Sharp

Much as Apple, Compaq and IBM were targeting American and European markets, Sharp was perhaps the most concrete computer design and production company in Asia. Sharp started as a workshop and what happened from there onwards is history.

Sharp took the shrinking of computer sizes to a whole new level. As if portable computers hadn’t received enough praise, Sharp went on to develop the world’s first pocket sized computer.

Below are some of the most prominent pocket computers developed by Sharp:

PC 121X: The 121X series consisted of three versions; 1210, 1211, and 1212 released in the same order. These resembled pocket calculators. As far as technical specifications are concerned, PC 121X had a 256 KHz Sharp CMOS SC-43177 CPU. PC-1210 had 896 Bytes of RAM. The later versions, PC-1211 and PC-1212 had 1920 Bytes of RAM. It had a 57 Key QWERTY keyboard with numeric keypad inclusive. The display of PC-121X underwent significant development. These were equipped with the first ever Liquid Crystal Display (LCD).

PC 1245: This was released in early 1983. It was a low cost pocket computer. Compared to its predecessors, PC 1245 had a CPU that was twice as fast; 8 bit, 576 KHz. It had 2.2 KB of RAM and an extra 1486 bytes to support its operating programs. As far as dimensions are concerned, it measured 135 (W) X 70 (D) X 9.5 (H) mm. PC 1245 had a 52 key QWERTY keyboard and a much improved monochrome LCD.

PC 1500: Released in 1981, PC 1500 is considered to be a milestone in pocket computers. Lesson learned from the 121X series were put to use on this system. There were two major advantages that PC 1500 offered over the previous PC 121X series. Firstly it was a lot more expandable. Users could use RAM extensions on it. It had color graphics capabilities as well as on board programmable button. A second benefit that PC 1500 offered was that it used batteries that were more affordable. Many companies took advantage of this fact and equipped all their employees with it. PC 1500 had a might 1.3 MHz CPU with up to 8.5 KB or RAM that could be increased further as mentioned earlier.

Sharp truly dominated the pocket computer market, leaving behind names such as Sony and Casio.

Even today, Sharp’s pocket computers are widely used by engineers and mathematicians. Even after almost 30 years, these devices have yet to lose their glow.