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Full content from the completed page crawl (media download still running)

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6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
4,336 media files so far; references to files not downloaded yet are left out.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
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co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
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---
title: Sharp PC-1210 / 1211 / 1212
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Pocket
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1980'
cpus:
- Sharp CMOS SC-43177
params:
name: PC-1210 / 1211 / 1212
company: /companies/sharp
company_name: Sharp
specs:
- label: NAME
value: PC-1210 / 1211 / 1212
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Sharp
- label: TYPE
value: Pocket
- label: ORIGIN
value: Japan
- label: YEAR
value: '1980'
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: BASIC interpreter
- label: KEYBOARD
value: 57 keys, QWERTY calculator type with numeric key-pad
- label: CPU
value: Sharp CMOS SC-43177(A) and SC43178 (4 bits)
- label: SPEED
value: 256 kHz
- label: RAM
value: |-
PC-1210: 896 Bytes (400 steps / 50 memories available for user)\
PC-1211/12: 1920 Bytes (1424 steps, 178 memories)
- label: ROM
value: 11,2 kB (?)
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 1 line x 24 chars. (LCD screen)
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: None
- label: COLORS
value: Black and White
- label: SOUND
value: CPU controlled piezo buzzer, fixed frequency and duration
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: 175 (W) x 70 (D) x 15 (H) mm / 170 g
- label: I/O PORTS
value: 9 pin expansion port for printer and cassette interface
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: 4 x 1,35 V button cell MR44 or similar
- label: PERIPHERALS
value: |-
CE-121 cassette interface\
CE-122 printer and cassette interface (single needle impact printer)\
CE-152 tape recorder
- label: PRICE
value: |-
PC-1210: $125.- (USA 03.1980)\
PC-1211: 200 (Germany, France - 1980)\
PC-1212: 125 (Germany, 05.1983)
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- emulators
- links
photos:
- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: CLOSE-UP
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: PC-1211 AND PC-1212
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Externally, the only difference between the two versions is the LCD display background colour, grey for the PC-1212, greenish-yellow for the PC-1211.\
Internally, the ROM content has been slightly improved.
image: null
- title: CE-122
subtitle: ''
text: PC-1212 and CE-122 printer and cassette interface unit in their carrying case.
image: null
- title: USER MANUALS
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
adverts:
- title: FRENCH ADVERT (JAN. 1981)
subtitle: ''
text: Sharp 1211 advert from ILLEL, a french computer seller
image: null
- title: PHOTOGRAPHY TOOL
subtitle: ''
text: taken from Popular Science nov.1980
image: null
emulators:
- title: POEMS
url: http://sourceforge.jp/projects/poems/
platform: Unix / Linux
text: PC-12xx, 14xx & 13xx emulator
- title: PockEmul
url: http://pockemul.free.fr/
platform: Multiplatform
text: Emulates nearly all Sharp pocket computers!
links:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: Pedro (España)
date: Thursday 14th July 2022
text: Im still using my PC1212 every day The only issue is that some letters begin to be not readable. Numbers are still in perfect shape. Congrats, Sharp, for a devide without programed obsolescence.
- author: Wolf W. Berger (Bavaria)
date: Sunday 20th May 2012
text: |-
Am still using my 1211 everyday. Serial number is 1000058Y, it is the type with 4 battery cells. It was a bargain down at Toranomon, Tokyo, in 1983, 7000 Yen.\
They made computers for eternity back then...
- author: Dave Watson (Denmark)
date: Sunday 4th March 2012
text: I have a PC 1211 working very well until a wire from the batteries became disconnected from the circuit board now all I would like is help to reconnect it. Can anybody help?
- author: Yves (Russia)
date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
text: I don''t remember how, but i did graphics on this screen. Tetris was written. And some other graphics games.
- author: Ian Traynor (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 12th December 2011
text: With the Sharp PC1211 I started a part-time business selling software for this tiny machine - including a spreadsheet!! Gradually, as new models were produced by Sharp, I expanded the software range, and traded as "Minimicro". In the mid-1980s, Sharp would send me their latest computer for testing and development - and I still have all these computers to this day!
- author: Ian Traynor (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 12th December 2011
text: With the Sharp PC1211 I started a part-time business selling software for this tiny machine - including a spreadsheet!! Gradually, as new models were produced by Sharp, I expanded the software range, and traded as "Minimicro". In the mid-1980s, Sharp would send me their latest computer for testing and development - and I still have all these computers to this day!
- author: Luiz Stefano (Brasil)
date: Thursday 20th May 2010
text: |-
Estou procurando para aquisição uma pc1211 shar\
gostaria de saber se tens para vender o peço
- author: Carlos Gil (Maracaibo - Venezuela)
date: Sunday 15th August 2004
text: This was my first contact with the digital world that now is my career... Y learned basic programming with the manuals when I was 12 years old.
related:
- /museum/sharp-pc-1245
- /museum/sharp-pc-1250-pc-1251
- /museum/sharp-pc-1260-pc-1261-pc-1262
- /museum/sharp-pc-1401-pc-1402-pc-1421
- /museum/sharp-pc-1403-h
- /museum/sharp-pc-1500-pc-1500a
- /museum/sharp-pc-2500
oc_id: 936
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230602175555/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=936
date: '2023-06-02'
---
The Sharp PC-121x series is generally regarded as the first commercially available pocket computers ever. Its design was based on the way normal pocket calculators were built, but the case was turned 90 degrees to allow for a wider display, and most mathematical function keys were replaced with alphanumerical keys. Its main intended use was BASIC programming, although it could be used as a calculator as well, by simply typing in the math functions with the alphanumerical keyboard in one line of up to 80 characters.
As for the release date of the different models, sources somewhat differ, but based on model numbers and a careful examination of exemplars of all three types, the following course of events seems the most probable: The **PC-1210** was the first model, released in 1980. Contrary to the other models, it had only 896 bytes of RAM (1 RAM chip of 1k\*4bit = 512 Bytes, plus 3 times 128 Bytes incorporated in the three display chips), resulting in 400 Bytes user memory, shared between BASIC (max. 400 steps) and variables, the so-called "flexible memories" (max. 50). Moreover, there are 26 "fixed memories" (A\~Z) and 48 steps "reserve memory", which do not use up any user memory. When looking at the "inner values", the PC-1210 looks a bit like a prototype, as there are multiple "fixes" on the PCBs, and a small additional PCB with a single logic chip had been squeezed in, which is missing in the later models.
This first model was quickly replaced by the **PC-1211**, which was released in the same year, and had two additional RAM chips, thus having 1920 bytes of RAM at its command (1424 steps, 178 flexible memories). The PCB had been slightly redesigned, and some of the chips updated.
At the same time, it was also marketed by Tandy/Radio Shack as the [TRS-80 Pocket Computer](/museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-pc-1/), which had a slightly earlier version of the main PCBs (judging from the fixes), a slightly different look (outer plastic parts in black, not brown, and gray display frame), but exactly the same technical data.
In 1983, the PC-1211 was re-released as the **PC-1212**. The innards are exactly the same (identical PCB number). Allegedly, some minor changes had been made to the ROMs, and the only visible difference was that the display does not have the strangely yellowish background colour, but looks like any LCD as they are commonly known.
The PC-121x series provided a display of 24 characters (some of the later Sharp PCs had even less!), and was a pseudo "multi-processor system" with two 4bit-CPUs. However, this design was probably not chosen in order to improve speed, but simply because the available CMOS processors did not have enough on-board ROM to implement BASIC functionality in one CPU alone. Thus, they basically do not work in parallel, but in a 'time sharing' manner: CPU I functions to read key-in data or read the instruction to be executed from RAM, and scheduling math operations and BASIC statements. Operations are then performed by CPU II, which also handles display and buzzer output as well as low-level printer and cassette functions.
The picture represents a PC-1210 with the **CE-122** printer and cassette interface unit (single needle mechanical dot printer). Other peripherals were the **CE-121** cassette interface, and the **CE-152** tape recorder, which could of course be used with most other models as well.
Special thanks to **Roman von Wartburg** and his [site](http://retrocomputing.ch/) for all this information.