EPOC (operating system)

The operating system EPOC [ ɛpɒk, i ː pɒk ] was developed by Psion PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). EPOC is the direct predecessor of Symbian OS ( EPOC from version 6 ), which is exclusively used on smartphones.

It is a multi-tasking 32- bit OS. It is considered very stable, has a clipboard, printer support, and the ability to insert objects from other applications into documents. In EPOC are some that contain PDA ratios comparatively powerful, Office programs. They made EPOC in the business area very popular.

Originally EPOC was designed for pure keyboard - without touchscreen PDAs such as the Psion Series 3. Since the development of EPOC32 EPOC is also touch-screen capable.

History

With " EPOC " is usually EPOC32 meant that came out for 32 -bit processors, the ARM family in 1997. Psion gave the models the Series 5, 5mx series, series 5mx PRO ( this model was sold only in Germany ), Revo, Revo Plus, series 7, Netbook and netpad with EPOC from.

The previous version of EPOC16 ran from 1989 to Psion SIBO devices ( Sixteen Bit Organiser ) or 16 -bit processors, the 8086 family. Psion devices drove the MC200, MC400, Series 3, Series 3a, Series 3c, Series 3mx, Siena, WorkAbout and WorkAbout mx with this operating system version. The WorkAbout for industrial applications was manufactured until the year 2004.

The further development of the operating system in 1998 in the company Symbian Ltd.. spun at which participated alongside Psion also Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. The renamed Symbian OS was performed with EPOC version 6

Operation and surface

The surfaces of the operating system and the programs can be operated with the touch screen or keyboard, in contrast to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition or Palm OS 5.2 (Sony UX50 ) two entry methods are equally fully supported. The operating concept is similar to the well-known desktop environments, the major operating systems Windows, Mac OS and Linux. There is a desktop, lying on the folders, files, and most installed programs. From there, other programs and the system controller can be called. By means of various add-ons can also be a command line to be made available.

Until ER5 (EPOC Release 5 ) exclusively Eikon was used as a surface. The last produced Psion PDAs also used a version 5.

Applications

EPOC applications are designed for landscape displays. They are operated with keyboard and touch screen pen. Delivery includes were usually a schedule management, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a simple OPL database and various aid programs.

Licensee

Already in 1997, found himself with Geofox a licensee for EPOC. With the Osaris Oregon Scientific another product appeared on the basis of EPOC. Versions 2 and 3 were available for the Series 5 and the Geofox One, version 4 for Osaris.

The R380, Ericsson ( ran with ER 5 in a Unicode variant and its own surface without leave to amend ) possessed one of the first mobile phones via a touch screen. Like the Philips Illium smartphone that has not been brought to the market, it took the design of the Sony Ericsson P800 and P900 models with foldable keyboard and large touch- screen and an aligned on the touch-screen operation beforehand.

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