Osaris is a

personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDAs were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smar ...

(PDA) featuring the EPOC

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

(OS) distributed by Oregon Scientific. The Osaris was released in 1999, and at the time priced at to . The Osaris contains an 18.432 MHz CL-PS7111 (ARM 710) processor and is powered by two AA size batteries or an external power 6

volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...

AC adapter An AC adapter or AC/DC adapter (also called a wall charger, power adapter, power brick, or wall wart) is a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC plug. AC adapters deliver electric power to devices that la ...

, with a 3 volt CR2032 cell providing backup power. The

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. Liq ...

(LCD) is a

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

, backlit 320 × 200 pixels with 16 greyscale levels. There are also 10 membrane keys, 5 on each side of the LCD. The Osaris can be linked to a PC via an

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

link cable and

IrDA IrDA is a wireless standard designed for exchanging data using infrared (IR). Infrared ports for this purpose have been implemented in portable electronic devices such as mobile telephones, laptops, cameras, printers, and medical devices. The mai ...

(Infrared). The Osaris contains 8 MB of

read-only memory Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing sof ...

(ROM), and, depending on the model, 4 MB, 8 MB or 16 MB

random-access memory Random-access memory (RAM; ) is a form of Computer memory, electronic computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working Data (computing), data and machine code. A random-access memory device allows ...

(RAM). The memory can also be expanded using

CompactFlash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

. * Dimensions: 170 × 90 × 20 mm * Weight: c. 250 g After the debut of EPOC Release 5, the Osaris was the only PDA to use the EPOC Release 4 operating system. It also has the distinction of being the first device to run EPOC (later renamed

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

OS) that was not built by Psion. It is very similar in ability to the

Psion Series 5 The Psion Series 5 is a personal digital assistant (PDA) from Psion. It came in two main variants, the ''Series 5'' (launched in 1997) and the ''Series 5mx'' (1999), the latter having a faster processor, clearer liquid crystal display (LCD), a ...

. The Osaris comes with these programs preinstalled: * Agenda: For appointments, things to do, birthdays, anniversaries * Data: For names, addresses, or other

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

use * Jotter: For making quick notes * Time: For alarms * Calc: For simple or scientific calculations * World: Shows a map, world times, dialling codes * Word: For writing documents, letters * Sheet: For tables,

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

s, graphs * Program: Editor for writing

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangibl ...

References

{{Reflist Personal digital assistants Personal information managers Computer-related introductions in 1999