JPH08101730A - Personal computer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To stand the personal computer either vertically or horizontally without any hindrance to the handling of a slot, etc., by centralizing and arranging connectors, the slot, and operation switches on main body flanks, and providing an engagement part for stand mounting on the back surface. CONSTITUTION: On the lateral flank 1A of the pen input type personal computer main body 1, an RS232C connector 3, an FDD connector 4, and a power switch are provided and the longitudinal flank 1B, a PC card slot 6 and other connectors 7, etc., are provided; and the mechanisms such as the connectors that a user need to handle are centralized and arranged on the longitudinal and lateral flanks. Speakers 5a and 5b are provided at diagonal positions on the main body 1. Further, the engagement part for mounting a stand for standing the main body 1 is provided on the back surface of the main body 1, and the main body 1 can be stood vertically or horizontally without positioning the connectors, slotter, various operation switches on the bottom surface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a personal computer, and more particularly to a portable personal computer that can be installed vertically or horizontally.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in the world of personal computers, portable pen input personal computers using a pen instead of a keyboard have been commercialized. This type of personal computer is made with an emphasis on portability, and it is premised that the personal computer is freely carried and used. Further, the degree of freedom in handling is increased, and it is possible to place and handle the personal computer in both the vertical and horizontal directions. It is also possible to stand and use a personal computer by using a stand or the like.

Further, as an OS of the above-mentioned pen personal computer, Windows F of Microsoft Corporation is used.
There is a dedicated OS such as or Pen, which can freely switch the display screen in the vertical and horizontal directions. This is so that the user can freely place and use the personal computer in both the vertical and horizontal directions.

[0004]

However, conventionally, when a personal computer is leaned against and used, when a user handles a mechanism such as a connector, a cable terminal, a card insertion slot, a button, and a switch,
There was a problem that the personal computer had to be replaced.

That is, when the personal computer is placed upright, the mechanisms such as the connector, the cable terminal, the card insertion slot, the button, and the switch are located on the ground plane, and the user must handle these mechanisms on the ground plane. However, there is a problem in that the mechanism and the device have to be handled by repositioning the personal computer in the lateral direction or lifting the leaning personal computer.

A personal computer which can be placed vertically or horizontally and has a mechanism such as a connector, a cable terminal, a card slot, a button, and a switch on three or more side surfaces or two opposing side surfaces. In the case of, even when the user puts it in either the vertical direction or the horizontal direction,
These mechanisms are always mounted on the ground plane, which causes the above problems.

Further, in the conventional personal computer, there is a problem that the speakers are arranged in parallel at the upper part or the lower part, and no consideration is given so that the speaker can be used in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction. In other words, when placed in either direction, the speakers will move to the left and right, but when placed in the other direction, the speakers will be closer to one side, and the sound can only be heard from one direction. .

Further, when the personal computer is an audio system compatible with stereo, there is a problem that the stereo effect cannot be obtained because the speaker is placed on one side.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is a personal computer that can be leaned against both the vertical and horizontal directions without hindering the handling of connectors, slots, and operation switches. The purpose is to provide a computer.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a personal computer capable of preventing the speaker positions from being biased regardless of whether the speaker is placed vertically or horizontally.

[0011]

Means and Actions for Solving the Problems
A flat display device provided integrally with the computer body;
In a pen-input type personal computer having a coordinate input device provided integrally with this flat display device,
A connector and a slot for an external interface, which are centrally arranged on one side surface of the computer body, or one side surface in the vertical direction and one side surface in the horizontal direction, and various operation switches, and the computer provided on the back surface of the computer body. An engaging portion for mounting a stand for leaning and placing the main body, a connector, a slot,
The first feature is that the computer main body can be leaned vertically or horizontally without being placed on the bottom surface of various operation switches.

In this personal computer,
The connectors, slots, and various operation switches that the user needs to handle are centrally located on one side of the computer body, or on one side in the vertical direction and one side in the horizontal direction. Is provided for this purpose. Therefore, the computer main body can be leaned against both the vertical and horizontal directions without the connectors, slots, and various operation switches being located on the bottom surface.

The engaging portion on the back of the computer body is
It is constituted by first and second grooves provided orthogonal to each other, and in either one of the first and second grooves,
It is preferable that an engaging member provided at one end of the stand can be detachably attached.

By thus forming the engaging portion on the rear surface of the computer main body with the groove, the convex portion is eliminated on the rear surface of the computer main body, and the computer main body can be placed as it is on a desk or the like. Also, if the engaging portion of the stand is mounted in one of the two grooves that are orthogonal to each other, it can be fixed in the vertical direction, and if the engaging portion of the stand is mounted in the other groove, it can be fixed in the lateral direction.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a flat display device integrally provided with a computer main body, and the personal computer has a structure which can be set upright in a vertical or horizontal direction. A second feature is to have the first and second speakers provided in the position.

In this personal computer,
Since the two speakers are arranged diagonally,
Even if the personal computer is placed in the vertical direction or in the horizontal direction, there is an effect that the sound or the like does not shift to one side. Particularly, in a personal computer having a stereo-compatible audio system, the stereo effect is not impaired even when placed vertically or horizontally.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the external appearance of a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1A shows a case where the personal computer is erected in a horizontal direction, and FIG. 1B shows a case where the personal computer is erected in a vertical direction.

This personal computer is a pen-input type personal computer, and an L provided integrally with a transparent tablet on the surface of the computer main body 1.
A CD panel 2 is provided.

An RS232C connector 3, an FDD connector 4, and a power switch 8 are provided on the lateral side surface 1A of the computer main body 1. A PC card slot 6 and other connectors 7 are provided on the vertical side surface 1B of the computer body 1. As described above, the mechanisms such as connectors that the user needs to handle are concentrated on the lateral side surface 1A and the longitudinal side surface 1B, and are not provided on the other side surfaces at all.

Two speakers 5a, 5b corresponding to stereo are provided at diagonal positions on the computer body 1 as shown in the figure. FIG. 2 shows an example of the system configuration of the pen-input type personal computer shown in FIG.

This system comprises a CPU 11, an input / output gate array (I / O GA) 12, a main memory 13, and a system management RAM (SM-RAM) 14.
Main memory 13 and system management RAM (SM-R
AM) 14 is connected to the local bus 100.

The system also includes a BIOS-RO.
M15, real time clock (RTC) 16, super integration circuit (SI) 26, liquid crystal controller (liquid crystal CNT) 27, first and second IC card controllers (IC-CNT) 28 and 29, keyboard controller (keyboard CNT) 30. Is provided,
These are ISA (International Standard Associa)
option) system bus 200.

The I / O gate array 12 is a dedicated logic for realizing the support function of the CPU 11 and the memory, and the main memory 13, the SM-RAM 14, the additional memory card 25 and the C connected to the local bus 100.
Starting the input / output control with the PU 11, the system bus 20
Input / output control is performed between the CPU 11 and various units connected to 0. Further, the I / O gate array 12 has units for realizing functions required for system control, that is, a DMA controller for direct memory access control and an interrupt controller (PIC; Program).
mable Interrupt Controller, timer (PI
T: Programmable Input Timer), Serial I
/ O controller (SIO; Serial Input / Output)
Controller) is built in.

CPU 11 and I / O gate array 12
Communication between them is performed via a dedicated interface line. The main memory 13 has, for example, a standard storage capacity of 4 Mbytes, and stores an operating system, an application program to be processed, user data created by the application program, and the like. The operating system includes an I / O system that supports pen input, and is capable of changing the screen display direction.
Windows For Pen or the like is used.

The additional memory card 25 is optionally connected to a dedicated 88-pin card slot provided in the computer body. This additional memory card 25 is a dedicated DRAM card, and has 2M bytes, 4M bytes, and 8M bytes.
There are types such as byte and 16 MB.

The BIOS-ROM 15 is a BIOS (Bas
ic I / O System) for storing
It is composed of a flash memory (flash EEPROM) so that the program can be rewritten.
The BIOS is configured to operate in real mode. The BIOS includes an IRT routine for testing and initializing memory and various hardware devices at power-on, various device drivers for controlling various hardware devices according to a request from the operating system, a suspend SMI routine, and It includes an SMI service program including a resume SMI routine and an SMI handler for determining an SMI service routine to be executed.

The real time clock (RTC) 16 is
It is a timepiece module having its own battery for operation, and has a CMOS static RAM (hereinafter referred to as a CMOS memory) to which power is constantly supplied from the battery. This CMOS memory is used to store setup information indicating the system configuration.

Super Integration (SI) 26
Is connected to a power supply controller (PSC) 31 and an RS232C connector, and controls communication with these by serial data, while a floppy disk connector (FDD connector), printer / floppy disk connector (PRT / FDD connector), hard disk Drive (HDD) 35 and tablet controller 26
, And communication control is performed between them by parallel data.

The power supply controller (PSC) 31 is a CP
This is for controlling the power supply to each unit in response to an instruction from U11, and communication with the CPU 11 is executed via a command register in the super integration (SI) 26. Power controller (PSC)
31 generates the backup power supply BK even when the system is in the power-off state, and uses it as the main memory 13, S
The data is supplied to the M-RAM 14 and the image memory (VRAM) 38.

The floppy disk connector is a connector used when the floppy disk drive (first FDD) 42 is optionally connected, and the printer / floppy disk connector is a connector used when the printer or the floppy disk device (second FDD) 43 is optionally connected. Is.

The tablet controller 36 detects a coordinate point input by the stylus pen 200 via the transparent tablet 37 and sends it to the I / O gate array 12 via the super integration 26 and the system bus 2. In this case, the detection of the coordinate point is performed using the electromagnetic induction method.

The liquid crystal controller 27 controls the display of the liquid crystal display panel 39, expands the display data sent from the CPU 11 via the system bus 2 into the image memory (VRAM) 38, and displays it on the liquid crystal display. Display on the panel. The liquid crystal display panel is, for example, a transmissive type composed of a dot matrix of 640 vertical dots × 480 horizontal dots, and a backlight 40 using, for example, a fluorescent display tube is arranged on the back side thereof.

The IC card controllers 28 and 29 are 6
8-pin PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory)
Card Alternativeal Associatuon) Card 44, 4
5 read / write control is performed. The keyboard controller 30 controls the key input of the keyboard 46 connected as an option.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which a stand 103 for leaning the personal computer main body 1 is attached to the personal computer main body 1 of FIG.

As shown in the drawing, a cross-shaped engaging groove 102 is provided on the back surface 1c of the personal computer main body 1. When the personal computer main body 1 is leaned horizontally, the engaging member 103 of the stand 103 is placed.
c is mounted in the lateral groove of the cross-shaped engagement groove 102 as shown. Further, when the personal computer main body 1 is leaned against the vertical direction, the engaging member 103c of the stand 103 is mounted in the vertical groove of the cross-shaped engaging groove 102.

As shown in the figure, the stand 103 includes a support arm 103a, a rod-shaped mounting member 103b attached to one end of the support arm 103a, and the support arm 1a.
Rod-shaped mounting member 103c attached to the other end of 03a
It consists of and.

FIG. 4 shows the personal computer main body 1.
The engagement groove 102 provided on the back surface 1c of the above is shown in an enlarged manner. The engagement groove 102 includes first and second grooves 102a and 102b provided so as to be orthogonal to each other. A stand 1 is provided in each of the grooves 102a and 102b.
Housing part 102 for housing the mounting member 103c of No. 03.
c is provided, and a guide portion 102d having a certain inclination is provided at the entrance of the accommodation portion 102c. The mounting member 103c of the stand 103 can be removably mounted in each of these grooves.

FIG. 5 shows the overall structure of the stand 103. A stopper 103d is provided at the center of the rod-shaped mounting member 103c. This stopper 103d
Supports the central portion of the engagement groove 102 provided on the back surface 1c of the personal computer main body 1 and fixes the inclination angle of the personal computer main body 1 leaning on the stand 103 at a constant angle.

As described above, in this embodiment, the connectors, slots, and various operation switches that need to be handled by the user are centrally arranged on one side face 1a in the vertical direction and one side face 1b in the horizontal direction of the computer main body 1. Further, the rear surface 1c of the computer main body 1 is provided with an engagement groove 102 for mounting the stand 103. Therefore, the computer main body 1 can be leaned against both the vertical and horizontal directions without the connectors, slots, and various operation switches being located on the bottom surface.

Further, the engagement groove 102 provided on the back surface 1c of the computer main body 1 is constituted by first and second grooves 102a and 102b provided at right angles to each other. Grooves 102a, 102
The engaging member 103c provided at one end of the stand 103 can be detachably attached to either of b.

Accordingly, the convex portion on the back surface 1c of the computer main body is eliminated, and the computer main body 1 can be placed on a desk or the like as it is. In addition, two grooves 102 that are orthogonal to each other
The engaging portion 103c of the stand 103 on one of a and 102b
Can be fixed in the vertical direction, and can be fixed in the horizontal direction by mounting the engaging portion of the stand in the other groove.

Further, since the speakers 5a and 5b are arranged at diagonal positions on the computer body 1, even if the personal computer is placed in the vertical direction or in the horizontal direction, the sound or the like does not shift to one side. And so on. In particular,
In a personal computer having a stereo-compatible audio system, there is an effect that the stereo effect is not impaired when placed vertically or horizontally.

Although the pen-input type personal computer has been described here, it may be a small computer in which the computer main body is constituted by a flat type housing and the flat panel display is provided on the surface of the computer main body. Therefore, the structure of this embodiment can be applied. Further, in this embodiment, the mechanism handled by the user is arranged separately for the one lateral surface 1a in the horizontal direction and the one lateral surface 1b in the vertical direction, but they may be concentrated on either one.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, the connector, the slot, and the various operation switches that need to be handled by the user are provided on one side of the computer main body, or one side of the vertical direction and one side of the horizontal direction. They are centrally arranged on the side surface, and an engaging portion for mounting the stand is provided on the rear surface of the computer body. Therefore, the computer main body can be leaned against both the vertical and horizontal directions without the connectors, slots, and various operation switches being located on the bottom surface.

The engaging portion on the back of the computer body is
It is constituted by first and second grooves provided at right angles to each other, and an engaging member provided at one end of the stand can be detachably attached to each of the first and second grooves. . For this reason, there is no convex portion on the back surface of the computer body, and the computer body can be placed on a desk or the like as it is. Also, if the engaging portion of the stand is mounted in one of the two grooves that are orthogonal to each other, it can be fixed in the vertical direction, and if the engaging portion of the stand is mounted in the other groove, it can be fixed in the lateral direction.

Further, since the two speakers are arranged in the diagonal direction, there is an effect that the sound or the like is not shifted to one side even if the personal computer is placed vertically or horizontally. Particularly, in a personal computer having a stereo-compatible audio system, the stereo effect is not impaired even when placed vertically or horizontally.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external structure of a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a personal computer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state in which the personal computer of the embodiment is leaned against a stand and placed.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a stand mounting groove provided on the back surface of the personal computer in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a structure of a stand mounted in a stand mounting groove of the personal computer of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Computer main body, 1a ... 1 lateral side, 1b ...
One side face in the vertical direction, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 ... Connectors, 5
a, 5b ... speaker, 102 ... mounting groove, 102a ... vertical groove, 102b ... lateral groove, 103 ... stand, 103
a ... Support arm, 103b ... Mounting member, 103c ... Mounting member 103c, 103d ... Stopper.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A pen input type personal computer having a flat panel display device integrally provided with the computer main body and a coordinate input device integrally provided with the flat panel display device, wherein one side surface of the computer main body or Connectors and slots for external interfaces, which are centrally arranged on one side in the vertical direction and one side in the horizontal direction, and various operation switches, and a stand which is provided on the back of the computer main body and leans the computer main body. A personal computer, characterized in that the personal computer is provided with an engaging portion for mounting the computer, and the computer main body can be leaned vertically or horizontally without the connector, the slot, and various operation switches being located on the bottom surface. Computer. 2. The engaging portion has first and second grooves provided orthogonally to the back surface of the computer main body, and one end of the stand is provided in one of the first and second grooves. 2. The personal computer according to claim 1, wherein the engaging member provided on the can be detachably mounted. 3. A personal computer having a flat display device integrally provided with a computer main body, and having a structure capable of standing upright in a vertical or horizontal direction, wherein one side of the computer main body or the vertical direction is provided. A personal computer having a connector and a slot for an external interface and various operation switches, which are centrally arranged on one side surface and one lateral side surface. 4. A personal computer having a flat panel display device integrally provided with a computer main body, and having a structure capable of standing upright in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction, wherein the personal computer is provided at a diagonal position on the computer main body. A personal computer having first and second speakers. 5. The personal computer according to claim 4, wherein the personal computer has a stereo audio function, and the first and second speakers correspond to a left channel and a right channel, respectively.