"New" PSION MC400 ================= The MC400 arrived today. It seems to be just slightly used. Of course, the battery block has the lock piece teared off (as it is common on these devices) and the handle/stand thing is missing. Aside o that the only things which I can comply about are two or three darker places on the LCD (they look like thumb traces). For me it is still unbelievable that someone was able to put a complete GUI system to the device with 256 kB (not MB!) of RAM and to similar amount of ROM (is it 128 kB?). The CPU is the NEC 8088 at 8 MHz. My device says "(C) 1990" but these machines were from 1989, I think (for example, my other MC400 says "(C)" 1989). The serial number of this particular machine is 101858 so I assume that it is the 1858th produced one. I have to check the number of my other MC400. It is always interesting to compare this machine with a similar MS-DOS computer. It is rather easy as the MC600 is almost the same machine (it differs in a few ports and it also has a 640x200 (or so) instead of the 640x480 resolution, and of course the MS-DOS machina has 4 times more RAM). The DOS applications on the MC600 always seem to be a bit sluggish. In contrast, the whole OS and all (four or so) available applications on the MC400 are fast and snappy. All of them are GUI applications, of course. Anyway, it is possible to fill all RAM very quickly by opening of several larger documents (for example, a text document in the "Word" processor and a table in the spreadsheet). The MC600 has not only much bigger RAM but also (being a pure MS-DOS box) it can run just one applications in time. The problem is, of course, that there are just few applications for the MC400. It runs an early version of the SIBO operating system (it is more known as the OS used by the Psion Series 3 organisers). Unfortunately, programs from the Series 3 do not run here as there are many hardware differences. So there are available: the calendar (a very good and powerful program), an alarm clock, a calculator (not a bad one, it is similar to the Series 3 one - for example it can use OPL functions), a simple database (I have not used it, yet), a serial communication program, and a simple text editor (it can be used to write - and to execute - OPL programs). Of course one than write its own program in the OPL language. It is quite powerful but the MC400 implementation DOES NOT have GUI nor graphics commands. One can write just CLI-only programs... There are a few additional program available. All were sold as an expensive add-ons on the SSD disks). On the PSION SSDs, of course. There is a "Word" (a text editor with styles which can use RTF), a spreadsheet and at least one game (a rocket defence-type game). I don't think that I forgot anything important. So software support was probably the main reason for relative low commercial success of this device. It was also very expensive as it incorporated several cutting-edge technologies: the SSD disks (RAM or flash disks in capacities from 128 kB to 1 MB; 4 MB third-party RAM drives exists, too), the touchpad (it was before 1990!), the huge (9") passive black/white LCD screen (do you remember how tiny were LCDs of calculator from these years?), modular serial/parallel ports and more. Actually, I use the MS-DOS based MC600 much often because of its universality. It can run most of software which was compiled for 8086 but (it does not run more modern software as it cannot execute 286's instructions and it often cannot run software which access special hardware too much). Still, I can run here a C compiler, the Kermit, the Volkov Commander, the BBC BASIC interpreter, the SC spreadsheet and even an early version of the MATLAB and the Gnuplot. And the PSION Organiser II emulator, too. Even I can control my Atari Portfolio from there. Nothing similar can be done on the MC400. In other hand, the MC400 can run a nice text editor and a word processor, it can process tables (Lotus 1-2-3 compatible) just without graphs and it can be sued for OPL development, too (the programs written here can run on the Series 3 and upward without modifications; with trivial changes - format of functions headers is different- they can run on the Organiser II, too). It also has a clean, nice to see and use, GUI. All the MC devices have excellent battery life - tens of hours if one uses contemporary AA batteries. And their traditional mechanical keyboards are excellent, too. The display is not backlit but it makes no problem if there is a good source of light (a lamp of something) available. The screens are also well readable on direct sunlight. I must say that it was really unfortunate that people in 1990s preferred color screens and CPU speed before (then) better readability of black/white LCDs and the great battery life. There were times when 2 hours have been understood as very good battery life. The PSION battery life was over ten of hours then... Well, I wrote this text just to test my new MC400. It seems that both the keyboard and the LCD are OK. I cannot speak about the touchpad - this early model is too hard to use for me (actually I refuse to use touchpads at all - I was never able to effectively use any touchpad of any device - even my iBook G3 always had the mouse connected). Next time I should write about bicycles, I think.