Testing the "new" PSION MC400
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Note: I wrote this text mostly during my testing of the new MC400
keyboard. So it might made no sense - there are just some rando0m words
and sentences...
The MC400 arrived few days ago. 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 thing.
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 instead of the 640x480
resolution, and of course the MS-DOS machine 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 GB 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 better
software support. 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 rechargeables. And their traditional
mechanical keyboards are excellent, too. The display is not backlit
butit 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).
