BlackBerry 950 (introduced as "Inter@ctive Pager 950", development name "Leapfrog") is an early

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

model, introduced in 1998 by Canadian

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

manufacturer

Research in Motion BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablet ...

. There were two editions, the Exchange Edition and the Internet Edition, both identical in hardware and differing only in the provided software; the Exchange Edition could connect to corporate

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

mailboxes running on Microsoft Exchange, while the Internet Edition could access general

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

mailboxes only. BlackBerry 850 was a different version of this pager, released at later time, which, instead of 900MHz modem, had an 800MHz modem that allowed connectivity with the DataTAC network.

Specifications

Intel 80386EX The Intel 80386EX (''386EX'') is a variant of the Intel 386 microprocessor designed for embedded systems. Introduced in August 1994 and was successful in the market being used aboard several orbiting satellites and microsatellites. Intel did not m ...

microprocessor * 4MB

flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...

* 512kB SRAM * 132 x 65 pixel monochrome LCD screen with backlight that could display 6 or 8 lines of text * one AA battery for power that lasted two weeks.
The pager would beep and vibrate in protest if the battery polarization was reversed when inserted the wrong way. * 134g (without plastic holster) or 161g (with plastic holster) weight * 900MHz wireless

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

for

Mobitex Mobitex is an OSI based open standard, national public access wireless packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It was developed in t ...

network access *

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...

keyboard and trackwheel

RIM OS

RIM OS, the operating system designed for those devices, was a

cooperative multitasking Cooperative multitasking, also known as non-preemptive multitasking, is a style of computer multitasking in which the operating system never initiates a context switch from a running process to another process. Instead, in order to run multiple ...

system with

message passing In computer science, message passing is a technique for invoking behavior (i.e., running a program) on a computer. The invoking program sends a message to a process (which may be an actor or object) and relies on that process and its supporting i ...

infrastructure that depended on the applications to use

message loop In computer science, the event loop is a programming construct or design pattern that waits for and dispatches events or messages in a program. The event loop works by making a request to some internal or external "event provider" (that generally ...

for processing events from the user interface, in a fashion similar to that of Microsoft Windows. RIM OS used memory protection provided by the MMU of the 80386EX. Applications were written in

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

and compiled into files that followed the PE file format originally used on Microsoft Windows, which itself was based on

Common Object File Format The Common Object File Format (COFF) is a format for executable, object code, and shared library computer files used on Unix systems. It was introduced in Unix System V, replaced the previously used a.out format, and formed the basis for exten ...

that first appeared on Unix. Those files, that were given the .dll extension, could be inspected with tools that were meant for handling Microsoft Windows executables. Applications, upon being sideloaded with BlackBerry Desktop Manager, would be stripped of all the unnecessary data that was included in the .dll files, and would be linked with the rest of the code on the device allowing them

execute in place In computer science, execute in place (XIP) is a method of executing programs directly from long-term storage rather than copying it into RAM. It is an extension of using shared memory to reduce the total amount of memory required. Its general ef ...

from the flash memory. The operating system was aware of the layout of the memory, and preserved the names of the files from which applications were loaded, allowing their removal and updating. RIM, like

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

, would provide strategies to the developers of the applications that would help conserve the scarce resources of the device.

References

950 Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids int ...

Personal digital assistants Pagers Products introduced in 1998 {{Wireless-stub