The 1997 PalmPilot: The One-Megabyte PDA That IMAX Still Emulates

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Projectionists running 70 millimeter IMAX prints, some weighing over 600 pounds, control the film platters through software that imitates a handheld device from 1997. This episode explains how that came to be by going back to March 10, 1997, when Palm, then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics, launched the PalmPilot Personal at $299 and the PalmPilot Professional at $399. Inside was a 16 megahertz Motorola processor, Palm OS 2.0, and either 512 kilobytes or one megabyte of memory, all running for weeks on two AAA batteries.

Those limits forced ruthless efficiency. Where rivals poured money into natural handwriting recognition that slow chips could not handle, Palm asked users to learn Graffiti, a set of simplified single-stroke letters the device could read instantly. The company also treated early buyers with unusual respect, and by 1998 it had reportedly sold over a million units. The same static, predictable interface is why IMAX engineers later rebuilt it as a simulator for a job where a stray swipe on a modern touchscreen could be costly.

• The PalmPilot weighed 5.6 ounces, measured 4.7 by 3.1 inches, and had a monochrome screen of 160 by 160 pixels.
• Graffiti reversed the usual approach: it trained the human to write for the computer, as with an A drawn like an upside-down V.
• Syncing with the desktop meant an RS-232 serial connection, and getting online required a separate $129 modem running at 14.4 kilobits per second.
• Owners of the earlier Pilot 1000 and 5000 could buy a $199 upgrade kit, or $99 for registered users, with a new memory card, a ROM chip, and a plastic door that added infrared.
• IMAX quick turn reel units were originally operated with physical PalmPilots, and the simulator preserved the interface for releases like Oppenheimer.