Remember the Psion organizer? If you do, then you are likely to be an early adopter, because 8-bit pocket computers reached their heyday in the mid-1980s.Of course, since then, things have made great progress, but the facts show it very well. Raspberry Pi Pico can replace Psion’s original memory pack.
Like many early attempts to put a computer in a pocket, Psion II has a detachable module called “Datapaks”.The earliest version of Datapaks was nothing more than an EPROM chip on a small PCB. The technical limitations at that time and the peculiar memory addressing method made it possible [Amen] Use modern microcontrollers to simulate Datapak.
The first version is a breakout board that protrudes significantly from the Datapak slot, with Pico, OLED display, SD card slot and a bunch of buttons. The prototype proves that Pico is indeed fast enough to make Psion mistakenly believe that a legitimate Datapak has been inserted. [Amen] Later, I improved the design by making a board, and stuffed everything into the Datapak slot, except for the OLED that was still hanging where I could see it. He tested artificial memory in the video below.
It’s great to see breakthrough technologies from the past, such as Psion, being taken care of and reused. We have seen others try it before; this is a hacker who uses Pi to connect Psion Organizer to the Internet through its RS-232 serial port.