The Calculator-on-a-Chip (2015)

Summary

The Arrival of the "Calculator-on-a-Chip" During the late 1960s and early 1970s a major aim of the calculator electronics companies was to integrate all of the functionality of a calculator into one integrated circuit, so producing a "Calculator-on-a Chip". Nigel Tout This is a new article which was not originally in "The International Calculator Collector". Introduction As told in the section "The Story of the Race to Develop the Pocket Electronic Calculator", from the mid-1960s one of the aims of the electronics industry was to integrate more of the functionality of a calculator into fewer integrated circuits so that less components were required and calculators became smaller and cheaper. Inside the Canon Canola 130S. This is a typical calculator of about 1968 and requires 13 circuit boards full of components. The degree of integration was gradually improved. Here the Sharp QT-8B of 1970 has a 4-piece chipset manufactured by Rockwell. The development effort eventually led to several companies introducing, around the same time, integrated circuits that provided all of the functionality of a calculator in one integrated circuit - that is they employed a, so-called, "Calculator-on-a-chip". Note that the early "Calculator-on-a-chip" examples still required additional components for driving displays. The first "Calculator-on-a-chip" integrated circuits produced were: Mostek MK6010 (MK5010) The article "The Calculator that spawned the Microprocessor: The Busicom 141-PF calculator and the Intel 4004 microprocessor" explained that while the Japanese calculator company Busicom was developing with Intel the electronics for its 141-PF calculator, which was to lead to the Intel 4004 microprocessor, this very innovative Japanese calculator manufacturer had also commissioned Mostek of Dallas to push the limits of integration of calculator electronics by putting all the functionality on a single chip. Mostek was a new start-up company and desperate for sales. It estimated that...