Speaking of old calculators
Jan. 30th, 2005 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinI remember seeing this on the Web a while back and being amazed: The Friden EC-130 and its successor the EC-132, four-function RPN desk calculators from 1964-65. They cost about $2000 in 1965 dollars.
While they're primitive and hulking by modern standards, and apparently broke all the time because of a manufacturing problem, they're also beautiful, something you'd expect to see Dave Bowman using to override HAL. The interior was all discrete components, and the stack was displayed on a four-line green vector CRT.
While they're primitive and hulking by modern standards, and apparently broke all the time because of a manufacturing problem, they're also beautiful, something you'd expect to see Dave Bowman using to override HAL. The interior was all discrete components, and the stack was displayed on a four-line green vector CRT.
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Date: 2005-01-30 08:21 pm (UTC)