New Pocketbook 10.3" Notepad/Ereader: Inkpad One

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Long before Sailfish back in the heyday of 8 bit microprocessors, there were multitasking OS available.

Intel's RMX-80 (=Real-time Multitasking eXecutive) comes to mind ... Memories, memories, those were the days

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by nana77

On a mobile phone, or tablet?

We had 32 bit multitasking by the time of analogue mobile/cell, never mind CDMA/GSM (2G).

Multitasking on 8bit and 16bit CPUs was common in the 1980s, but first tablets were PDAs. The Gridpad was 1989 PC type tablet, but earlier tablet type pocket devices existed.

UNIX is from 1976,

There are different kinds of multitasking.

Occam (1983) and Modula-2 (1978) have co-operative multi-tasking in the programming language. Modula-2 is on 8bit, 16bit and 32 bit CPUs. The Transputer had multiprocessor and concurrency support.

You can write co-operative or pre-emptive multitasking in assembler and most computer languages for most CPUs. It typically needs much more RAM to be useful. Security and process isolation are issues on general purpose OS and may need support of Memory Management hardware and CPU privilege levels not available on most 8bit and primitive pseudo 16 bit CPUs such as the 8088/8086. The first viable Intel CPU for a UNIX type OS was the 80286, and MS sold Xenix for it. Later MS sold off Xenix. OS/2 was for the 286. MS had their own version of OS/2 in 1989.

Multiuser is a separate issue from Multitasking. Also multiple simultaneous users may not have per user multitasking.
Compare
MP/M 80 (ran on 8 bit CPU with a multitasking kernel for multiple users at the same time each running only one CP/M program at a time.) There was also MP/M and Concurrent DOS for the 8088/8086 which could even run Win 3.x programs in Real mode.
Win 3.x in Enhanced mode is single user and co-operative multitasking.
Win NT is multiple users, but only one at a time originally, but pre-emptive multitasking.
UNIX, BSD and Linux can support multiple users at the same time and multitasking.

A Real Time OS may or may not have multitasking and / or multiple CPUs.


There is nothing at all novel about Sailfish.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Long before Sailfish back in the heyday of 8 bit microprocessors, there were multitasking OS available.

Originally Posted by nana77

On a mobile phone, or tablet?

Nokia Internet Tablets beginning 2005 and Nokia N900 phone beginning 2009.

[DNSB]

Where was the necessity of running the OS on a tablet or mobile phone mentioned?

Not to mention that even before Sailfish, there were mobile devices capable of running background tasks including video.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Nokia Internet Tablets beginning 2005 and Nokia N900 phone beginning 2009.

Windows XP Tablets in 2002...I was at a launch event in New York. I still have the fancy notepad that was one of the giveaways at the event.
https://news.microsoft.com/source/20...ustry-support/

Shari

[nana77]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Nokia Internet Tablets beginning 2005 and Nokia N900 phone beginning 2009.

Pardon, again: I was wrong as the first multitaking within real live events shown on the minimized application was the N9, iirc (into the mass-market portable devices "ecosystem"?).

Spoiler:

@DNSB: it was mentioned the multitasking feature on Android, I recall it wasn't comparable to those Nokia till years later, as functionalities.

Thanks for all those info and memories, I don't want to derail the thread, btw.
By looking at the Wiki several portable devices had even handwriting recognition, in like... 1989 LOL?
Thought that surely some of those ones had also a magnificent keyboard to type on.

I'd loved, literally, the N900, and the N9.
Edit, and finished the pardons . Errata corrige.

[nana77]

At the moment it seems there are no reviews yet, thought this video has been published:


@shalim: Windows Mobile wasn't bad (imho), btw.
Edit: well, apart having drove down the Nokia ecosystem for 10 years within the Lumia Series (that had some gems too).