows 95 as well.

What a bummer.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 8:12 PM
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The MMX was premium price and very heavy on power utilisation. It was a desktop processor effectively.

Shame that it isn't a real P75, you would have had the 586 floating point division glitch (FDIV)
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ppgrainbow Page Icon Posted 2012-12-15 9:37 PM
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C:Amie - 2012-12-15 12:12 PM

The MMX was premium price and very heavy on power utilisation. It was a desktop processor effectively.

Shame that it isn't a real P75, you would have had the 586 floating point division glitch (FDIV)


No it's time. I'm gonna have to let the time run out on the AMiTY VP as I'm definitely not getting it after all citing the strict OS limitations on the unit.

I'm getting the Fujitsu Stylistic Point 510 instead.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2012-12-16 10:19 AM
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What are the benefits?
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ppgrainbow Page Icon Posted 2012-12-19 5:21 AM
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C:Amie - 2012-12-16 2:19 AM

What are the benefits?


The Fujitsu Point 510 has either a 1.62 GB or a 2.1 GB shock mounted hard drive with 8 MB of EDO RAM and it can go up to 56 MB in two memory slots. It also has a larger display of 800 x 600 @ 256 colors. Plus, it's the last tablet PC from Fujitsu to officially support Windows 3.1.

The unit has already been ordered and shipped. It will arrive on the 20th and I will open it up on Christmas morning.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2012-12-19 12:08 PM
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Certainly sounds the better option!

Though running 3.1x on it seems like pain.

http://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=11

I wonder if the VRAM is modular? They often were back then.
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