The Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of Pocket Computer developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6x6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically. There were five different models of the Organiser II released between 1986 and 1989.

In 1986, the successful Organiser II introduced a number of hardware improvements, a better keyboard and display, a much larger ROM and either 8K or 16K of battery-backed RAM, and featured a capable newly-designed single-tasking operating system. The first Organiser II models featured a two-line display. The LZ64 featured a four-line display. The new model supported a number of different types of improved DATAPAKs containing either EPROM or battery-backed RAM storage each storing between 8k and 128k of data. Later flashpaks (EEPROM) and RAMpaks were added to the range, capable of storing up to 256k on each extension slot.

The Psion Organiser II Models LZ and LZ64 come with a powerful set of utilities including:

• A database which allows you to store items of information and retrieve them again instantly.
• A diary to keep track of personal appointments.
• Alarms to remind you of your diary entries, or to use as an alarm clock.
• A sophisticated calculator, for simple or complex calculations involving mathematical functions.
• A clock, with a stopwatch and timer.
• Notepads with calculation, for information such as things- to-do or expenses lists.
• International time and dialling codes.
• A month-at-a-view calendar.
• Password protection.
• A multi-file database.
• A choice of European languages.

The Organiser also has its own built-in programming language called OPL. The language is designed to exploit all the machine's facilities to the full and to let you tailor the Organiser to your own specific needs.

The Organiser has an internal memory and two external devices which are the equivalent of disc drives on a desk-top computer. Each one can hold a Datapak for you to store information on, or a program pack containing a program such as the Pocket Spreadsheet.

The internal memory of the Model LZ64 holds around 64,000 characters. In addition, one or more Datapaks can boost the storage capacity considerably - by up to 128,000 characters per DatapaK

This example in our collection comes with a soft leather belt carry case.

Magazine Articles About Organiser II

• Personal Computer World - August 1987
• Practical Computing - December 1987