EN
This is the first part of a paper that classifies 2-compact groups. In this first part we formulate a general classification scheme for 2-compact groups in terms of their maximal torus normalizer pairs. We apply this general classification procedure to the simple 2-compact groups of the A-family and show that any simple 2-compact group that is locally isomorphic to PGL(n+1,ℂ) is uniquely N-determined. Thus there are no other 2-compact groups in the A-family than the ones we already know. We also compute the group of automorphisms of any member of the A-family and show that it consists of unstable Adams operations only.