Old Hardware Emulated :Psion Model 3 Series of Handhelds via DOSBox Part 2

May 26, 2021

Psion 3a and 3c

Psion Series 3c Handheld (Wikipedia)

Psion 3a

Psion continued to make revisions to there PDA's through the 90's. These revisions usually included more capabilities, like a higher resolution screen and ROM updates that included more software. The next computer in the series is the Series 3a, which was introduced in 1993. The computer included various upgrades. The most noticeable upgrade was a bigger LCD display that was capable of a resolution of 480 by 160. The 3a also included a microphone for voice recording that could play-back audio samples at 8 or 13-bitaudio quality . The 3a also shipped with a larger ROM that could accommodate more applications that were also more capable. The units shipped with either 256KB or 512KB of RAM, depending on model.

Like the previous model, there was a text-editor, time/alarm, and the OPL programming language. However, there were plenty of new applications for the device. They included a spreadsheet, calculator, a Rolodex contacts application, and agenda, which is a schedule program. There was also another interesting program, World, which was this time zone/distance calculator. Something good to have for those who travel long distance on a regular basis. It's a feature that's taken for granted now, but something that was groundbreaking for the time.

Boot screen for the Psion 3a. The emulator is running on DOSBox.

The application menu for the Psion 3a.

The World Application.

The Spreadsheet Application

Psion 3c

The next model in the series, the 3c, was introduced in 1996. As noted in the Wikipedia article, the 3c had a slightly different appearance. Also, there was now a infrared port. There was more applications included in this model which included a card game, Patience, along with a spell-checker and thesaurus.

The word processor running on the emulator.

Emulation

These models are emulated using the SIBO emulators as well. Setting this up requires knowledge of both MS-DOS and setting up a DOSBox configuration file. While it's not the easiest thing in the world, it's not the hardest either. Those who played around with DOSBox will know what to do. There are a few sites online that will guide you in setting up the SIBO Emulator under DOSBox. One thing that I failed to mention in the first article is that the DOSBox setup will need a M: drive. This is where the SIBO applications will store there data. This can easily be created with the mount command. I will also create my own (messy) guide in the next article.

Final Thoughts

These devices gave birth to the concept of the PDA. Despite this though, by the middle 90's, the Palm Pilots started to take portable computing by storm, leaving these handhelds behind. Despite that though, it's important to note that as the hardware became more powerful, the software became more capable as well. Handheld computers started to incorporate more user-friendly interfaces following a similar look-and-feel. The WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointer) interlace was taking hold on these devices. This was the start of when handheld computers became powerful enough to run sophisticated operating systems and capable of running powerful user interfaces that could mimic what the desktops could do.

With the voice recorder, these handheld computers were even starting to get audio playback capabilities. MP3 playlist and streaming video was still a long way off, but this is the start of multimedia capabilities. These devices were moving away from niche occupations into practical and everyday use.

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