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The financial calculator
The format, at least in this draft, will take on a sequence related to dates (financial
calculator).
As various models became available an illustration, where available, will be
given plus some technical aspects of each model (financial calculator).
Actual release dates are not known, however the schematics indicate model
numbers and dates which should provide some guidance. Where prices are given
they will be indicated in the currency of the source of the price (i.e. AUD will
indicate Australian Dollars) (financial calculator). The form will be a
little boring as there is no attractive way to list the information (financial
calculator).
It could be done either with illustrations or as a list. It should be remembered
that some models were marketed through companies such as Tandy, Radio Shack and
Remington Rand and possibly others (financial calculator). If Trade Marks
exist for such products acknowledgement is given to the trade mark holders. The
document is produced for the information of collectors and educators (financial
calculator).
It is not to be sold privately for profit however, it may be copied and
distributed freely for the purpose and reason it is written (financial
calculator).
About Casio
Information related to Casio's beginnings is scant and hard to come by (financial
calculator).
The author's first knowledge the company even existed was in the very early
seventies when he first sighted the early products from the company. These
products being sold through Peacock & Associates (financial
calculator).
During this period a Mr. Kawamura was the Australian Agent and the product was
marketed through Peacock Bros. as a parallel line to other products (financial
calculator).
Endeavours are being made to provide a firm foothold concerning Casio's
beginnings and, if and when such details become available, they will be inserted
into this report (financial calculator).
Also around the same period. The Casio Model 101F
(AX 15A-a) had many of the features of the 101 and 102MR's but had a new key
placement design for touch usage rather than the look and press keyboards of the
earlier machines. It started to come with the type of keyboard we had become
familiar with over the years. The 101-F was followed (also in July) with a 121-F
which looked identical to the 101-F but had an extra 2 digits in the display.
The ON/OFF switch also came up on to the keyboard. Other than these differences
the illustration on the right will suit as a guide
Early financial calculators and Computers
In 1953, Nixdorf developed the ES 12 and ES 24
electronic financial calculators. By 1954, the LFI had expanded to ten technicians.
In 1957, Nixdorf's company completed development of the Electronic financial
calculator EM
22, including all basic calculating functions. The EM 22 came on the market in
1960 in a transistorized version as the Gamma 172. Nixdorf obtained Wander
Werker in Koln as a distributor for his products, the Wanderer Werker also
managed the French company Bull, as well as their own office machine production.
Wanderer Werker became Nixdorf's major customer for the next few years. In 1958,
Nixdorf hired a development engineer. Prior to this, Nixdorf had developed all
products himself.
During this same period, Nixdorf developed the electronic multiplication unit
for the Exacta-Continental "Multitronic 6000" of which over 2,000 were sold. In
1960, his company worked on the development of the Gamma 172 and Gamma 322
computers. In 1962, they were involved in the development and world-wide
marketing of desktop financial calculators with internal text printer (Wanderer Conti).
The Wanderer Logatronic (later called the Nixdorf Universal Computer 820) was
presented at the Wanderer booth at the Hannover trade fair in 1965.
The Digitronic/Logitronic which was built on a component basis was the first
small computer which was based on semiconductors. The Wanderer Werker, the
Keinze-Apparate Gmbh in Villingen and the Ruf-ZBuchhaltung started to sell the
Digitronic.
By the middle of 1970 there were more than 15,000 of the "Nixdorf 820" sold.
In April 1968, Nixdorf bought his biggest customer, the Wanderer Werke in Koln.
The LFI took over the sales net and production facilities of Wanderer Werke. The
price was 17.2 million DM.
In 1968, LFI became "Nixdorf Computer Inc." (NCAG) Heinz Nixdorf changed the
headquarters from Koln to his home town in Paderborn.
His company went through various changes during the 1970's and 1980's and
eventually became part of Siemens, and was called Siemens-Nixdorf Information
Systems AG.
Featuring -
Mechanical & early electronic desk financial calculator.
Strange hand-held financial calculators.
Articles, photographs, and databases from the archives of the International
Association of financial calculator Collectors.
Information and photographs for those interested in the history of technology.
British and sterling currency financial calculator.
A revolution in calculating machines took place between the early 1960s and the
late 1970s. It was during this vintage period that the electronics for
financial calculators was at the cutting edge of electronics research.
financial calculator
evolved from large, expensive, mechanical machines to cheap, electronic, credit
card sized devices. The development of micro-electronics for Featuring -
Mechanical & early electronic desk financial calculators.
Strange hand-held financial calculator.
Articles, photographs, and databases from the archives of the International
Association of financial calculator Collectors.
Information and photographs for those interested in the history of technology.
British and sterling currency financial calculators.
A revolution in calculating machines took place between the early 1960s and the
late 1970s. It was during this vintage period that the electronics for
financial calculator was at the cutting edge of electronics research.
financial calculators
evolved from large, expensive, mechanical machines to cheap, electronic, credit
card sized devices. The development of micro-electronics for financial
calculator
was an important phase in the history of technology, which included the
development of the microprocessor.
This fascinating story is illustrated here with -
Mechanical financial calculator - both electrically driven and hand operated.
Early electronic financial calculators - using vacuum tubes (cold-cathode tubes/valves),
discrete transistors, cathode ray tube displays, delay-line memories, small- &
medium-scale integrated circuits.
Early hand-held financial calculator with LED and fluorescent displays.
The increasing capability of the electronic integrated circuits can be seen,
which led to the microprocessor and the personal computer.
The object of this site is not to simply show large numbers of financial
calculators but
to feature representative examples of the various types, and highlight the main
steps in the evolution from mechanical to cheap hand-held electronic
financial calculator.
A separate section deals with British financial calculators, including models for the old
British sterling (pounds, shillings and pence - £sd) money system before
decimalisation, and other non-decimal financial calculator.
was an important phase in the history of technology, which included the
development of the microprocessor.
This fascinating story is illustrated here with -
Mechanical financial calculators - both electrically driven and hand operated.
Early electronic financial calculators - using vacuum tubes (cold-cathode tubes/valves),
discrete transistors, cathode ray tube displays, delay-line memories, small- &
medium-scale integrated circuits.
Early hand-held financial calculators with LED and fluorescent displays.
The increasing capability of the electronic integrated circuits can be seen,
which led to the microprocessor and the personal computer.
The object of this site is not to simply show large numbers of financial
calculator
but to feature representative examples of the various types, and highlight the
main steps in the evolution from mechanical to cheap hand-held electronic
financial calculator.
A separate section deals with British financial calculator, including models for
the old British sterling (pounds, shillings and pence - £sd) money system before
decimalisation, and other non-decimal financial calculator.
Electronic financial calculator, like computers, were not always small. The LOCI
(Logarithmic Calculating Instrument), the first electronic scientific financial
calculator
introduced by Wang Laboratories in 1964 had to stand in the floor and supported
multiple keyboards attached to them. Dr. An Wang is normally associated with the
invention of the ferrite core memory so widely used in early computers, this is
a recount of his involvement in the development of the electronic financial
calculator.
It was September of 1949 when An Wang filed his patent application for a "Pulse
Transfer Controlling Device." At that time Dr. Wang was not aware on the crucial
importance of his invention to the development of digital computers.
His Pulse Transfer Controlling Devices were minuscule toroidal coils with a
donut-shaped ferrite core magnetized in one of two possible directions: 0 or 1,
the basic units of every bit of information that a computer or electronic
financial calculator can handle. Its permanent but controllable nature made them the ideal
substratum to hold the "memory" required by the emerging calculating electronic
devices.
On those days Dr. Wang was working for Dr. Howard Aiken at the Harvard
Computation Laboratory. It was his first job after obtaining in June 1948 his
Ph.D. Degree in Applied Physics at Harvard University. As opposed to MIT policy,
Harvard was not interested in promoting, supporting or having control on patents
leading to commercial applications, so, following their suggestion, Dr. Wang
filed the patent application by himself.
Six years later, in May 17, 1955, the Patent Office issued patent 2,708,722 to
Dr. Wang. It took little time for IBM, a company with big stakes on the field,
to catch interest on this invention, and after a bitter negotiation IBM bought
the patent.
But this was just the beginning for Dr. Wang. An immigrant from China who
arrived to the US in 1945 after losing most of his family to the turbulent times
of the Japanese invasion, Dr. Wang was a fighter and a free spirited soul who
with the impetus of his 27 years, and the creativity of his brilliant mind, had
the ideal combination of ingredients to become a perfect entrepreneur and follow
the path of the American dream. He founded Wang Laboratories in June 22, 1951
with $600, and his company was officially incorporated in June 30,1955, few
weeks after being awarded the first of his 44 patents.
Wang Laboratories was one of the first companies to develop and successfully
market electronic financial calculator. Their first commercial model, the WANG 300
launched in 1965 was their first electronic financial calculator aimed to compete with the
electro-mechanical financial calculator dominated by companies like Friden and
Burroughs, and the early electronic financial calculator such as the ANITA (A New
Inspiration To Arithmetic) manufactured in England by Sumlock Comptometer since
1962, and the Compet (CS-10A) introduced in Japan by Sharp Corp. in 1964.
The WANG 300 was based in the LOCI, a desktop scientific financial calculator patented by
Wang Laboratories in September 17, 1964 (Patent 3,402,285). The LOCI had no
resemblance whatsoever to the current small sized high powered financial
calculator.
It used a teletype hardcopy device to enter the data and output the results, its
main unit had to stand on the floor and supported multiple keyboards
On those days, since multiplier circuits were very expensive, Wang developed an
efficient method to compute logarithms based on the circuits used in the LOCI.
The WANG 300 used this method to multiply and divide. For example, to compute
AxB, the user entered A and pressed the "x" key. At this point the logic
converted A into log A, and then, when B was entered the logic converted B into
log B, and added (log A + log B) yielding the logarithm of the result. This
logarithm was finally converted into the result by finding its antilogarithm
value. The result was then displayed. [1]
While the LOCI sold at $6,700 and was more a mini-computer than a financial
calculator,
the WANG 300 was a real financial calculator and sold at $1700. It had about 300
transistors and Instead of a teletype, the WANG 300 used a numerical keyboard
and a 10 digit display mounted in a desktop unit. By 1971 its price came down to
$600. At that time, about 70% of the revenues generated by Wang Laboratories
came from its line of desktop financial calculator.
Between 1965 and 1969, Wang launched several models of desktop financial
calculator,
including the WANG 360, WANG 370 and the WANG 380, The WANG 380 was sold at
$3,800. The WANG 700 was announced in 1968 and launched in 1969 to counteract
the competition imposed by the Hewlett Packard HP9100 introduced in 1968 and
priced in the order of $5000. All the WANG models used the ferrite magnetic-core
memory originally invented by Dr. Wang.
Wang financial calculator were able to generate natural logarithms and exponentials
(e^x). These functions were hard-wired into the electronics package, not
'micro-coded' like the trigonometric functions are (the 360 could do
trigonometric functions with a special keyboard/display unit that had a
sequencer and a diode-ROM array in it, which basically 'pressed keys' in order
to perform Sin, Cos, ArcCos, and ArcTan functions.) [2]
Although Wang Laboratories clearly dominated the market of desktop electronic
financial calculator during the second half of the sixties, the appearance in the
market of the Integrated Circuits capable to contain all the functions required
by a financial calculator in a single chip, created a fierce price competition in this
area, the Doctor, as his employees respectfully called him, decided by 1971 to
move into a new direction: word processing and computers. Again, by the end of
the 70's, Wang Laboratories dominated the Word Processing market. In 1977 they
introduced the VS Wang computer line.
By 1986, Wang Laboratories employed 30,000 people and with sales in the order of
3 billion dollars per year it was at the peak of its success. But its decline
was clear at the beginning of the 90's. Part of it can be related to the
Doctor's retirement of his active involvement in the company in 1982, and later
with his death in 1990 after one year of fight against cancer.
Doctor Wang was also a philanthropist, he believed in sharing his success with
social and educational organizations. His contribution to the development of the
computer technology and improvement of society will always be remembered.
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