Happy New Year!
I just came across a Sanyo ICC-804D calculator - squeezing the four chip design of the ICC-0081 into a very tiny package. Most astonishing to me is the display, it uses very bright and large LED modules! There is no manufacturing date visible but the chips sport 1971 date codes.
One question comes up immediately:
Which pocket calculator introduced the red LED display? Was it the Busicom LE-120A of this Sanyo ICC-804D? I know that the LE-120A was ANNOUNCED early in 1971 but when was it available? Any proof about the first ICC-804D availability?
Any suggestions and comments are welcome.
Regards, Joerg
Joerg,
I love my ICC-804D, it's very cool with the dot-segment LED's and flip up display cover! The chips in mine are dated in 1971 too (7139, 7140, 7137 and 7146) and there's no indication of the date of manufacture.
-Katie
Busicom won, but probably only by 2-3 months.
Sales started in mid 1971 (advertisements started in June).
What I find amusing is the fact, that Sanyo was able to fit a 2-3 year old chipset (4 chips) into this housing, even using reed relais for the keys, a modular design and solid construction. Obviously it was way more expensive to manufacture than the TI or MOSTEK single chip design...
The LE-120A with serial# 880 has a chip date code of 7120; the version 1 ICC-804D I have has a date code of 7134 (not sure about the serial# though). 3 months of market lead time sounds about right then :)
Btw. the earliest TI single chip (TMS0105NC) I have has a date code of 7139 - that's only half a year later than MOSTEK...
Frank,
A TMS0105 from 7139? What calculator?
Regards,
Joerg
this one:
http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dev/f_schau/
Sidenote: the earliest TMS0103 I have is built into a Commodore C110 (first model with "G" serial number); if I remember correctly, it has a date code of 7147.
Sidenote 2: the Canon LE10 is dated around this time as well, but that's a 2 chip solution (but I think it offers 16 digit precision, like the ICC-804D)
Sidenote 3: what a huge leap the HP 35 & HP 80 were - amazing
Frank,
What are the differences between Version 1 and Version 2?
Mine has reed contact switches and chips 8001,2,3, and 5 - all date coded around 7135.
I remember that Peter's (Muckermann) ICC-804D had a 8006 chip date coded 7146 instead the 8005 of mine.
His serial number: C7066953
Mine: 7054775.
And inside they look completely different, Peter's model seem to use a far cheaper keyboard:
Would you mind to shed some light on the two (or even more) versions of the ICC-804D.
Regards,
Joerg
Katie,
Please read my comment about the two versions - do you have V1 or V2?
Regards,
Joerg
Joerg,
The one I have appears to be identical to the one you show in your picture (I don't know if you're calling that V1 or V2) with reed contact switches and chips with the same part numbers.
-Katie
The version 1 had reed relais (therefor little magnets attached to every key); the version 2 used spring contacts - way cheaper and far less reliable (the reed relais probably will work fine the next 5000 years <g>).
It's possible to distinguish between these two versions without openening them by listening to the keyboard, version 1 makes a very silent "bling" when a button is pressed, version 2 makes somewhat scratchy noises, followed by klick.
The chipset is the same, but some chips were replaced by bugfixed versions (postfixes like A B C...) or even a higher number. The chipset seems to have been prone to failure, I have seen plenty of Sanyo calcs (all using this chipset) with replaced chips.