--- 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.