The Cybiko

by 2600 Article Submissions, Jr.

Gather round while I tell a story about an ingenious device born in a time before the Imperial Decree that the whole world must carry an always-on, trackable computer in their pockets, ostensibly since said computer also makes phone calls.  Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears, I come to exhume the Cybiko handheld.

Let's start by taking a look at the hardware itself.  The first image that enters your head when you see a Cybiko is that of a pocket calculator designed by Salvador Dalí, endowed with a transparent case rendered in retina-searing colors.  That image might make you turn away there and then, but that would be your loss.  This freakish artifact is really a treasure trove of useful functionality for the hacker.

The creators of the device might have realized that the vomit-inducing aesthetic of the first-generation units wasn't for everybody: its successor, the Cybiko Xtreme, looks more like an early cell phone that was run over by a smallish car.  Chacun à son goût.  (Everyone has their taste)

But don't be deceived by the odd looks.  When you take a peek under the hood of one of these doohickeys, you will find a rather impressive setup for a handheld of the era:

  • A Hitachi H8S 32-bit processor running at 11 MHz
  • An Atmel 8-bit coprocessor running at 4 MHz
  • 256 kB RAM
  • 512 MB flash EPROM (expandable to 1 MB)
  • A RS-232 port
  • A parallel bus expansion slot
  • A two-way radio for the 900 MHz sub-GHz band
  • A plug-in MP3 player
  • A gray-scale LCD display 160 x 100
  • A full QWERTY keyboard with pencil eraser-style buttons

Before you turn up your nose, please consider that this device was born in the year 2000, a time when desktop PCs had barely graduated from 16-bit to 32-bit architectures, and the majority of consumer systems ran Windows 95 or its ugly sister, Windows ME.

The Cybiko Xtreme came out a year later with a faster clock speed of 18 MHz, a mouthwatering 1.5 MB of RAM, and an improved OS.  Instead of the good old RS-232 cable, it had one of those newfangled USB ports that all the cool kids wanted.

If the hardware was impressive for the day, the functionality was even more so, if a bit schizophrenic.  It was almost as if the creators couldn't decide whether they wanted to build a handheld game console, a calculator, a walkie-talkie, a music player, a PDA, a Tamagotchi, or something else entirely, and finally gave up and put all of that functionality in a single gadget.

Here's a condensed list of what it can do:

  • Games  (You could download hundreds of them for free)
  • Text Messages
  • Two-Way Radio Communications
  • Email  (Using a PC's Internet connection)
  • Text Editor
  • Calendar
  • Multilingual Dictionaries
  • Scientific Calculator
  • And much more through software downloads...

If you're with me this far, you're probably hopelessly sold on the idea of owning a Cybiko and desperately want one.  You can find usable units with chargers and cables on eBay and Craigslist for a couple of tenners.  Be prepared to pay about $100 for a new-in-box unit if you can find one.  When you get yours, make sure you swap out the leaky dot-com-bust era batteries for something a little newer.  Then download a few games and familiarize yourself with the device.  Once you're done with that, we can move on to more serious things, like how the Cybiko fits into the hacker's arsenal.

The first thing I'd like to point to is the RS-232 functionality.  I'm sure many readers of this publication can think of interesting things to do with a handheld RS-232 terminal.  The fact that the terminal in question looks like a cheap, old children's toy adds to the stealthiness.  The end of the serial cable that connects to the Cybiko has a proprietary connector, and replacement cables are hard to find, but there are instructions online on how to work around this.  The "business end" of the serial cable is a common-as-dirt DE-9 connector.

Next, let's consider the RF subsystem.  The Cybiko can connect to other Cybiko units nearby, kind of like Bluetooth, except it isn't Bluetooth and therefore not easily detected by modern gadgets.  The U.S. version of the Cybiko divides the spectrum between 903 MHz and 928 MHz into 30 channels, each capable of supporting 100 devices, making a mesh network of 3,000 devices possible.  (Incidentally, this is the same spectrum used by various LoRa frequency-hopping devices.)
(Editor's Note: It's an amateur radio band also, allowing for higher power and external antennas.)

The range of the RF subsystem is a mere 300 feet.  At first glance, this might seem like a serious limitation, but in many situations it's a boon.  Imagine a scenario where you really don't want your communications to be tracked.  Cell phones and CB are out of the question, of course, and Bluetooth is far too promiscuous.  But what are the odds that somebody with a sub-GHz scanner is within 300 feet of yourself and those you wish to communicate with?

In situations where the distance-limitation becomes an issue, multiple Cybiko units can easily form a daisy-chained mesh network, as long as adjacent nodes are within range of each other.  This can be used not just for human to human communications; other things, such as RS-232 communications and other binary protocols, can be relayed across the links, opening up many possibilities for remote access.

Interestingly, some Cybiko apps could be set up to jump from one device to another.  An example of this was a Tamagotchi-like digital critter that could "escape" to another Cybiko if its owner "neglected" it.  If harnessed, this functionality could, for example, be used by people living under oppressive regimes to transfer artifacts by close encounter without knowing the other's identity, plausible deniability at its finest.  Other uses might come to mind.

The plug-in MP3 player accepts standard MMC or SC cards that can be used for data storage and transfer.  There is a 64 MB size limit, probably imposed by the OS.

If the application downloads don't offer what you need, do not despair.  There are several SDKs for the Cybiko with which you can develop your own tools and applications.  Supported programming languages include a BASIC dialect, C, and C++.  Alternative operating systems, boot loaders, and flash images are also available online.

Finally, the expansion slot has the same footprint as a PCMCIA card.  Unfortunately, it is not pin-compatible with PCMCIA, but the signal layout is well-documented online.  In theory, you could rip the guts out of an old PCMCIA card, solder on some wires, and connect it to just about any piece of hardware imaginable.  In practice, you probably want to use a PCMCIA breakout card unless you're a beast at soldering.

Here are some online resources to get you started on your Cybiko journey.

Some of the resources contain links leading further down the rabbit hole:
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