A pocket computer is a small calculator

Calculator

An electronic calculator is a small, portable, usually inexpensive electronic device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic. Modern calculators are more portable than most computers, though most PDAs are comparable in size to handheld calculators.The first solid-state electronic...

-sized handheld programmable computer.

This specific category of computers existed primarily in the 1980s. Manufacturers included Casio

Casio

is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...

, Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

, Sharp

Sharp Corporation

is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

, Tandy/Radio Shack

Tandy

Tandy is the title of a short story by Sherwood Anderson.Tandy is also a name which can refer to:-Tandy Corporation:* Tandy Corporation - a leather supply company which subsequently became the RadioShack Corporation...

 (Selling Casio and Sharp models under their own TRS line) and many more.

The programming language was usually BASIC

BASIC

BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....

, but some devices offered alternatives. For example the Casio PB-2000 could be programmed in Assembly

Assembly language

An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...

, BASIC, C

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

, and Lisp. An important feature of pocket computers was that all programming languages were available for the device itself, not downloaded from a cross-compiler on a larger computer.

Though not identical in principle, personal digital assistant

Personal digital assistant

A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...

s, handheld PC

Handheld PC

A Handheld PC, or H/PC for short, is a term for a computer built around a form factor which is smaller than any standard laptop computer. It is sometimes referred to as a Palmtop. The first handheld device compatible with desktop IBM personal computers of the time was the Atari Portfolio of 1989...

s, and programmable calculator

Programmable calculator

Programmable calculators are calculators that can automatically carry out a sequence of operations under control of a stored program, much like a computer. The first programmable calculators such as the IBM CPC used punched cards or other media for program storage...

s serve many of the same functions as the old pocket computers, generally with significantly more computing power in a package the same size or smaller. The main distinction is that more modern designs (with the exception of programmable calculators) usually do not have included programming ability and are usually set up to act as clients of a larger system rather than as self-contained environments of their own, whereas the early pocket computers had their own data storage and input/output facilities such as printers and tape drives.

List of devices

Manufacturer	Model
Casio Casio is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...	FX-702P Casio FX-702P The FX-702P is a Pocket Computer, manufactured by Casio from 1981 to 1984.-Display:The FX-702P features a single line dot matrix liquid crystal display with 20 characters. A 10-digit mantissa is displayed however internal calculations use a 12-digit mantissa.-Programming:The programming model... , FX-850P Casio FX-850P The Casio FX-850P is a scientific calculator introduced in 1987 and sold until 1992.- Specifications :* 2 lines with 32 5×7 characters LCD** * 8 KB RAM... , PB-1000 Casio PB-1000 The Casio PB-1000 was a hand-held computer released by Casio in 1987. Revolutionary for its time, it featured a touchscreen display which consisted of 16 keys built into the screen, arranged in fixed positions on a four by four matrix.... , PB-2000, PB-80, PB-100, PB-500F, PB-770, Z1-GR
Elektronika Elektronika Electronika is the brand name used for many different electronic products such as calculators, electronic watches, portable games and radios in the Soviet Union and, nowadays, in Russia...	MK 85, MK-85M, MK-90, MK-95, MK-98
HP	HP-75C, HP-71B HP-71B The HP-71B was a hand-held computer or calculator programmable in BASIC, made by Hewlett-Packard from 1984 to 1989.The HP-71B was known as the "supreme" hand-held calculator/computer of choice at the time for those seeking the ultimate in hand-held devices. It was particularly popular at The... , HP 95LX HP 95LX The HP 95LX was the first MS-DOS pocket computer or personal digital assistant, introduced by Hewlett-Packard in April 1991 in collaboration with Lotus Development Corporation....
Kikuichi	PC-A10, PC-A2
Olympia	OL-H004
Panasonic Panasonic Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...	RL-H1400 HHC (also sold as Quasar HK-2600TE), RL-H1800 HHC
Psion Organiser Psion Organiser The Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computer developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6x6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically.Early Psions are very robust...
Sharp Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...	PC-1211 Sharp PC-1211 Sharp PC-1211 is a small handheld computer, also marketed as Tandy TRS-80 PC1. This model was powered by a 4-bit CPU laid out in power-saving CMOS circuitry.-Technical specifications:*24 digit dot matrix LCD*Full QWERTY-style keyboard*Integrated beeper... , PC-1500 Sharp PC-1500 The Sharp PC-1500 was a pocket computer produced by Sharp in 1982. A clone was sold as the TRS-80 PC-2. The whole computer was designed around the LH5801, an 8-bit CPU similar to the Zilog Z80, but all laid-out in power-saving CMOS circuits. The programming language was BASIC. Later German... , PC-1600 Sharp PC-1600 The Sharp PC-1600 was a pocket computer introduced by Sharp in 1986 as a successor to the PC-1500. The PC-1600 provided compatibility with its predecessor through the use a slave CPU that could run assembly language programs targeting the older machine... , PC-1280, PC-1350 Sharp PC-1350 The Sharp PC-1350 is a small pocket computer manufactured by Sharp. The PC-1350 was introduced in 1984 and was used by engineers, and favored by programmers for its decent programming and graphical capabilities... , PC-1360, PC-E500S Sharp PC-E500S The Sharp PC-E500S was a 1995 pocket computer by Sharp Corporation and was the successor to the PC-E500 model, featuring a 2.304 MHz CMOS CPU....
Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was a family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas. Tandy was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store, and acquired RadioShack in 1963. The Tandy name was dropped in May 2000, when RadioShack Corporation was made the official name.-History:Tandy began in 1919...	Tandy Pocket Computer Tandy Pocket Computer A Tandy Pocket Computer is one of a line of 1980s small pocket computers—calculator-sized programmable computing devices—sold primarily under the Tandy or Radio Shack brands, but were actually rebadged Sharp and Casio devices with different model names. They were given designations from...  range
Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...	TI-74, TI-74S
Toshiba Toshiba is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...	IHC-8000 system

External links

• Pocket Computer Museum
• R/S Key
• Soviet Calculators Collection (English)
• www.calculators.de – Museum of Pocket Calculating Devices
• www.hpmuseum.org] – The Museum of HP Calculators
• Sharp Pocket Computers
• Skolob's Hewlett Packard 95LX Palmtop Page (Information and FAQ on 95LX)