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The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) made by
Sharp Electronics. The Zaurus was the most popular PDA during the
1990s in
Japan and was based on a proprietary
operating system. The first Sharp PDA to use a variant of the
Linux operating system was the SL-5000D.
Zaurus History
In September
1993, Sharp introduced the PI-3000, the first in the Zaurus line of
PDAs. Featuring a black and white
LCD screen, handwriting recognition, and optical communication
capabilities among its features, the Zaurus soon became one of Sharp's
flagship products.
The PI-4000, released in
1994, expanded the Zaurus' features with a built-in
modem and
facsimile functions. This was succeeded in
1995 by the PI-5000, which had
e-mail and
mobile phone interfaces, as well as PC linking capability. The Zaurus
K-PDA was the first Zaurus to have a built-in keyboard in addition to
handwriting recognition; the PI-6000 and PI-7000 in brought additional
improvements.
During this time, Sharp was making significant advances in color LCD
technology. In May of
1996, the first color Zaurus was released; the MI-10 and MI-10DC were
equipped with a five-inch color
thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD screen. This model had the ability to
connect to the internet, and had a built-in camera and audio recorder.
Later that year, Sharp developed a forty-inch TFT LCD screen, the world's
largest at the time. In December, the MI-10/10DC Zaurus was chosen as the
year's best product by Information Display Magazine in the
United States.
Sharp continued to make advancements in display technology; the Zaurus
gained additional multimedia capabilities, such as video playback, with
the introduction of the MI-E1 in Japan in November of
2000. The MI-E1 was also the first Zaurus to support both
Secure Digital and
CompactFlash memory cards, a feature which would become standard on
future models as well. Although the MI series was extremely popular in
Japan, it was never released in either the USA or Europe - probably
largely due to the strictly Japanese UI, which was never translated into
any other language. As a result, the machines released outside Japan were
the
Linux based SL series, the first of which was the SL-5000D "developer
edition." This was shortly followed by the SL-5500; both used an embedded
version of the
Linux operating system. The development of the MI series in Japan was
continued for a while, but the MI-E25DC has been officially declared to be
the last MI-Series Zaurus.
Zaurus models
As of July
2003, the series includes the following models orderd by series and
date of release:
- Personal Information (PI) series
- Pi² T, proof of concept model presented in
April
1992
- PI-3000, the first model, introduced to the
Japanese market on
October 1,
1993
- PI-4000/FX, second generation with ink
and fax capabilities, on sale in Japan
June
1994
- PI-5000/FX/DA, first model capable of syncing
data to a personal computer, going on sale in
November 1994.
- PI-4500, is introduced in
January
1995
- PI-6000/FX, featuring a new handwriting
recognition software, on sale in Japan
August 1995.
- PI-6000DA, adding a digital adapter for
cellular phones, introduced on
December 12, 1995
- PI-7000, dubbed AccessZaurus (アクセスザウルス)
sports a built in modem, is introduces in
February 1996.
- Note: Confusingly, Sharp made another unit called the "PI-7000
ExpertPad", which was a Newton based device, not a Zaurus.
- PI-6500, was introduced to the Japanese market
with a list price of 55'000
Yen on
November 22,
1996. Measuring 147x87x17mm and weighting 195g including the
batteries, it sports a 239x168
dot matrix display and 715KB of user addressable memory.
- PI-8000, went on sale on
January 24,
1997 with a list price of 80,000 Yen. It featured a 319x168 dot
matrix display, 711KB user addressable memory, messuring 157x90x17mm,
and weighting 215g including batteries.
- PI-6600, the last AccessZaurus with a
239x168 dot matrix display, measuring 147x87x17mm and a weight of 195g
including batteries. It went on sale in Japan on
September 25, 1997.
- K-PDA (ZR) series
- ZR-3000
- ZR-3500
- ZR-5000/FX, a clam-shell model only sold outside
of Japan, going on sale in January 1995.
- ZR-5700
- ZR-5800
- MI series
- MI-10DC/10, nicknamed ColorZaurus, was
the first model to have a color display. The DC model featured a
digital camera and was initially priced 155,000 Yen. The MI-10 was
listed as 120,000 Yen. Both models went on sale on
June 25,
1996.
- MI-506DC/506/504, PowerZaurus
- MI-110M/106M/106, ZaurusPocket
- MI-610/610DC, PowerZaurus
- MI-310, ZaurusColorPocket
- MI-EX1, Zaurus iCRUISE - This was the
first PDA with a 640x480
resolution display
- MI-C1-A/S, PowerZaurus
- MI-P1-W/A/LA, Zaurus iGeti
- MI-P2-B, Zaurus iGeti - More internal
software, more Flash
- MI-P10-S, Zaurus iGeti - Larger RAM and Flash
than P1/P2
- MI-J1,Internet Dictionary Zaurus
- MI-E1,First vertical display model - mini
keyboard
- MI-L1,Stripped down E1 - lacks display
backlight
- MI-E21,Enhanced version of E1 - double RAM
and ROM size
- MI-E25DC,a MI-E21 with an internal 640x480
digital camera
- Other MI Series related devices
- BI-L10,Business Zaurus - Mono screen, 4Mb
IRDA, Network Adapter
- MT-200,Communications pal - Keyboard input,
limited I/O
- MT-300,Communications pal - 4MB flash,
restyled
- MT-300C,Communications pal - CDMAone version
- Browser Board,MT-300 with NTT
DoCoMo specific software
- Linux based SL series
- SL-5000D, a
developer edition of the SL-5500
- SL-5500, the first Zaurus to be sold outside
Japan, is based on the
Intel
StrongARM processor, has 64
MB of
RAM and a built-in keyboard
- SL-A300, an ultra-light PDA with no keyboard,
sold only in Japan
- SL-B500, name of the SL-5600 in Japan
- SL-5600, the successor to the SL-5500, with
greater processing capability and increased RAM
- SL-C700, a clam-shell model and the first PDA to
use Sharp's "System LCD" display
- SL-C750, an improved version of the SL-C700;
longer battery life, better processor and updated software
- SL-C760, an improved version of the SL-C700 with
more RAM than the SL-C750
- SL-C860, Currently latest model, has built in
E<->J translation software
Zaurus software
With the switch to the Linux operating system the Zaurus became capable
of running variations of a wide variety of proprietary and
open source software, including web and
FTP servers,
databases, and
compilers. Some developers have created an open source environment for
the Zaurus called
OpenZaurus, which uses the
Opie
graphical user interface and is designed for the
power user, but it does not include the proprietary software which is
distributed with the Zaurus.
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