Old Hardware Emulated : PockEmul - Sharp PC1500

The Emulation of Handheld Computers From The 80's.

As mentioned in the previous article, Sharp, the Japanese consumer electronics giant were at the forefront of portable computing. They found great success with the PC-1200 series of handheld computers. Sharp laid the framework for others to follow. More models would follow, like the PC1500 Handheld Computer. 

The Sharp PC-1500 was introduced in 1981 as a follow-up to the PC-1200 series. The PC-1500 incorporated a LH5801 processor, which was a portable CMOS-equivalent CPU that was similar to the Zilog Z80.The Z80 was used in many of the popular microcomputers of there day, like the Tandy TRS-80, and the various microcomputer that ran the CP/M operating system. The LH5801 operated at 1.3MHz. There was a version of the PC-1500 that was specifically made for Radio Shack and sold as the Tandy PC-2.

The pocket computer shipped anywhere between 2-18KB of RAM, depending on model, and a memory card could be inserted into the expansion slot as well. The slot used in the PC-1500 had 60-pins. There was a single line LCD display that could show 1-line with 26 characters which provided a screen resolution of 156 by 7 pixels.

Power was provided by four AA batteries, with a connector for a external power supply as well.

There were many accessories and peripheral devices that were available for the PC-1500. They included memory modules, software, and a serial modem that could communicate with the outside world via the RS-232 port. There was a printer module available as well.

Like the Sharp PC-1200 Pocket Computer, the PC-1500 had a built-in BASIC interpreter as well. This allowed developers to write (by mobile standards of the early 80's) sophisticated scientific and mathematical applications that wouldn't have been possible on four-function or scientific calculators. Those working in the field would have been able to perform advance calculations on the fly without needing to wait to get back to the lab and use that micro-computer. The PC-1500 could also be programmed in assembly language as well. This could result in programs that took up less memory than there BASIC counterparts. These programs could also execute more quickly as they were written in machine language.

Pockemul emulates the Sharp PC-1500 as well, as long with some of the peripheral devices as well, like the printer/cassette interface attachment.

These handheld computers would provide the stepping stones for more advance technologies, like PDA's and later smartphones and tablets.
The Sharp PC-1500 running BASIC
Unsuccessful Attempts To Load Software
Most of the time, I don't bother with software testing as programs were hard to come by for the vast majority of these handheld computers. With the PC-1500 though, software archives (http://www.pc1500.com/) do exist. I attempted to load programs onto the PC-1500 via the cassette interface through the Sharp CE-150 Printer Module, which also allows the connection of the tape deck. Both the CE-152 and CE-127r cassette tape decks emulated by Pockemul were used to load software onto the PC-1500. Using the tape desk, it's possible to load WAV files as the cassette data that would then be loaded onto the handheld system. However, I kept getting the "Error 22" message after using the CLOAD"PROGRAM" command. According to a online copy of the Tandy PC-2/Sharp PC-1500 manual, this indicates a memory error. I kept getting the same message even after loading the CE-151 and CE-155 memory modules as well.

With old platforms like this though, this blogger is sure that I'm doing something wrong though. One can come to the conclusion that this was a common issue back on real hardware back in the day though. 
Unsuccessful attempt to load software onto the emulator.

For those who are use to modern smartphones, one would be perceived that these devices couldn't do much. However, for those that used these handheld computers back in the early 80's, these devices would have been nothing short of amazing. Because they could be programmed in BASIC, they could run real applications that just wouldn't have been possible on scientific calculators. Advanced mathematical and scientific programs and calculations could be performed as these devices. The fact that one could carry around a computer in there pocket would have been a plus in many fields, as it allowed those who used these pocket computers to carry there work with them in the field. This is still the hallmark of amazing technology.

Articles Of Interest:
Sharp PC-1500: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_PC-1500

The Sharp PC-1500 computer : http://pocket.free.fr/html/sharp/pc-1500_e.htm

PC-1500 / PC-1500A : http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=965

Sharp PC-1500 (TRS-80 PC-2) resource page : http://www.pc1500.com/

Sharp PC-1500 (TRS-80 PC-2) resource page (working downloads): https://web.archive.org/web/20040606082142/http://www.pc1500.com/

Sharp PC-1500A Instruction Manual : http://www.pc-1500.info/Data/Manuals/US_PC-1500A_Instruction_manual.pdf

Tandy Pocket Computer PC-2 Instruction Manual: http://www.pc-1500.info/Data/Manuals/US_PC-2_Owner_s_manual.pdf

TRS-80 Pocket Computer Cassette/Printer Interface Manual : https://computerarchive.org/files/computer/manufacturers/computers/Tandy/documentation/PC-2%20Printe... 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WeatherStar 4000 Simulator For Windows (Part 1)

Image
  It's time to get the weather forecast, 90's style. A couple of months ago, I reviewed the WeatherStar 4000+ simulator for web-browsers. This simulator, created by Mike Battaglia, is a open-source, on-line simulator of the WeatherStar 4000 hardware used by The Weather Channel during the 1990's. This simulator ran without issue on both Firefox and Chrome on Windows 7 (Home PC) and Firefox on Windows 10 (Dell Optiplex).  It also runs great under Chrome on my Android devices as well. I use the online simulator when I'm on the road.  Now, I'm going to look into the WeatherStar 4000 simulator for Windows offered by Taiganet. This simulator offers a lot of features and can be customized in various ways. When I'm home, I use this program most of the time. Now, there is one notable hardware requirement. First, to run the Windows (and Mac OSX/Linux ports as well) simulator, you will need a computer that supports OpenGL 3.3. My home computer ha...
Read more

Classic Systems Emulated: Windows 95 (Part 1)

Image
  Start Me Up! Windows 95 (Chicago Beta Build 189 released September 1994) running under PCEM What would eventually become Windows 95 was affected by several turn of events that occurred during its development. Windows 95, code-named Chicago, had been several years in the making. Microsoft had already been planning the next version of Windows right after they got 3.1 out the door on March 1992. What would determine the course of the new OS? DOS Compatibility for one as it was still deemed essential at that point. One has to remember that even though Windows 3.0 had been the most successful version of Windows to date, the GUI in general was still a novelty at that point. Most used Windows 3.0 for simple task like typing list, letters, or playing solitaire. Most PC users who needed to work on major projects were still running DOS applications like WordPerfect or Lotus 123. However, the transition to GUI's would begin in earnest.  The 486 processor ...
Read more

Classic Systems Emulated: Windows 3.1 OEMS

Image
  The OEM's Want In On The Action The PC Market of the early 90's was a very competitive one. As such, having a easy-to-use environment was a must for these companies pushing there hardware. Hardware has caught up to software, and as such, it was now time to push the command prompt out of the way for the GUI. Several of these companies spotted opportunities to make  deals with Microsoft to pre-install Windows on there computers. This phenomenon didn't start with 3.1 though. Even in the late 80's, both Compaq and IBM often preinstalled Windows 386 for corporate customers that brought there 386 systems. Windows 3.0 was bundled with a lot of systems too. It was preinstalled on the IBM PS/1 budget PC's and various Tandy models. It came with the Amstrad MegaPC and various other PC's offered by ZDS (Zenith Data Systems) as well.  The number of OEM partners grew with the Windows 3.1 release. Some of them were familiar faces, like Compa...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated :Psion Model 3a Emulated On DOSBox Windows

Image
  Psion 3a and 3c Psion Series 3c Handheld Computer (Wikipedia) Psion 3a As mentioned in the previous articles, the emulators for the Psion 3 exist only on DOSBox. I decided to take the challenge of setting up a emulated configuration. What must one do. There is already a very good guide on the internet titled "PocketBook II emulation..." which is linked below in the article. Highly recommended. Setting up a emulated Psion 3 takes a little bit of effort, but it's possible and is a good exploration of setting up a DOSBox configuration. I'm making the safe assumption that the fast majority of those reading this are using Windows systems, but DOSBox has been ported to Mac OS X and Linux as well, so this guide might work on those systems.  The first thing I did was created a folder called dosbox_psion3 (Folder naming is based on personal preference). Make the following new folders within dosbox_psion3; psion3, a, b, and m. With the f...
Read more

Classic Systems Emulated: OS/2 Version 2.0 On PCEM

Image
  The Arrival Of 32-Bit Power For The Masses The past couple of these PC articles have been very Windows-centric. This isn't a surprise as Windows 3.0 was a major release that made a very massive impact on the marketplace. Windows 3.1 sold 3 million copies in 6 weeks. 1992 was a very different time. Back then, it was possible to request a PC without an operating system. If one did want an OS, they could choose between OS/2, DOS, or the DOS+Windows combination. I've had not forgotten OS/2 in these articles. The 286 versions of OS/2 had already been covered in my articles about the IBM PS/2 family of computers. The messy IBM-Microsoft "divorce" had been covered in detail as well. To quickly recap: Microsoft didn't like the direction that IBM wanted to take OS/2. Microsoft envisioned OS/2 as being the "next-generation" OS, while IBM simply saw the OS as a tool to sell more hardware. OS/2 did terrible in the marketplace. The ...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated - Windows Mobile 5.0

Image
Working title for this post was "But Mama, That's Where The Fun Is!". Appropriate as by the middle 2000's, Windows Mobile was where all the action was at. The sky was only getting brighter for Microsoft as Palm was slowly imploding on itself. With Microsoft's mobile offerings becoming more widespread by the day, the Redmond Giant followed up with the newest version of WM, version 5.0, on May 2005. On the surface, it appears that little changed. However, the biggest change were "under the hood" with the incorporation of the .NET Compact Framework, which is basically the mobile version of .NET. Also, WM 5.0 introduced newer power-saving capabilities which often improved the battery life of devices by as much as 50%. WM backed up everything to flash memory. WinMobile would use a combination of RAM and flash memory to preserve battery life. This wasn't noticeable by the user.  As such, their is no data loss if power is lost.  Windows Media Player was upd...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated : Pocket PC 2000/2002

Image
  Windows CE On The PDA Pocket PC 2002 starting up. For the remainder of the 90's, Microsoft had a tough time gaining a foothold in the handheld market. Windows CE 2.0 was well received on the palmtop PC's. However, that market-share was small compared to there PDA counterpart that were rocking to the tune of PalmOS. The first incarnation of WinCE on the PDA seemed sparse compared to Palm. At this point, the PDA port of Windows CE was re-branded as Windows Mobile. Around this point, Microsoft's fortunes began to change. For the first time, the Palm platform had that "Oh Crap!" moment when Compaq released the iPAQ in April 2000. The PDA came with the new Windows Pocket PC 2000 operating system. This version of Windows CE was specifically geared towards PDA's in particular. The iPAQ line of PDA's became must own devices for those that wanted the latest and greatest. As how Compaq made IBM look silly in the 80's and 90's...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated :Einstein emulating the Apple Newton (Part 3)

Image
  NewtonOS Android in Action! Einstein emulating the Newton Messagepad on a Amazon Fire HD7 tablet. Einstein Seriously, did you not expect me to run a OS designed for a classic handheld device on a modern tablet!? It's interesting running Einstein on a PC, but I want to try this platform out on a handheld that was similar in form-factor to the original device. Einstein had been ported to Android as well. It's not as recent as the current builds available for iOS, MacOS, and Ubuntu Linux, but it works well enough. Running the emulator means doing a few things before hand, like loading the Android package, ROM, and other needed files. The apk file that I downloaded was "einstein.05.01.2013.apk", which can be found at a archived version of the code.Google.com page (link posted below). You will also need a ROM file named "717006" that needs to be placed in the "/sdcard/Downloads/Einstein/" directory of your Androi...
Read more

Classic Games Emulated: Revisiting NFS High Stakes Modding

Image
  Modding On The Mind! As anyone who's read my NFS:HS article or watching my uploads on YouTube, one can tell that they're two things that I'm a fan of: NFS:HS and Virtualization. I like contained environments that allow me to run beloved games from the past on far more powerful configurations. It only seemed natural for me to embark on the journey of getting NFS:HS running under VMware Player. I had a original copy of the game on CD-ROM which was installed on my guest setup. The guest configuration had two cores allocated to it, 2GB's of RAM, and 3D acceleration via my Nvidia GTX 950. The guest OS running was Windows 7 32-bit. After installing HS, I copied the patch, and started to burn rubber. After that, I duplicated the game folder so I could have two installations: one stock and another one for mod. Within the NFS:HS folder, their are various directories. The "DATA/CARS" folder has both the racing and traffic cars. The first t...
Read more

OS/2 Warp 4

Image
(Any blogpost where I don't have to cover politics is a win in my books!) OS/2 Warp 4 was a very noble endeavor. It was IBM's statement to the world to demonstrate there commitment to the OS/2 operating system. However, when it arrived in 1996, OS/2 Warp 4 was dead on arrival. A lot had happened between the launch of Warp 3 and Warp 4, with the biggest of them being the arrival of Windows 95. Microsoft, making the most of their OEM connections, started to lock OS/2 out of the OEM markets prior to the launch of Windows 95. With threats of either not receiving the latest Windows or paying much higher license fees, many OEM's relented to Microsoft's pressure. Warp 3 struggled against Windows 3.1 along with the soon-to-be-tidal wave that would be Windows 95. Not only that, Microsoft had a vendetta against Big Blue for previous acts.  Lotus 123 For OS/2 Warp 4 Faced with accusations that Microsoft incorporated OS/2 source code into Windows 3.x which would have violated the j...
Read more