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+--- Thread: strange programmable on ebay (/thread-9710.html)
strange programmable on ebay - d b - 12-17-2017 05:45 AM
This is not mine, nor do I know the seller or get a comission. This strange thing popped up on my feed and just in case someone here finds it interesting H E R E it is.
I notified Victor Toth but he already has one that doesn't work and doesn't want another. I guess that's because even HE can't put a Gamma Function into it ;-)
Here's Victor's note on it (with info the seller didn't know) from an email:
"It's actually called a PC-1270 (see https://www.rskey.org/CMS/index.php/exhibit-hall/index.php/exhibit-hall/173?image=pc1270.jpg&name=Sharp%20PC-1270). It is not a programmable calculator. I would call it a "programmed" calculator. It allowed a developer to prepare a program on one of its programmable cousins (might have been the PC-1246; see https://www.rskey.org/pc1246), transfer the program to the PC-1270 in its CMOS memory, and then sell the PC-1270 with or without a printer as a purpose built device.
Unfortunately there is no way that I know of to extract any programs on a PC-1270. Then again, I never looked really hard, as given the age of these devices, their CMOS batteries are almost always dead, which means that any programs are long gone. Without an installed program, it is basically a fancy 4-function calculator."
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If you need to count cows though, this is your baby.
RE: strange programmable on ebay - badaze - 12-17-2017 08:02 AM
I have a Sharp PC 1253 which is like the PC 1270 but based on a PC 1251. It uses an astrology program. Mine almost works after nearly its 30 years old. I write almost because it shows errors when I run the program but there’s still the program in it. Anyway, as you wrote, without a program, it is a basic 4 function calculator unable to do calculations over 8 (or 10) figures.
RE: strange programmable on ebay - rprosperi - 12-17-2017 01:52 PM
Sharp sold a LOT of PC-1270 machines through a healthy set of VARs for many different applications, though most were financial and insurance related.
Though some small companies actually developed on the 1270's larger programmable brother machines, most of the larger programs were developed on PCs using BASIC "compilers" (actually tokenizers) that created the token code which then was loaded into RAM cards, and eventually custom-made EPROM cards.
Many thousands of these devices are still in use today, and at least one of the companies that made those tools (and wrote applications for less technical customers) is still supporting some of those customers today.
I am not aware of any pocket computer made or sold in qtys as large as the 1270, despite its simple and basic appearance.
Edit: The interesting part of the auction listing is the included WiFi PCMCIA Card. I wonder if the seller thinks it's really part of the Cattleman's Calculator or just threw it in to be funny....