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Psion MC
The Psion MC (Mobile Computer) series is a line of laptop computers made by Psion PLC and launched in 1989. History Developed by Psion towards the end of the 1980s, informed by market research about the mobile computing needs of potential customers in the 1990s, the MC 400 was introduced in late 1989: an approximately A4-sized laptop or notebook computer featuring a full-size keyboard, monochrome liquid-crystal display and a multitasking, multi-window graphical user interface, providing a number of built-in applications in ROM. Instead of a mouse, the computer provided a touchpad to interact with the user interface. This was uncommon in 1989: the Gavilan SC was the only widely known model with a touchpad, and they were not used again until years later. Alongside the MC 400, the lower-specification MC 200 and MS-DOS-compatible MC 600 were announced in late 1989, with the latter scheduled for a March or April 1990 launch. The MC 200 had a "half-size screen" with a resolutio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psion (company)
Psion PLC was a designer and manufacturer of mobile handheld computers for commercial and industrial uses. The company was headquartered in London, England, with major operations in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and other company offices in Europe, the United States, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. It was a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange () and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Psion's operational business was formed in September 2000 from a merger of Psion and Canadian-based Teklogix Inc., and was a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection. The Group's products and services included rugged mobile hardware, secure software and wireless networks, professional services, and support programs. Psion worked with its clients in the area of burgeoning technologies, including imaging, voice recognition, and radio-frequency identification (RFID). They had operations worldwide in 14 countries, and customers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laptop
A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer screen, screen on the inside of the upper lid and an alphanumeric keyboard and pointing device on the inside of the lower lid. Most of the computer's internal hardware is in the lower part, under the keyboard, although many modern laptops have a built-in webcam at the top of the screen, and some even feature a touchscreen display. In most cases, unlike tablet computers which run on mobile operating systems, laptops tend to run on desktop operating systems, which were originally developed for desktop computers. Laptops are used in a variety of settings, such as at work (especially on business trips), in education, for PC game, playing games, Content creation, content creating, web browser, web browsing, for personal multimedia, and for general P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psion Series 3
The Psion Series 3 range of personal digital assistants were made by Psion PLC. The four main variants are the ''Psion Series 3'' (1991), the ''Psion Series 3a'' (1993), the ''Psion Series 3c'' (1996), and the ''Psion Series 3mx'' (1998), all sized . Further, a Psion Series 3a variant with factory installed software for the Russian language was called a ''Psion Series 3aR'', and Acorn Computers sold renamed versions of the Psion Series 3 and 3a marketed as the ''Acorn Pocket Book'' and ''Acorn Pocket Book II''. The Psion Series 3 range was regarded in 2009 by writer Charles Stross as an unsurpassed PDA because of its long battery life (20 to 35 hours), its stable and versatile software, and its durable hardware. Others describe over twenty years of daily use with models such as the Psion 3mx. About 1.5 million Psion 3s were made. The prices were 128 kB at and 256 kB at . The Psion Series 3 models were a major advance on the Psion Organiser. They had an original way of managi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flash Memory
Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR gate, NOR and NAND gate, NAND logic gates. Both use the same cell design, consisting of floating-gate MOSFETs. They differ at the circuit level, depending on whether the state of the bit line or word lines is pulled high or low; in NAND flash, the relationship between the bit line and the word lines resembles a NAND gate; in NOR flash, it resembles a NOR gate. Flash memory, a type of floating-gate memory, was invented by Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in 1980 and is based on EEPROM technology. Toshiba began marketing flash memory in 1987. EPROMs had to be erased completely before they could be rewritten. NAND flash memory, however, may be erased, written, and read in blocks (or pages), which generally are much smaller than the entire devi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EPROM
An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) integrated circuit, chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored data after a power supply has been turned off and back on is called non-volatile. It is an array of floating-gate transistors individually programmed by an electronic device that supplies higher voltages than those normally used in digital circuits. Once programmed, an EPROM can be erased by exposing it to strong ultraviolet (UV) light source (such as from a mercury-vapor lamp). EPROMs are easily recognizable by the transparent fused quartz (or on later models' resin) window on the top of the package, through which the silicon chip is visible, and which permits exposure to ultraviolet light during erasing. It was invented by Dov Frohman in 1971. Operation Development of the EPROM memory cell (computing), memory cell started with investi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Color Graphics Adapter
The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the ''Color/Graphics Adapter'' or ''IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter'', introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a De facto standard, de facto computer display standard. Hardware design The original IBM CGA graphics card was built around the Motorola 6845 display controller, came with 16 kilobytes of video memory built in, and featured several graphics and text modes. The highest display resolution of any mode was 640 × 200, and the highest color depth supported was 4-bit (16 colors). The CGA card could be connected either to a direct-drive CRT monitor using a 4-bit digital (Transistor-transistor logic, TTL) RGB(I), RGBI interface, such as the IBM 5153 color display, or to an NTSC-compatible television or composite video computer monitor, monitor via an RCA connector. The RCA connector provided only baseband video, so to connect the CGA card to a television set w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAM Drive
A RAM drive (also called a RAM disk) is a block of random-access memory (primary storage or volatile memory) that a computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive (secondary storage). RAM drives provide high-performance temporary storage for demanding tasks and protect non-volatile storage devices from wearing down, since RAM is not prone to wear from writing, unlike non-volatile flash memory. It is sometimes referred to as a virtual RAM drive or software RAM drive to distinguish it from a hardware RAM drive that uses separate hardware containing RAM, which is a type of battery-backed solid-state drive. Historically primary storage based mass storage devices were conceived to bridge the performance gap between internal memory and secondary storage devices. In the advent of solid-state devices this advantage lost most of its appeal. However, solid-state devices do suffer from wear from frequent writing. Primary memory writes do not so or in far lesser effect. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavilan SC
The Gavilan SC is an early laptop, laptop computer first released by the Gavilan Computer Corporation in April 1984. The computer ran on an Intel 8088 microprocessor running at 5 MHz and sported a touchpad for a pointing device, one of the first computers to do so. The laptop was developed by Manuel Fernandez (businessman), Manuel "Manny" Fernandez, founder of the Gavilan Computer Corporation, and unveiled in May 1983. History The brainchild of Manuel Fernandez (businessman), Manuel "Manny" Fernandez, the Gavilan was unveiled at COMDEX#List_of_all_COMDEX_events, COMDEX/Spring '83 at the Georgia World Congress Center in late April 1983. It was unveiled a year after the Grid Compass, with which it shared several pioneering details, notably a Clamshell (form factor), clamshell design, in which the screen folds shut over the keyboard. The Gavilan, however, was more affordable than the Compass, at a list price of around USD, US$4000. Unlike the Compass, it was equipped with a flo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Touchpad
A touchpad or trackpad is a type of pointing device. Its largest component is a tactile sensor: an electronic device with a flat surface, that detects the motion and position of a user's fingers, and translates them to 2D motion, to control a Cursor (user interface)#Pointer, pointer in a graphical user interface on a computer screen. Touchpads are common on Laptop, laptop computers, contrasted with desktop computers, where Computer mouse, mice are more prevalent. Trackpads are sometimes used with desktop setups where desk space is scarce. Wireless touchpads are also available, as detached accessories. Due to the ability of trackpads to be made small, they were additionally used on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some portable media players. Operation and function Touchpads operate in several ways, including capacitive sensing or resistive touchscreen. The most common technology used in the 2010s senses the change of capacitance where a finger touches the pad. Capacitance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphical User Interface
A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation. In many applications, GUIs are used instead of text-based user interface, text-based UIs, which are based on typed command labels or text navigation. GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs), which require commands to be typed on a computer keyboard. The actions in a GUI are usually performed through direct manipulation interface, direct manipulation of the graphical elements. Beyond computers, GUIs are used in many handheld mobile devices such as MP3 players, portable media players, gaming devices, smartphones and smaller household, office and Distributed control system, industrial controls. The term ''GUI'' tends not to be applied to other lower-displa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquid-crystal Display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but instead use a backlight or Reflector (photography), reflector to produce images in color or Monochrome monitor, monochrome. LCDs are available to display arbitrary images (as in a general-purpose computer display) or fixed images with low information content, which can be displayed or hidden: preset words, digits, and seven-segment displays (as in a digital clock) are all examples of devices with these displays. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made from a matrix of small pixels, while other displays have larger elements. LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including LCD televisions, computer monitors, Dashboard, instrument panels, flight instrument ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Notebook (laptop)
A notebook computer or notebook is, historically, a laptop whose length and width approximate that of letter paper (). The term ''notebook'' was coined to describe slab-like portable computers that had a letter-paper footprint, such as Epson's HX-20 and Tandy's TRS-80 Model 100 of the early 1980s. The popularity of this form factor waned in the middle of the decade, as larger, clamshell-style laptops offered far more capability. In 1988, NEC's UltraLite defined a new category of notebook: it achieved IBM PC compatibility, making it technically as versatile as the largest laptops, while occupying a letter-paper footprint in a clamshell case. A handful of computer manufacturers followed suit with their own notebooks, including Compaq, whose successful LTE achieved full feature parity with laptops and spurred many others to produce their own notebooks. By 1991, the notebook industry was in full swing. Notebooks and laptops occupied distinct market segments into the mid-1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
