28) First "Transistorized" Electronic Calculator
Photo: "Compet CS-10A" announced by Sharp Corporation (Then, Hayakawa
Electric Company) in 1964
Electronic calculators were one of important electronic products,
which helped promote the Japanese semiconductor industry. The number of electronic
calculators produced in 1965 in Japan was only 4,300 units and then, in 1980,
amounted to the historic large number as many as 60 million. The number of
the manufacturers reached around 50. The growing demand of electronic calculators
must have been a spring board of the growth of semiconductor industry in Japan
throughout the transistor, IC and LSI eras.
Opinion is divided on the origin of electronic calculators. As far as I know,
it must be "Anita Mark8" manufactured by Sumlock-Comptometer Inc.
in England in 1962. Since it utilized vacuum tubes instead of conventional
relay devices, it was an electronic calculator as far as it goes. Its appearance
and performance, however, were far apart from electronic calculators today.
In 1964 Sharp Corporation (then, Hayakawa Electric Company) announced "Compet
CS-10A." It adopted germanium semiconductor devices fully for an arithmetic
unit, where up to 350 transistors and 2,300 diodes were used.
This electronic calculator was 42 cm wide,44 cm deep and 25 cm high, and weighed
25 kg. Although it was neither small nor light enough then, Sharp continued
to strive for miniaturization and low-power consumption and also for adoption
of LCD displays, thereby bringing electronic calculators up to specialty products
of Japan.
Sharp was awarded "IEEE Milestone" in 2005 for their contribution
to the development of the series of electronic calculators.
(By courtesy of Sharp)