LGR Tech Tales - The Pocket Calculator Wars
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
David
In 1976 or so, I joined the war by buying an SR-52 programmable. A fault led to upgrading to the TI-59 (free from TI after getting my 52 for repair. I loved that thing and still have it though the cardreader doesn't work today. Having bought a few more along with some HP-41s, decades later it's hard to find a good one. There are supposedly a couple of places fixing HPs (not including HP who doesn't) but no-body fixes the TI calculators as far as I know. I have a TI59 and a PC100 printer which are totally dead (luckily not my original calculator) and today they are unrepairable. The PC100 seems to be the victim of bad capacitors. I wish I could find someone to repair mine. I feel like the TI-95 is the best example of this breed. They're cheap and reliable. You should do a show on that one. Also you could probably get a good show about the DM41X, one of a number of new -re-manufactured- calculator copies of the HP calculators of the 70s and 80s from SwissMicros in Switzerland. It's pretty cool to have a brand new equivalent to the HP41CX but with a flash disk visible to modern computers.
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In 1976 or so, I joined the war by buying an SR-52 programmable. A fault led to upgrading to the TI-59 (free from TI after getting my 52 for repair. I loved that thing and still have it though the cardreader doesn't work today. Having bought a few more along with some HP-41s, decades later it's hard to find a good one. There are supposedly a couple of places fixing HPs (not including HP who doesn't) but no-body fixes the TI calculators as far as I know. I have a TI59 and a PC100 printer which are totally dead (luckily not my original calculator) and today they are unrepairable. The PC100 seems to be the victim of bad capacitors. I wish I could find someone to repair mine. I feel like the TI-95 is the best example of this breed. They're cheap and reliable. You should do a show on that one. Also you could probably get a good show about the DM41X, one of a number of new -re-manufactured- calculator copies of the HP calculators of the 70s and 80s from SwissMicros in Switzerland. It's pretty cool to have a brand new equivalent to the HP41CX but with a flash disk visible to modern computers.
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Cappen
I am a wee bit dissapointed that you didn't mention a type of calculator which got me through my apprenticeship in the eighties. Sharp came out with a calculator which was in landscape format, could store and display formula, but wasn't considered a programmable calculator (My guess is that because it couldn't loop or repeat calculations, just store formula and use variables. I t was the EL5101 and EL5100. They looked like those pocket computers with a long alpha numeric display along the top with a wide keyboard underneath. I still have a working EL5100 (At least it was last time I put batteries in it!
PS anyone know how to get the one row of dots that has died to come back to life? in a 1 row by 80 lcd calculator display?
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I am a wee bit dissapointed that you didn't mention a type of calculator which got me through my apprenticeship in the eighties. Sharp came out with a calculator which was in landscape format, could store and display formula, but wasn't considered a programmable calculator (My guess is that because it couldn't loop or repeat calculations, just store formula and use variables. I t was the EL5101 and EL5100. They looked like those pocket computers with a long alpha numeric display along the top with a wide keyboard underneath. I still have a working EL5100 (At least it was last time I put batteries in it!
PS anyone know how to get the one row of dots that has died to come back to life? in a 1 row by 80 lcd calculator display?
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Mandolinic
For a time in the 1970s, computer developers were putting a pocket calculator chip on the same board as the microprocessor, with the processor subcontracting any complicated arithmetic to the calculator. The processor would pump out a series of virtual key-presses to the calculator, and then read back the displayed value.
It was a cheap solution to the problem that early microprocessors had little in the way of true arithmetic capabilities.
The trend for math co-processors continued for many years afterwards, although the later co-processors worked in pure binary, unlike the pocket calculator chips which worked in BCD (binary coded decimal.
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For a time in the 1970s, computer developers were putting a pocket calculator chip on the same board as the microprocessor, with the processor subcontracting any complicated arithmetic to the calculator. The processor would pump out a series of virtual key-presses to the calculator, and then read back the displayed value.
It was a cheap solution to the problem that early microprocessors had little in the way of true arithmetic capabilities.
The trend for math co-processors continued for many years afterwards, although the later co-processors worked in pure binary, unlike the pocket calculator chips which worked in BCD (binary coded decimal.
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ParadoxHeart
The beginning of a race to power that I think we're finally starting to see the tail end of, 50 years later. We're butting up against human limits, with the pixel density of modern screens and how small devices can be and still be something a person can use. We're also drawing close to material limits for making faster chips, thermal limits for cooling, power draw limits for some of the world's electrical systems. Graphics is gradually becoming more and more focussed on diminishing return improvements. I really feel like, until something fundamentally different makes it way out of fancy lab experiments, we're on the home stretch of the tech race.
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The beginning of a race to power that I think we're finally starting to see the tail end of, 50 years later. We're butting up against human limits, with the pixel density of modern screens and how small devices can be and still be something a person can use. We're also drawing close to material limits for making faster chips, thermal limits for cooling, power draw limits for some of the world's electrical systems. Graphics is gradually becoming more and more focussed on diminishing return improvements. I really feel like, until something fundamentally different makes it way out of fancy lab experiments, we're on the home stretch of the tech race.
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Richard
You didn't mention the TI-58, TI-58C and TI-59. Those where the real competition for the HP65 and HP67, the TI-59 had also a magnetic card reader, had double the speed of the HPs and mor program steps. But, on the other hand, lower build quality. And with HP's RPN in many cases not so much program steps were required for many problems. Speed was not so important, it was forgettable anyway. Personally I would have chosen an HP67. Nothing compares to those hiqh quality keys of an HP Calculator. I had to buy a TI-58C with -Constant Memory- in '79, anything better would have been too costly. In the 80s I had an HP28S.
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You didn't mention the TI-58, TI-58C and TI-59. Those where the real competition for the HP65 and HP67, the TI-59 had also a magnetic card reader, had double the speed of the HPs and mor program steps. But, on the other hand, lower build quality. And with HP's RPN in many cases not so much program steps were required for many problems. Speed was not so important, it was forgettable anyway. Personally I would have chosen an HP67. Nothing compares to those hiqh quality keys of an HP Calculator. I had to buy a TI-58C with -Constant Memory- in '79, anything better would have been too costly. In the 80s I had an HP28S.
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AtrociousAK47
remember hearing that sort of -you wont have calculators on you-crap throughout elementary and middle school, then i got to trigonometry in my junior or senior year of highschool where a graphing calculator was required becuz imaginary numbers, unfortnately my graphing calculator was apparently a different but similar looking model so i could never follow the lessons, which combined with my sudden and uncontrollable urge to sleep in that class meant i never did that well nor retained much of it. scientific calculator was invaluable for both algebra 1 and physics class in my freshman year tho.
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remember hearing that sort of -you wont have calculators on you-crap throughout elementary and middle school, then i got to trigonometry in my junior or senior year of highschool where a graphing calculator was required becuz imaginary numbers, unfortnately my graphing calculator was apparently a different but similar looking model so i could never follow the lessons, which combined with my sudden and uncontrollable urge to sleep in that class meant i never did that well nor retained much of it. scientific calculator was invaluable for both algebra 1 and physics class in my freshman year tho.
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Demonic
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I am adding
And subtracting
I'm controlling
And composing
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I am adding
And subtracting
I'm controlling
And composing
By pressing down a special key
It plays a little melody
By pressing down a special key
It plays a little melody
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
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I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I am adding
And subtracting
I'm controlling
And composing
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I am adding
And subtracting
I'm controlling
And composing
By pressing down a special key
It plays a little melody
By pressing down a special key
It plays a little melody
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
I'm the operator
With my pocket calculator
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Cratecruncher
My dad used a slide rule in his work for 30 years before acquiring an HP65 Programmable in the 70s. In 1982 I bought an HP41CX with a -Math Pac- for $300 to get my lazy ass through engineering school. I still have it and dad's HP65 and they are both doing great. I also have just about every other HP Scientific and peripheral ever made. I even have an HP emulator on my phone so I don't have to wear my calculator on my belt anymore. You never know when you'll need to evaluate a hyperbolic cotangent.
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My dad used a slide rule in his work for 30 years before acquiring an HP65 Programmable in the 70s. In 1982 I bought an HP41CX with a -Math Pac- for $300 to get my lazy ass through engineering school. I still have it and dad's HP65 and they are both doing great. I also have just about every other HP Scientific and peripheral ever made. I even have an HP emulator on my phone so I don't have to wear my calculator on my belt anymore. You never know when you'll need to evaluate a hyperbolic cotangent.
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Jek
calculators suck compared to compilers. What if you want to change a variable? Or want to repeat the calculation with different variables? It baffles me that people are still taught to use calculators instead of just learning simple python or something. Its like literally 10 more characters to do basic operations, and then you learn a real skill and can save your work and have such amazing amounts of flexibility. Using a calculator instead of a compiler is like using an abacus instead of a calculator.
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calculators suck compared to compilers. What if you want to change a variable? Or want to repeat the calculation with different variables? It baffles me that people are still taught to use calculators instead of just learning simple python or something. Its like literally 10 more characters to do basic operations, and then you learn a real skill and can save your work and have such amazing amounts of flexibility. Using a calculator instead of a compiler is like using an abacus instead of a calculator.
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Alien
At my high school in 1975, the nerd rivalries were between HP and TI calculator owners, instead of the Mac/PC wars of the 90's. The nerds and geeks were identified by the calculator pouch hanging from their belt. My first calculator was the shirt-pocket sized HP21 Scientific: $120. 00. I was more of a poser - I didn't really need a calculator for high school, I just thought they were cool. The genuine dweebs were the guys with the programmable models.
reply
At my high school in 1975, the nerd rivalries were between HP and TI calculator owners, instead of the Mac/PC wars of the 90's. The nerds and geeks were identified by the calculator pouch hanging from their belt. My first calculator was the shirt-pocket sized HP21 Scientific: $120. 00. I was more of a poser - I didn't really need a calculator for high school, I just thought they were cool. The genuine dweebs were the guys with the programmable models.
reply
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