Mobile Phone Calculators

By jgcolonoj

  • The first electronic desktop calculators. They use vacuum tubes.

    The world's first electronic desktop calculators were announced by the Bell Punch Co., Uxbridge, England - the Anita Mk VII for the continental European market and the Anita Mk 8 for other markets. These models used cold-cathode vacuum tubes and numerical display ("Nixie" type) tubes.
  • Period: to

    Mobile Phone Calculators

  • Development work on transistorised desktop calculators.

    The Philips company shows prototype 3-function (no division) transistor desk calculator and electronic "Comptometer" type machines. These were to demonstrate what could be achieved with Philips semiconductors and were not sold commercially

  • First commercial transistorised desktop calculators.

    First commercial all-transistor desktop calculators: Friden EC130 & EC132 , Mathatron, IME 84 , Sharp CS10A . Prices comparable to that of family cars.

  • Sharp CS10A

  • Start of development of hand-held electronic calculators.

    Texas Instruments starts development work on a hand-held calculator - the "Cal-Tech".

  • Hand-held calculators take off.First shirt pocket sized electronic calculator.All very expensive.

    Some of the first hand-held calculators:
    Canon Pocketronic , Sanyo ICC-0081 , Sharp EL-8 , but very expensive. First use of "calculator on a chip" introduced by Mostek of Dallas - used in Busicom Junior (desk calculator) and allows the production of the first shirt pocket sized electronic calculator, the Busicom LE-120A . First use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays used in Busicom LE-120A.

  • First calculator to use a microprocessor.

    First microprocessor - Intel 4004 - was designed for and used in Busicom 141-PF desk calculator.

  • Rapid development of electronic calculators, and reduction in price.

    First scientific pocket calculator introduced - Hewlet-Packard HP35 . Ultra-thin Sinclair Executive launched. Many new companies entering the calculator business and prices dropping rapidly. LCD (Liquid Crystal Device) displays appear briefly in a version giving silver-reflective numbers, including:
    Lloyds Accumatic 100 , Rapidman 1208LC . The Sharp EL-801 sees the first use of C-MOS (Complementary Metal-oxide Semiconductor) integrated circuits in a calculator.

  • Mechanical calculator manufacture has practically ceased.Mass production makes electronic calculators very cheap.

    Price of basic pocket calculators now very low, many companies leave the market due to lack of profits.

  • Mass production makes electronic calculators very cheap.

    LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) displays (with black numbers) taking over from red LED (Light Emitting Diode) and green fluorescent tube displays in calculators due to their very low power consumption, large numbers, and high contrast.

  • Commodore introduces the PET personal computer and at that point backs away from calculators.

    Commodore introduces the PET personal computer and at that point backs away from calculators.

  • First solar-powered and first credit card sized calculators.

    The first solar powered calculators were introduced, the Royal Solar 1, Teal Photon , and Sharp EL-8028. The Casio Mini Card LC-78 is the first credit card sized calculator.

  • The USSR launches the Elektronika B3-30, with Sharp's LCD technology.

  • First hand-held computer

    The Sharp PC1211 / Tandy TRS80 PC-1 is the first hand-held computer; it has a QWERTY keypad and runs the BASIC language.

  • Elektronika MK-60 - first Soviet calculator with solar power.

  • INTEL launches the INTEL 80386 32-bit microprocessor with 275,000 transistors.

  • The MK-52 was the last Soviet-designed calculator. Soon the production of Soviet calculators was handled by Casio and Sharp in Japan.

  • INTEL launches the INTEL 80486 32-bit microprocessor with 1,180,235 transistors.

  • The war of the pocket calculators was over and a few companies survived, among them were Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard in the USA, and Sharp Electronics and Casio, Inc. in the Japan.

  • Pre-iPhone: BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)

    Pre-iPhone: BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)

    Bell South/IBM's Simon Personal Communicator retailed for $899 and was the first phone to include PDA functions like a calculator, an address book and e-mail. It also had a revolutionary (for its time) touchscreen that replaced the number buttons.

  • INTEL launches the PENTIUM 32-bit microprocessor with 3.1 million transistors.

  • INTEL launches the PENTIUM PRO microprocessor with 5.5 million transistors.