3Com Ergo Audrey

The 3Com Ergo Audrey is an Internet Appliance from 3Com that was first sold in October, 2000. It was on the market for less than 8 months when it was discontinued because of the dot-com market crash. It became mostly useless after it was discontinued.

The microprocessor is a 200 MHz National Semiconductor Geode GX1 CPU, based on the Cyrix MediaGX, and is Intel 80386 compatible. It has 32 MB of RAM and 16MB of flash memory using an Intel E28F128 chip. It also has a CS5530 controller, CS9211 TFT to DSTN converter, National PC97317 SuperI/O, Crystal Semi 4299 AC97 codec, and an ADS7843 touch controller.

The $499 Ergo was the "kitchen" device in a series that was to have devices designed for use in each part of a house. Once it was connected to an ISP, it could access the Internet, send and receive e-mail, play audio and video, and synchronize files with up to two Palm OS-based devices.

The project codename was "Kojak", after the Telly Savalas TV character. The device was named Audrey to honor Audrey Hepburn. The follow-on device targeted for the family room was code named "Mannix", again from the TV series.

The system runs the QNX operating system and had been successfully hacked so that it can still be used for something.

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The Audrey after power on.

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The startup screen showing how to use the buttons next to the screen.

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The back of the Audrey. There are phone jack and USB connectors.

This system came with a 3Com 3C19250 USB Ethernet adapter.

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The back of the infrared keyboard.

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The very simple user's manual.