Artifact Details

Title

Davies, Charles oral history

Catalog Number

102702098

Type

Document

Description

Charles Davies was the founding employee of pioneering British mobile computing company Psion, started by his former professor David Potter. Psion developed the first handheld platform, and was one of the very first successful handheld computer companies. Charles Davies’ oral history begins with a short discussion of his introduction to computer science at school in Wales during his youth. He then talks about his degree in physics and subsequent PhD in computational plasma physics. After a few years working at a career in academia, Davies saw an opportunity to work for David Potter at the then small start-up company, Psion. From this point, the bulk of the interview describes the many significant accomplishments and projects that Psion took on and that Davies was involved with. These projects include the Organiser I and II and the Series 3, 5, and 7. Davies also discusses Psion’s endeavors in the growing mobile phone market, and how it spun off the Symbian operating system for smartphones in partnership with large companies such as Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson. He describes the difficulties and advantages of being a start-up computer company in the UK, as opposed to a start-up in Silicon Valley.

Date

2009-01-13

Contributor

Davies, Charles, Interviewee
Nelson, Lauren, Editor
Weber, Marc, Interviewer; Cameraperson

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

London, United Kingdom

Extent

40 p.

Format

PDF

Copyright Holder

Computer History Museum

Category

Transcription

Subject

Davies, Charles; Psion; Control Data Corporation (CDC); BBC Micro; Sinclair Resarch, Ltd.; ZX Spectrum; View File; Acorn; Palm Computing; Organiser I; Organiser II; Netbook; RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer); MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages); Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIM); BlackBerry; General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA); Motorola; Ericsson; Nokia

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X5303.2009