A Sharp Dressed Pocket Computer

Makers have hacked together some amazing cyberdecks over the years — but whether or not they rival the pocket computers of the 1980s is debatable. Without question, the modern creations have far more computational power. But when it comes to design — well… today’s 3D prints just don’t have the style of a 40-year-old machine developed at a time when everyone was still trying to figure out what a pocket PC even was, let alone what you’d do with it.

To get the best of both worlds, electronics hobbyist shiura hacked modern hardware into a beautiful Sharp PC-G801 pocket computer from 1988. Yes, that does mean the original hardware was gutted so that shiura could reuse the case. In remembrance of this fallen pocket PC, let’s have a moment of silence before we continue.

As originally built, the PC-G801 came equipped with a Z80-compatible processor and 8KB of RAM. That is not very useful in today’s world, so hacking this little machine is quite understandable. With new parts, it can actually be used again, rather than spending the rest of its life sitting on a shelf.

To bring it up to date, shiura designed a custom PCB to replace the original. Rather than a Z80 CPU, this one is powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W single-board computer. This serves as the main computing unit. The Pi interacts with an ESP32-S3 development board via a serial connection. The ESP32 handles interfacing with the hardware that remains from the original computer, such as the keyboard. It also powers the new display — a 256×64 OLED display that fits neatly in the case.

With these upgrades, the PC-G801 no longer needs to boot into BASIC where today’s users are unlikely to do more than type in a few “10 PRINT” programs on occasion. The Pi makes it possible to run a full Linux operating system on the machine, which is just what shiura did.

Some people may be upset about removing the original hardware, but there is little doubt that the result was worth it. You won’t find a cooler Linux pocket computer anywhere.