Old Hardware Emulating - EPOC Symbian SDK Part 1

 

New Products From Psion And The Rise of SymbianOS

Psion never could get that lucky break. On one hand, they were one of the most prominent handheld computer companies in the early and middle 90's. However, the portable computer market was small during those times, and Psion quickly got left behind when Palm Computing exploded in size. Despite Psion being around for a significantly longer time compared to Palm Computing, they got eclipsed by them in no time. Despite this, Psion kept soldiering on. Since they have been at the game longer than Palm, they still had a tricks up there sleeve.

Some of the Psion devices have already been covered in previous articles, like the Psion 3 series of devices. These handhelds incorporated the 16-bit NEC V20 processor and ran the SIBO Operating System. By the late 90's, ARM was all the rage. These 32-bit processors allowed for high-performance computing while being much more energy efficient compared to desktop processors. These CPU's would be much more forgiving to batteries than most. Psion would embrace the StrongARM processors for there new Series 5 family of handhelds.

A new device with a new processor would of course need a new operating system. Whereas EPOC16/SIBO was written in assembly language, the EPOC32 OS would be written in C++. With more powerful processors, programs coded in higher-level languages could run at descent performance now. Typically, programs coded in higher languages needed significantly more processing power due to them being not as well optimized compared to machine language code. However, the new processors made up for the shortcomings of coding in higher-level languages. EPOC was pronounced as Epoch, which is a word used to denote a new era. For Psion, EPOC32 was a new start, and the Psion Series 5 would mark that new start. The new OS was also referred to as Symbian OS. To gain support for the new OS, Psion Software became Symbian Ltd. which was a joint venture became Ericsson, Motorola, Psion, and Nokia. This is where the Symbian name came from. These companies would later use SymbianOS into there products as well, with Nokia becoming the most recognized.

Some aspects of the previous operating carried over. Like SIBO, EPOC was a single user, preventive multitasking OS. However, unless SIBO, which lack memory protection, this would become a new feature of EPOC32. As such, stability was greatly improved. While SIBO incorporated the WIMP GUI aspects within there environment, they were expanded and improved on in the new OS. In later models, color support was incorporated. Web browsers were incorporated in later releases of this OS as well.  

The original Series 5 model came shipped with either a 4 or 8MB configuration. The unit were powered by a 32-bit ARM710 based processor running at 18MHz. The Series 5 shipped with a 16 gray-scale LCD display with the screen resolution of 640 by 240. The Psion 5 could accommodate Compact Flash memory and transfer files via infra-red or RS-232. The Series 5 was powered by 2 AA batteries that could provide between 10-20 hours of use. It has to be noted though that the Psion Series 5 wasn't a PDA though. Like the Series 3, the Series 5 was a palmtop computer which was also comparable to many of the Windows CE handhelds at the time. The palmtop was a form factor where the screen and keyboard could be closed together. This form factor was also referred to as a clam-shell due to how the device folded. Due to the attention that Psion gave to detail, the Series 5 devices were very well-made and many owners used there there devices well after other platforms took over.

The word processor for SymbianOS. The application conformed to a desktop application by incorporating aspects of a WIMP interface.

The default applications that shipped with EPOC, and incorporated into the SDK, were very powerful. The EPOC operating system conformed to the WIMP interface. WIMP is a acronym for windows, icons, menu, and pointer. They had menus and a GUI interface. The word-processor was very feature complete and supported a lot of text-formatting options. It was actually a word-processor and not just a text editor. The spreadsheet applications was very powerful as well, and allowed for powerful graphing capabilities. Anyone who was familiar with Microsoft Word and Excel could quickly find there away around these applications. Like most palmtop computers and PDA's, the Psion Series 5 devices made for a powerful appointment keeper. Important contacts were next to you when you needed them.

The spreadsheet application.

The Web

For handhelds, the WWW was becoming the next big thing. Palm and Handspring devices demonstrated that web capabilities on a handheld computer was possible. Psion followed in there footsteps, but on there own terms. On one hand, with YouTube, Facebook, and other social media apps, the Internet is something that is generally taken for granted. The web-browser for the Series 5 doesn't compare with modern browsers like Chrome and Firefox. There was once a time where web surfing on a handheld was a distant pipe-dream until Psion showed how complete web-pages could render on such devices. The internet on a portable wasn't a dream no more. The web browser for the Series 5 was very powerful for its time. The very fact that there was full HTML rendering without the need of going through a proxy server that reformatted pages was very landmark. The best compatibility was still felt from the web sites that offered mobile versions of there web-pages back in the day, like the NYTimes and the BBC. The browser did crash a lot on the SDK though. Even within a few years, Psion's default  browser would have fallen behind the times as Psion recommended there users to upgrade to Opera for the latest features.

Well, I think that I'm going to wrap it up here. In the next article, I will get into the SDK emulator in much more detail and what its capable of. Stay tuned!

Articles of Interest
Wikipedia : Psion (comapny) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_(company)
Wikipedia : EPOC (operating system) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPOC_(operating_system)
Wikipedia : Psion Series 5 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5
Wikipedia : Psion Revo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Revo
Wikipedia : Psion Series 7 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_7
Wikipedia : Psion netBook - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_7
Wikipedia : Symbian - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian
The Gatgeteer : PSION Revo Review - https://the-gadgeteer.com/1999/11/08/psion_revo_review/
ZDNet.co.uk : Psion NetBook Pro: a first look (Archived) -  https://web.archive.org/web/20070312002011/http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/notebooks/0,1000000333,39116901,00.htm 
CNET : Psion netBook - handheld - EPOC - 7.7" Specs - https://www.cnet.com/products/psion-netbook-handheld-epoc-7-7/
Amazon : Psion Series 5 Handheld Computer - https://www.amazon.com/Psion-Series-5-Handheld-Computer/dp/B00000JFEX
The Verge : https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/2/9080499/psion-series-5-vintage-pda-review
PC Mag : Sept 9th 1997 : Compact Power (Page 58) : https://books.google.com/books?id=eJVnzcZC5I0C&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=psion+series+5+price&source=bl&ots=MhFmWhzdRx&sig=86G2JET3DRaP_3HsJSMOuHV4Uac&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBDgKahUKEwjt1PeHzoXHAhXLVD4KHUkwCJM#v=onepage&q=psion%20series%205%20price&f=false

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