The history of mobile OS: from programmable calculators to PalmOS
To begin a story about the emergence of mobile operating systems, you first need to figure out which devices they were intended for, and what functions should be performed.
Programmable calculators and first pocket computers
In the late 1960s, Intel, Wang Laboratories, Sony, and Casio launched hand calculators. Over the 12 years of its development (from 1954 to 1966), their weight decreased from 25 to 1 kilogram. The main problem of these calculators was a very large power consumption, due to the use of LED - displays. Batteries lasted no more than two hours of work. This problem persisted until 1975, when Sharp released a calculator equipped with an LCD display. Hours increased to 100 hours. But it was not the point. The fact is that LCD displays allowed to reflect an arbitrary pattern - text and graphics. This was a great help for future handheld computers, before which appeared quite a bit of time.
The first pocket computer can be considered Radio Shack Pocket Computer TRS - 80, which appeared in 1980. It was equipped with built-in batteries, had 1.5 KB of RAM, as well as an interpreter of the BASIC language, embedded in ROM, which made it possible to create its own programs. The display displayed in one line up to 24 characters. A printer connected to a computer, as well as a cassette storage device, was available as an accessory. For the price, the computer was comparable to the programmable calculators of the time and cost $ 250.
')
In 1984, the English company Psion released its first electronic organizer (Psion Organizer 1) - a revolutionary device of its kind. Externally, it looked like a “brick” and fit in the palm of your hand, had a processor with a clock frequency of 0.92 MHz, 2 kb of memory and two slots for installing expansion cartridges, a 16-character alphanumeric screen, a 37-key keyboard. This device combined the functions of several devices: a clock, a calculator and a notebook.
An interesting device was released in the same 1984 by the company Seiko. It was a computer in a wristwatch with a screen of 4 lines of 10 characters.
1989 was a fundamental year in the history of mobile computers. On April 11, Atari Computers presented Portfolio Portable at COMDEX. Unlike the TRS-80, which, despite all the assurances of the manufacturer, was only an improved programmable calculator, it was a full-fledged computer running DIP DOS (analogue of MS DOS 2.11).
Becoming a PDA
Around the same time, three technology giants IBM, HP and Apple Computer joined the PDA market.
On April 23, 1991, the HP-95LX was introduced. The abbreviation LX stands for Lotus Expandable. The computer was designed to work with Lotus 1-2-3, was able to send mail, as well as remotely download files. The technical features of the device were not so familiar for that moment, this is MS DOS 3.22, the presence of 512 KB of RAM, an LCD screen displaying up to 40 characters (25x80 or 248x128 pixels). At the time of release, the device cost $ 699. Of the features of the device, it should be noted the presence of hot keys to access certain functions, such as a calendar or phone book.
In September 1991, the world saw a new handheld computer from Psion, which was made in a notebook form factor and had 128 or 256 kilobytes of internal memory, had a built-in programming language OPL.
January 1992 was marked by the emergence of the term PDA (personal digital assistance), which became for many years synonymous with a handheld computer. Its author should be considered John Scully, who at that time was the head of Apple Computer. In its interpretation, a PDA is a pocket computer controlled by a stylus through a screen. In May of the same year, the company introduced Apple Newton, running Newton OS. It was the first operating system that supports touch input. It was completely written in C ++, it was characterized by low energy consumption by productive use of RAM - most applications were embedded in the ROM of the PDA, thereby saving DRAM and flash memory for user applications.
In the same year, IBM introduced their version of the handheld called Simon, which was running the Zaurus operating system. In addition to the standard mobile phone, Simon also contained a calendar, address book, world time, calculator, address book, e-mail and fax applications, and several games. All management of IBM Simon was carried out through the touch screen.
In October 1993, a consortium of companies such as Palm Computing, Casio, Tandy, Geoworks, Datalight, America On-Line and Intuit created a competitor to Apple Newton and IBM Simon - Zoomer. Zoomer computers were running an object-oriented, graphical, multitasking, and multi-threaded version of the GEOS OS. The claimed battery life was up to 100 hours with a mixed mode of operation - one minute of text input for 10 minutes of passive work. A handwriting system that is not very convenient, a weak processor, a lack of means for exchanging data with a PC, and a fairly high price caused the project to be unsuccessful.
The main functions of the PDA in the first half of the 1990s were mail loading, access to corporate networks and receiving files from them. Internet access was missing from the list of required functions due to expensive airtime for data transmission and a small coverage of cellular operators. The situation was decided to change the guys from Nokia.
Nokia’s first communicator and Apple’s latest communicator
Around the mid-90s, there is a tendency to create hybrid devices that combine the functions of a mobile phone and a PDA, the so-called communicators.
One of the first devices was the Nokia 9000, released in 1996 - a massive device, outside of which there was an disproportionately small display. But when the communicator was opened, a large black and white screen with a resolution of 640x240 pixels was found. On the second folding part was located the keyboard.
The communicator provided many functions unusual for the telephone of that time. This is sending and receiving faxes, the ability to work with e-mail and, most importantly, the Internet. The main difficulty in creating a mobile browser was the lack of touch input. But Nokia found a simple solution: when scrolling the page, the first link encountered was highlighted, and it could be clicked. The browser either scrolled through the page, or jumped over the visible links. Today, this behavior is not unusual, all browsers on regular phones work just like this, but the first was a device from Nokia. All this became possible thanks to the Intel 386 processor and its own OS - GEOSTM 3.0.
While Nokia was gaining momentum in a new market for itself, Apple was slowing down more and more. It ended with the fact that in 1998, Steve Jobs ordered the closure of the PDA department and curtail the development of Newton OS. Until 2007, Apple removed itself from the world of smartphones and handheld computers.
Palm OS vs. Windows CE
1996 was a fundamental year in the development of mobile operating systems for the next 8 years. It was this year that two operating systems were released, which were destined to be the industry standard for the coming years.
Microsoft, who felt the prospects of the new market, releases Windows CE - a new operating system for handheld computers, which was a light version of the famous Windows 95 and contained stripped-down versions of the word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail processing program and work on the Internet. Replacing the mouse was a touch screen. Like all Microsoft products, Windows CE 1.0 was very memory intensive. She needed at least 2 MB of memory to work.
The first Palm models were PalmPilot 1000 and PalmPilot 5000, whose RAM, respectively, was 128 Kb and 512 Kb. PalmPilot 1000 was equipped with a MC68328 DragonBall processor with a clock frequency of 16 MHz. These devices were running Palm OS. Any action in the new operating system can be performed in several touches with the stylus to the screen. Moreover, Palm OS was very fast, it did not require a lot of memory and a powerful processor, thanks to which the price of Palm devices was very low. All subsequent devices on this operating system retained this most important characteristic for the PDA. Only the latest devices from the Tungsten and Zire series outdated the 100 MHz processor clock speed. This made it possible to maintain a rather low price of devices as compared to PDA based on Windows CE.
An interesting feature of Palm OS was that the OS kernel licensed from Kadak was multitasking, and for the user it was single-tasked, albeit with the ability to play music in the background. The terms of the license agreement forbade Palm to disclose to third-party API developers for creating background tasks at the kernel level.
Since December 1997, PalmPilot began selling licenses for Palm OS, which Nokia, Sony and other companies that make mobile devices used.
Later, the name Pilot disappeared, it had to be removed, for quite a comical reason - a well-known manufacturer of office supplies threatened to sue for violating trademark rights. But I had to agree on the rights to the name of Palm. Micosoft was eager to call keyboardless handhelds based on Windows CE not Palm PC in any way, in order to attract more customers. But in the end, Microsoft had to be content with the name Palm-Size PC, later changed to PocketPC. By the way, in 1998, the second version of Windows CE appeared, which had support for the color screen and TrueType fonts.
Initially, the developers of Windows CE interacted quite closely with the developers of desktop Windows, so that these systems had a lot in common, and the strong separation of desktop and mobile versions of Windows began sometime in 2000, when Windows CE 3.0 Pocket PC Edition was released, later renamed Windows Mobile. The target audience of the Pocket PC Edition were handheld computers, and the main difference from the previous versions was to support displays with QVGA resolution and memory cards of CompactFlash and Multimedia Card formats. One of the first communicators running this OS was the Siemens SX45.
Support for devices without a touchscreen in Windows Pocket PC Edition appeared in 2002, simultaneously with the release of Pocket PC 2002, and the name Windows Mobile - in 2003. At the same time, Windows Mobile was divided into three editions - the version for classic PDAs (Pocket PC for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Classic), the version for communicators with a touchscreen display (Pocket PC Phone Edition, Windows Mobile Professional) and the version for non-touch devices with a classic telephone keyboard (Pocket PC for Smartphone, Windows Mobile Standard).
While the range of capabilities of the Microsoft OS was expanding, Palm OS was all in one place. For a long time, Palm OS 6 Cobalt was expected to be released, in which developers were going to fix most of the problems inherent in the previous version, including real multitasking, a redesigned graphical interface, support for high-resolution screens, etc., were planned. This version of the system was ready in 2004 and later, an updated version number 6.1 was released, but for some unknown reason, no serial device running Palm OS 6 Cobalt was released.
In opposition to Palm OS vs. Windows CE won the latter. Microsoft didn’t manage to rejoice at the absence of competitors, as Nokia got involved in the struggle with Symbian OS, but this will be discussed in the next article.
Programmable calculators and first pocket computers
In the late 1960s, Intel, Wang Laboratories, Sony, and Casio launched hand calculators. Over the 12 years of its development (from 1954 to 1966), their weight decreased from 25 to 1 kilogram. The main problem of these calculators was a very large power consumption, due to the use of LED - displays. Batteries lasted no more than two hours of work. This problem persisted until 1975, when Sharp released a calculator equipped with an LCD display. Hours increased to 100 hours. But it was not the point. The fact is that LCD displays allowed to reflect an arbitrary pattern - text and graphics. This was a great help for future handheld computers, before which appeared quite a bit of time.
The first pocket computer can be considered Radio Shack Pocket Computer TRS - 80, which appeared in 1980. It was equipped with built-in batteries, had 1.5 KB of RAM, as well as an interpreter of the BASIC language, embedded in ROM, which made it possible to create its own programs. The display displayed in one line up to 24 characters. A printer connected to a computer, as well as a cassette storage device, was available as an accessory. For the price, the computer was comparable to the programmable calculators of the time and cost $ 250.
')
In 1984, the English company Psion released its first electronic organizer (Psion Organizer 1) - a revolutionary device of its kind. Externally, it looked like a “brick” and fit in the palm of your hand, had a processor with a clock frequency of 0.92 MHz, 2 kb of memory and two slots for installing expansion cartridges, a 16-character alphanumeric screen, a 37-key keyboard. This device combined the functions of several devices: a clock, a calculator and a notebook.
An interesting device was released in the same 1984 by the company Seiko. It was a computer in a wristwatch with a screen of 4 lines of 10 characters.
1989 was a fundamental year in the history of mobile computers. On April 11, Atari Computers presented Portfolio Portable at COMDEX. Unlike the TRS-80, which, despite all the assurances of the manufacturer, was only an improved programmable calculator, it was a full-fledged computer running DIP DOS (analogue of MS DOS 2.11).
Becoming a PDA
Around the same time, three technology giants IBM, HP and Apple Computer joined the PDA market.
On April 23, 1991, the HP-95LX was introduced. The abbreviation LX stands for Lotus Expandable. The computer was designed to work with Lotus 1-2-3, was able to send mail, as well as remotely download files. The technical features of the device were not so familiar for that moment, this is MS DOS 3.22, the presence of 512 KB of RAM, an LCD screen displaying up to 40 characters (25x80 or 248x128 pixels). At the time of release, the device cost $ 699. Of the features of the device, it should be noted the presence of hot keys to access certain functions, such as a calendar or phone book.
In September 1991, the world saw a new handheld computer from Psion, which was made in a notebook form factor and had 128 or 256 kilobytes of internal memory, had a built-in programming language OPL.
January 1992 was marked by the emergence of the term PDA (personal digital assistance), which became for many years synonymous with a handheld computer. Its author should be considered John Scully, who at that time was the head of Apple Computer. In its interpretation, a PDA is a pocket computer controlled by a stylus through a screen. In May of the same year, the company introduced Apple Newton, running Newton OS. It was the first operating system that supports touch input. It was completely written in C ++, it was characterized by low energy consumption by productive use of RAM - most applications were embedded in the ROM of the PDA, thereby saving DRAM and flash memory for user applications.
In the same year, IBM introduced their version of the handheld called Simon, which was running the Zaurus operating system. In addition to the standard mobile phone, Simon also contained a calendar, address book, world time, calculator, address book, e-mail and fax applications, and several games. All management of IBM Simon was carried out through the touch screen.
In October 1993, a consortium of companies such as Palm Computing, Casio, Tandy, Geoworks, Datalight, America On-Line and Intuit created a competitor to Apple Newton and IBM Simon - Zoomer. Zoomer computers were running an object-oriented, graphical, multitasking, and multi-threaded version of the GEOS OS. The claimed battery life was up to 100 hours with a mixed mode of operation - one minute of text input for 10 minutes of passive work. A handwriting system that is not very convenient, a weak processor, a lack of means for exchanging data with a PC, and a fairly high price caused the project to be unsuccessful.
The main functions of the PDA in the first half of the 1990s were mail loading, access to corporate networks and receiving files from them. Internet access was missing from the list of required functions due to expensive airtime for data transmission and a small coverage of cellular operators. The situation was decided to change the guys from Nokia.
Nokia’s first communicator and Apple’s latest communicator
Around the mid-90s, there is a tendency to create hybrid devices that combine the functions of a mobile phone and a PDA, the so-called communicators.
One of the first devices was the Nokia 9000, released in 1996 - a massive device, outside of which there was an disproportionately small display. But when the communicator was opened, a large black and white screen with a resolution of 640x240 pixels was found. On the second folding part was located the keyboard.
The communicator provided many functions unusual for the telephone of that time. This is sending and receiving faxes, the ability to work with e-mail and, most importantly, the Internet. The main difficulty in creating a mobile browser was the lack of touch input. But Nokia found a simple solution: when scrolling the page, the first link encountered was highlighted, and it could be clicked. The browser either scrolled through the page, or jumped over the visible links. Today, this behavior is not unusual, all browsers on regular phones work just like this, but the first was a device from Nokia. All this became possible thanks to the Intel 386 processor and its own OS - GEOSTM 3.0.
While Nokia was gaining momentum in a new market for itself, Apple was slowing down more and more. It ended with the fact that in 1998, Steve Jobs ordered the closure of the PDA department and curtail the development of Newton OS. Until 2007, Apple removed itself from the world of smartphones and handheld computers.
Palm OS vs. Windows CE
1996 was a fundamental year in the development of mobile operating systems for the next 8 years. It was this year that two operating systems were released, which were destined to be the industry standard for the coming years.
Microsoft, who felt the prospects of the new market, releases Windows CE - a new operating system for handheld computers, which was a light version of the famous Windows 95 and contained stripped-down versions of the word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail processing program and work on the Internet. Replacing the mouse was a touch screen. Like all Microsoft products, Windows CE 1.0 was very memory intensive. She needed at least 2 MB of memory to work.
The first Palm models were PalmPilot 1000 and PalmPilot 5000, whose RAM, respectively, was 128 Kb and 512 Kb. PalmPilot 1000 was equipped with a MC68328 DragonBall processor with a clock frequency of 16 MHz. These devices were running Palm OS. Any action in the new operating system can be performed in several touches with the stylus to the screen. Moreover, Palm OS was very fast, it did not require a lot of memory and a powerful processor, thanks to which the price of Palm devices was very low. All subsequent devices on this operating system retained this most important characteristic for the PDA. Only the latest devices from the Tungsten and Zire series outdated the 100 MHz processor clock speed. This made it possible to maintain a rather low price of devices as compared to PDA based on Windows CE.
An interesting feature of Palm OS was that the OS kernel licensed from Kadak was multitasking, and for the user it was single-tasked, albeit with the ability to play music in the background. The terms of the license agreement forbade Palm to disclose to third-party API developers for creating background tasks at the kernel level.
Since December 1997, PalmPilot began selling licenses for Palm OS, which Nokia, Sony and other companies that make mobile devices used.
Later, the name Pilot disappeared, it had to be removed, for quite a comical reason - a well-known manufacturer of office supplies threatened to sue for violating trademark rights. But I had to agree on the rights to the name of Palm. Micosoft was eager to call keyboardless handhelds based on Windows CE not Palm PC in any way, in order to attract more customers. But in the end, Microsoft had to be content with the name Palm-Size PC, later changed to PocketPC. By the way, in 1998, the second version of Windows CE appeared, which had support for the color screen and TrueType fonts.
Initially, the developers of Windows CE interacted quite closely with the developers of desktop Windows, so that these systems had a lot in common, and the strong separation of desktop and mobile versions of Windows began sometime in 2000, when Windows CE 3.0 Pocket PC Edition was released, later renamed Windows Mobile. The target audience of the Pocket PC Edition were handheld computers, and the main difference from the previous versions was to support displays with QVGA resolution and memory cards of CompactFlash and Multimedia Card formats. One of the first communicators running this OS was the Siemens SX45.
Support for devices without a touchscreen in Windows Pocket PC Edition appeared in 2002, simultaneously with the release of Pocket PC 2002, and the name Windows Mobile - in 2003. At the same time, Windows Mobile was divided into three editions - the version for classic PDAs (Pocket PC for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Classic), the version for communicators with a touchscreen display (Pocket PC Phone Edition, Windows Mobile Professional) and the version for non-touch devices with a classic telephone keyboard (Pocket PC for Smartphone, Windows Mobile Standard).
While the range of capabilities of the Microsoft OS was expanding, Palm OS was all in one place. For a long time, Palm OS 6 Cobalt was expected to be released, in which developers were going to fix most of the problems inherent in the previous version, including real multitasking, a redesigned graphical interface, support for high-resolution screens, etc., were planned. This version of the system was ready in 2004 and later, an updated version number 6.1 was released, but for some unknown reason, no serial device running Palm OS 6 Cobalt was released.
In opposition to Palm OS vs. Windows CE won the latter. Microsoft didn’t manage to rejoice at the absence of competitors, as Nokia got involved in the struggle with Symbian OS, but this will be discussed in the next article.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/149290/
All Articles