Sharp electronic organizers with the IC card slot (Wizard OZ/IQ/PA/PI series)

[rprosperi]

(03-29-2021 04:58 PM)Akuji Wrote:  I would like to extend the list of official Basic cards to its full (at lest known to me):
707
770
775 - 32 Kb RAM + 64 Kb EPROM
776 - 32 Kb RAM + 128 Kb EPROM
8B03
870 - 32 Kb RAM
871
CE-901 - 128 Kb RAM
CE-902 - 256 Kb RAM

Were all of them available in the US market under the OZ branding (apart from the CE ones, obviously)?

Also, there is a card from the German manufacturer Becker & Partner called 'Fast BasIQ' which is apparently some kind of Basic card for Sharp organizers as well. Unfortunately, I don't have any details regarding this card apart from its photo at this time. Bob, do you know anything about this card? This company also produced 3rd party RAM cards for Sharp organizers.

The OZ/IQ-775 and -776 were not BASIC cards, these were blank EPROM/RAM cards for VARs/Integrators/Corporate customers to deploy custom applications developed in C using an SDK obtained from each Sharp subsidiary.

SEC (Sharp Electronics Corp - the US Sales subsidiary) did not carry the OZ-870, as it made more sense to only carry the larger card; we had constant complaints that the 64K RAM in the earlier cards was not enough.

I recall the CE-901 and -902 but IIRC, these were simple RAM cards (for storing organizer data) that were introduced for the 9000 series (9500/9520/9600) Wizard models.

I have no details on the 'Fast BasIQ' product. At the time, I heard about this (from a customer!) but could get no details. Sharp essentially had each subsidiary focus on it's own market, with only local partners and vendors. This (lack of) 'vision' seems naive and silly today, but in the pre-internet days, it was industry standard behavior and other than Canada and Australia (and Mexico to a lesser extent) we collaborated very little with vendors in other countries.