https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/ The most recently written-up works of the collection: 1,871 works on the history of technology, each with documented sources. en Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000 https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/993https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/993Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Brazilian copy of the ZX Spectrum 48K, launched in June 1985 by Microdigital Eletrônica Ltda. of São Paulo, a firm founded in 1981 by the brothers George and Tomas Roberto Kovari, which had already copied the ZX80 and ZX81. Z80A at 3.58 MHz, 16 or 48 KB RAM, 16 KB ROM, a 40-key rubber keyboard, an expansion slot and connections for cassette recorder, joystick and television; sound went through … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/992https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/992Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Floor robot for teaching Logo, designed in 1983 by Dave Catlin at Valiant Designs in London and built there until 2011; the example in Museums Victoria is dated circa 1985. A turtle-shaped case with a transparent green shell, 2 driven wheels and 2 red LEDs for eyes. As it moved it could draw shapes on the floor. The maker's brochure archive quotes a guide (SCET 1994) naming the concepts of … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/991https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/991Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Copy protection for home computer games, 1985, invented by John Frost and marketed by ASAP Developments. After loading, the program displayed a scrambled character image. The buyer held the flat plastic piece against the screen, used the keyboard to size a line to its width, folded it into a C and read 2 letters through the prisms; a second code then appeared to be typed in, and the game started. … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/990https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/990Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Microcomputer kit from VEB Robotron-Elektronik Riesa: a populated and tested circuit board, a 32-key membrane keyboard to be soldered on, and detailed documentation. U880 at 1 MHz, 2 KB ROM, 16 KB RAM, picture via television channel 3 with 32 lines of up to 32 characters; no built-in BASIC. To private buyers it was sold in exactly 2 shops — the home-electronics specialist shop of VEB … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/989https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/989Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000French home computer, on sale from June 1984 at 2,390 francs, where the older TO7 had cost about 7,000. Motorola 6809E at 1 MHz, 48 KB RAM of which 16 KB was screen memory, 16 KB ROM with monitor program and MO5 BASIC 1.0. It entered schools through the state plan "Informatique pour tous", presented by Prime Minister Laurent Fabius on 25 January 1985: about 120,000 additional microcomputers and … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/988https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/988Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Small computer from VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen, shown at the Leipzig fair in spring 1984 under the name HC 900; chief developer Werner Domschke, team leader Werner Dennstedt. U880D at 1.75 MHz, 32 KB RAM of which 16 KB was screen memory, 4 KB ROM holding the CAOS operating system, no built-in BASIC — that came from cassette or as a plug-in module. A television served as … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/987https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/987Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The first mass-produced home computer of the Soviet Union. The design came out of the Elektronika NC-8010 at NIITT in Zelenograd (chief designer V. L. Dshkhunyan); the finished machine was created in 1983 at the Exciton plant in Pavlovsky Posad, where series production ran from 1984 to 1991. Plants in Kishinev, Tbilisi, Šiauliai and Ordzhonikidze also built BK-0010 and BK-0011 units. A television … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/986https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/986Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Sony home computer, on sale from November 1983 at 54,800 yen (IPSJ Computer Museum). Z80A-equivalent processor, 16 KB of main RAM and 16 KB of video RAM, 32 KB ROM holding MSX-BASIC, 256 × 192 pixels, 16 colours, 32 sprites. An ordinary television served as the display; programs came as cartridges or from cassette. The museum names beginners without specialist knowledge as the target users and … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/985https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/985Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A self-build computer from Yugoslavia. Voja Antonić designed it; in 1983 the magazine Galaksija published, in the special issue "Računari u vašoj kući" (Computers in your home), the circuit diagram, assembly instructions, sources for parts, mail-order addresses for kits and ways to order components legally from abroad. Editor-in-chief Jova Regasek put Dejan Ristanović in charge of the project. … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/984https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/984Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A toy maker's complete package, 1983, at 750 dollars: keyboard, daisy-wheel printer, two joysticks and three cassettes holding SmartBASIC, a pre-formatted blank tape and a game. Z80A at 3.58 MHz, 80 KB of memory expandable to 144 KB, one tape drive holding 256 KB per cassette, a second for 200 dollars. A variant, Expansion Module 3, turned an already-owned ColecoVision games console into a … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/983https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/983Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Cheap offshoot of the BBC Micro, unveiled on 25 August 1983 at the Acorn User Exhibition and sold at 199 pounds, while the BBC Micro stood nearer 400. 1.79 MHz, 32 KB RAM, a full keyboard in a small case. It was aimed at cost-conscious buyers who wanted BBC BASIC without the BBC Micro's price; Chris Curry and Hermann Hauser pitched it squarely against the ZX Spectrum in the under-200-pound … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/982https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/982Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000BASICODE was a set of rules by which radio stations broadcast computer programs as an audio signal. Listeners taped the broadcast and loaded it into their home computer. It was carried by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS and its programme Hobbyscoop, which had been transmitting microcomputer software since 1978: Klaas Robers, an employee at Philips in Eindhoven, proposed the system, Hobbyscoop … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/980https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/980Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Home computer from Jupiter Cantab, founded by Richard Altwasser and Stephen Vickers. Altwasser had worked on the ZX Spectrum's hardware at Sinclair, Vickers on its BASIC ROM at Nine Tiles (Centre for Computing History). Z80A at 3.25 MHz, 8 KB ROM, 3 KB RAM expandable to 49 KB; a television as display, a cassette recorder as storage. Price 89.95 pounds. The example in the Centre for Computing … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/979https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/979Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Home computer, built from August 1982 and, per Guinness World Records, until April 1994. The Computer History Museum gives 595 dollars, 1.023 MHz and 64 KB of memory. It could be hooked up to an ordinary television and was used for games, productivity software and BASIC. The sales channel is notable: the Computer History Museum states that many were sold through retail stores that had never sold … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/978https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/978Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Texas Instruments home computer, on sale from the summer of 1981. The Smithsonian gives an introductory price of 525 dollars and about 300 software titles, whose development TI controlled itself. It was sold through some 12,000 stores; at peak, Texas Monthly reports, the Lubbock lines turned out about 5,000 machines a day, roughly 150,000 a month. It was used for cartridge games, for TI BASIC and … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/977https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/977Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A Sinclair home computer, launched on 5 March 1981 as successor to the ZX80, at 49.95 pounds as a kit and 69.95 pounds ready built. It had 1 KB of working memory, expandable to 16 KB by a plug-on RAM pack. It was manufactured by Timex in Dundee. The Centre for Computing History calls it the first mass-market home computer sold in high street chains such as W. H. Smith, and gives over 1.5 million … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/976https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/976Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A computer tied to a television series. In early 1981 the BBC drew up a list of requirements for its Computer Literacy Project and awarded the contract in March 1981 to Acorn Computers, which won with its Proton prototype; Sinclair Research, Tangerine Computer Systems, NewBury Laboratories and Dragon Data had also shown interest. Launched in December 1981: Model A with 16 KB at 299 pounds, Model … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/975https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/975Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Commodore's colour computer for the living room, sold in Germany from October 1981 as the VC-20 for 899 marks. It had already appeared in Japan in October 1980 as the VIC-1001 and in the United States from May 1981. Inside was a MOS 6502; colour came from the MOS 6560 with 8 foreground and 8 background colours, and BASIC was built in. The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum gives 1.5 kilobytes of freely … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/974https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/974Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000NEC's first full personal computer. Announced on 9 May 1979, shown from 16 May at the Microcomputer Show at the Tokyo Ryutsu Center, on sale from 28 September 1979 at 168,000 yen - the display cost extra. Inside was a Z80-compatible μPD780 at 4 MHz, Microsoft's BASIC sat in ROM, and 8 colours could be displayed. The IPSJ museum describes a modular system: a main unit with built-in keyboard, with … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/973https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/973Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A home computer with two cartridge slots, unveiled at a press conference in New York on 14 December 1978, demonstrated at the Winter CES in Las Vegas from 9 January 1979 and shown to the public from 11 May 1979 at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. After FCC approval, production started in October 1979 in a converted pinball factory at 1173 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, and sales began … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/972https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/972Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A machine with everything in one box: according to the Computer Museum of the Information Processing Society of Japan, the MZ-80K had a 10-inch screen showing 40 by 25 characters and 80 by 50 semi-graphic dots, a keyboard of square switches, a built-in cassette deck and a Z80. Sharp released it in December 1978 as a semi-kit; the Tama Art University collection and AKIBA PC Hotline both give … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/971https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/971Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A bare-board self-build kit that buyers soldered themselves . The Centre for Computing History gives the launch as January 1978 at 197.50 pounds plus VAT, a Zilog Z80 at 1 or 2 MHz and about 1,310 hand-soldered joints on a board with 203 parts. Behind it stood Kerr Borland and John Marshall. Over 12,000 units were sold in the first 18 months; the Nascom 2 replaced it in 1979. The Carleton … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/970https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/970Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A complete computer system that Radio Shack showed at a press demonstration at the Warwick Hotel in New York on 3 August 1977 and sold through its own chain of shops. Matthew Reed gives 599.95 dollars for the complete system 26-1051, comprising the computer with power supply and built-in 53-key keyboard, a 12-inch display and a Realistic CTR-41 cassette recorder. Inside was a Zilog Z80 at 1.77 … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/969https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/969Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A complete desktop machine in one case: computer, 9-inch screen, keyboard and built-in cassette drive. The Smithsonian gives a MOS 6502 at 1 MHz, 4 kilobytes of memory and 495 dollars, and says the machine was fully functional out of the box, while Commodore could initially make only about 30 units a day. It was designed by Chuck Peddle, who came to Commodore with the acquisition of MOS … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/968https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/968Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A fully assembled computer for home and office, shown at the West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977 and on sale from June 1977. Stephen Wozniak described it himself in BYTE in May 1977: a 6502 with a 1 microsecond cycle, 4 to 48 KB of dynamic memory, 8 KB of ROM with BASIC always present, 24 rows of 40 characters, a cassette interface averaging over 180 bytes per second, 4 analogue game inputs … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/967https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/967Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Tiny BASIC is a small BASIC interpreter for the first microcomputers, spread through a newsletter that printed source code. The first issue appeared in January 1976 as "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics & Orthodontia", subtitled "Running Light Without Overbyte", edited by Dennis Allison and Bob Albrecht of the non-profit People's Computer Company in Menlo Park. Its purpose was to give … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/966https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/966Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A computer by Processor Technology Corporation, presented on the cover of Popular Electronics in July 1976, described there as a highly intelligent terminal. The case held an Intel 8080, keyboard, television output and cassette interface; the picture came from the firm's own VDM-1 video module. On Lee Felsenstein's account at DigiBarn, he designed most of the circuitry himself, Gordon French was … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/964https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/964Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The meeting place of the Homebrew Computer Club, an amateur club of people building their own computers. The first gathering was on 5 March 1975 in Gordon French's garage in Menlo Park; 32 people came, 6 of them already had home-built computers running, and several had ordered the Altair kit. Fred Moore wrote the newsletter. The club later moved to the auditorium of the Stanford Linear … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/963https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/963Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A kit for electronics hobbyists, announced on the cover of Popular Electronics in January 1975. Built by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) of Albuquerque under H. Edward Roberts, a firm that had previously made electronics kits for model rockets, and calculators. It was operated by toggle switches on the front panel, with results read off light-emitting diodes. No screen … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/962https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/962Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The Micral N is a microcomputer built around the Intel 8008. France's agricultural research institute INRA signed a contract in July 1972 with R2E of Châtenay-Malabry for an automatic measuring and computing unit for agronomy: to collect field readings and from them calculate evapotranspiration, the water given off by soil and plants. Delivery was in January 1973. From April 1973 R2E sold the … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/961https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/961Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000John Blankenbaker began designing the Kenbak-1, a computer for personal use, in autumn 1970, had the machine built by spring 1971 and announced it in Scientific American in early September 1971. The Computer History Museum gives 750 dollars and records that it was not a kit but a finished, working computer with 256 bytes of memory. It was sold mainly to schools: according to the Kenbak-1 Registry … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/959https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/959Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000According to its own corporate history Casio released the graphing scientific calculator fx-7000G in August 1985. On a liquid crystal display of 96 x 64 dots it draws the graph of a function and shows tabular values as a bar chart, with, according to its developer, coordinate readout and zoom; a menu with icons was, as he recalls, being considered at the time. It was meant for and used in … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/958https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/958Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000According to the Museum Europäischer Kulturen the "Schulrechner" SR 1 was built from 1984 at VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, and introduced into GDR schools in 1984/1985; from grade 5 or 6 children used it in mathematics lessons. Families had to buy it: 123 marks with a ration voucher, considerably more without one according to the museum. The device is a small … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/957https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/957Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000According to Casio's own corporate history the SL-800 "Film Card" appeared in November 1983: a credit-card-sized calculator only 0.8 mm thick. The Centre for Computing History gives 85 x 54 x 0.8 mm and 12 g. It calculated to 8 digits on liquid crystal, with square root, percent and one memory; power came, according to the Casio Calculator Museum, from an amorphous-silicon cell that sufficed from … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/955https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/955Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000According to the Mytishchi Museum of Computing the Soviet programmable calculator Elektronika B3-34 was built from 1980 to 1986 at the "Kalkulator" works in Svetlovodsk in the Ukrainian SSR. It works in reverse Polish notation: 98 program steps, 4 stack registers and 14 addressable memories, a vacuum fluorescent display of 8½ plus 2½ digits, powered by 4 cells or the B2-3 adapter. IEEE Spectrum … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/954https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/954Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Hong Kong assembled what others designed. One example in the Smithsonian is the National Semiconductor NS 4520 "Scientist" of the mid-1970s: 35 keys, 8-digit red LED display, reverse Polish notation, no separate battery compartment, and a sticker on the underside reading "Made in Hong Kong"; the same machines were also sold under the Novus name. The colony's business was in volume, not in design … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/953https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/953Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The Hewlett-Packard Journal of March 1980 describes the HP-41C programmable calculator, introduced in 1979, and gives 295 dollars for the calculator, 195 for the card reader, 350 for the 82143A thermal printer, 45 per memory module and 30 for an application module. The machine holds over 130 pre-programmed functions, 64 usable registers divided between data and program, and a continuous memory … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/952https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/952Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The TI-59 programmable calculator appeared in 1977; the New York Times gave a list price of 299.95 dollars in May 1977, it was offered at 219.95 dollars in December 1977 and at 169.95 dollars in November 1982. It holds 960 program steps and 100 memories, calculates internally to 13 digits and shows 10 of them on a red LED display. Besides the keyboard, programs reached the machine by 2 routes … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/951https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/951Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The ET 33 of 1977 belonged to Braun AG's control series, designed by Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs, with Ludwig Littmann named as a contributor. It showed 8 digits on a liquid crystal display with black figures on a silver ground, legible even in bright light, and was 5.4 mm thick. It sold for 76 DM with a 2-year guarantee. The series ran from the ET 11 of 1975 to the ET 100 of 2002, from the ET … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/950https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/950Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Texas Instruments launched the TI-30 scientific calculator in 1976 at 24.95 US dollars and built it until 1986. It has some 40 keys, an 8-digit LED display, reciprocal, square and square root, sine, cosine, tangent, logarithms, powers, pi, percent, parentheses and memory functions; the back reads "ASSEMBLED IN USA". It was aimed at teaching: TI advertised it for the classroom and issued a "TI-30 … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/949https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/949Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Sharp introduced the EL-8026 solar pocket calculator in 1976. According to Tedium the solar cells sat on the back, were large, and served to charge the built-in battery: "the solar cells were large, located on the back, and designed to recharge the battery". Sharp's own corporate blog describes the device as the world's first solar-powered calculator and says it allowed use without worrying about … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/948https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/948Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The Elka 101 was built by Isot in Bulgaria and is dated to about 1976 in the Science Museum Group collection. It is a pocket calculator of 25 x 70 x 135 mm and 0.14 kg in plastic, metal, paper and electronic components, preserved with its box. The museum records that before 1989 Bulgaria had one of the largest electronics industries in Eastern Europe, but that in the 1970s it had to import … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/947https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/947Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The M 75 is a pocket calculator from Aristo-Werke Dennert & Pape of Hamburg, a firm that had lived off the slide rule since 1872. It was built for technical calculations: white and black plastic case, trigonometric functions, logarithms and memory functions, 15 x 6.1 x 2 cm with its cover, run from 3 AA cells, rechargeables or a mains unit, with instructions in 8 languages. It was sold by the … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/946https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/946Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Sinclair Radionics launched the Scientific pocket calculator in 1974; according to Ken Shirriff's analysis it sold for 119.95 dollars or 49.95 pounds, while the HP-35 went for 395 dollars. It computed trigonometric functions, logarithms and antilogarithms, working in scientific notation. The price gap was paid in time and digits: sin 0.1 came back in under 1 second, sin 1 took about 7.5 seconds … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/945https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/945Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Hewlett-Packard sold the HP-65 programmable pocket calculator from 1974 for 795 US dollars. The Smithsonian lists its fields of use as science, engineering, finance, statistics, mathematics, navigation, medicine and surveying; it was designed for repeated calculations. Programs of up to 100 steps were written onto narrow iron-oxide magnetic cards of about 7.2 x 1.1 cm and read through a slot … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/943https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/943Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The minirex 73 was developed from April 1972 by a collective at VEB Funkwerk Erfurt and built at VEB Röhrenwerk Mühlhausen; the case came from the Atelier für Formgestaltung Karl-Marx-Stadt. It was shown at the Leipzig spring fair from 11 to 18 March 1973, after which series production began. It did the 4 basic operations. Power came from NiCd button cells of 1.2 volts and 225 mA from VEB … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/942https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/942Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Sharp brought out the EL-805 in 1973. By the company's own account it was a COS-type unit: liquid crystal display, CMOS-LSI circuitry and wiring all accommodated on a single glass panel. From that followed its consumption. Sharp gives the EL-805 as using 1/9,000th of the power of its first calculator model and as running 100 hours on 1 AA-size battery. Against that same first model the company … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/941https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/941Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A printing calculator from Olivetti of Ivrea, designed by Mario Bellini. A display is missing entirely: output goes through a thermal printer with a built-in paper compartment. A removable battery allows use without a mains cord, a wheel with 4 positions sets the decimal places, and mechanical microswitches sit under the rubber skin. The MoMA names ABS, synthetic rubber and melamine as materials … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/940https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/940Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Texas Instruments announced the TI-2500 Datamath in April 1972 at a list price of 149.95 dollars. It had an 8-digit LED display and did the 4 basic operations with the TMS0119 chip, which held all the logic and the memory for 3 registers. Power came from 6 rechargeable AA cells giving about 4 to 6 hours of use, with charging taking 14 to 16 hours; a mains adapter was also possible. On the first … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/939https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/939Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Sinclair Radionics sold the Executive, a slim pocket calculator, from 1972 at 79.95 pounds plus tax; according to the Centre for Computing History that was about half the price of the competition, and the machine was 1 third the size of comparable calculators of 1972. It did the 4 basic operations, could hold one constant, and had a switch setting the decimal point to floating or 2, 3 or 4 … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/938https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/938Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-35 scientific pocket calculator in January 1972 at 395 dollars. It worked in reverse Polish notation with 14-digit registers of 56 bits, showed 10 digits and covered the range from 10 to the minus 99 to 10 to the 99 with automatic decimal point placement. The clock ran at 200 kHz and a transcendental function was computed within a second. The battery lasted 3 to … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/937https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/937Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Casio brought out the Mini, a calculator for personal use, in August 1972 at 12,800 yen; by the company's own account that was about 1 third the price of competing products and the machine was 1 quarter the size of mainstream models. The display had 6 digits and was intended for use at home, while 8 digits were standard on office calculators. Among the ideas behind the development, Casio's … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/936https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/936Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The Busicom LE-120A is a Japanese pocket calculator; it went on sale in Tokyo from January 1971. It cost 89,800 yen, about 900 marks according to the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, and just under 400 dollars in the United States. The metal case measured 7.2 × 12.4 × 2.4 cm, the display showed 12 digits as light-emitting diodes, and power came from 4 batteries. A carrying strap was supplied to stop … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/935https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/935Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The Bowmar 901B is a pocket calculator with an LED display. Its maker, Bowmar/ALI of Acton, Massachusetts, was a small defence supplier that really wanted only to sell LED displays. When that failed in the calculator market, the company decided in 1970 to build a hand-held machine itself. The basis was TI's TMS0103 chip, with Klixon keys from TI. It cost 240 dollars and measured 3.1 × 5.2 × 1.5 … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/934https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/934Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Sharp introduced the EL-8, a portable battery-powered four-function calculator, in January 1971, at 345 dollars in the United States. It calculated to 8 digits with automatic floating point, showed a minus sign and ERROR on overflow, and saved keys by combining multiply and divide on one key. The display was made of separate vacuum fluorescent tubes of the Itron type from Iseden, 8 segments per … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/933https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/933Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A desktop calculator the buyer soldered together himself. MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) announced the 816 in November 1971, with an article in Popular Electronics and a note in the newsletter of the Amateur Computer Society. It calculated with the 6-chip MOS-LSI set S-80 from Electronic Arrays, a slightly altered version of the S-100 set that set the decimal point by another … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/932https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/932Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000Canon put the Pocketronic, a small printing calculator based on Texas Instruments' Cal-Tech, on sale in Japan in October 1970 and in the United States in January 1971, at a list price of 359 dollars. It calculated to 12 digits, 8 before and 4 after the point, using 3 MOS-LSI circuits from Texas Instruments (TMC1730, TMC1731, TMC1732) on 1 watt at 16 volts. The Pocketronic had no display at all … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/931https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/931Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000HP's first calculator, a programmable desktop machine of about 18 kg at 4,900 dollars. The green 3.25 × 4.75 inch CRT showed the whole stack: 3 registers X, Y and Z in reverse Polish notation, 10 visible mantissa digits and 2 hidden guard digits. Program and data shared the core memory, at most 196 steps and 16 registers, 1 register being equivalent to 14 program steps. Programs were stored on a … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/930https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/930Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000A prototype of a battery-powered printing pocket calculator, never a product. In 1965 TI president Patrick Haggerty ordered the semiconductor laboratory in Dallas to build a calculator of pocket size; Jack Kilby led the team, Jerry Merryman took memory and processor, James Van Tassel the keyboard. The breadboard filled 3 large tables; the first working unit ran in December 1966. It was shown to a … https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/929https://fromsteamtosilicon.art/w/929Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000The Diehl Combitron was a programmable desk calculator; 2 of them were in use at the mathematics institute of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; the Erlangen computer science collection lists the machine under object number I1151 and both examples as working. The Deutsches Museum holds a programmable desk calculator "DIEHL combitron" of 1966, 26.5 kg, 250 by 550 by 430 mm. What the working …