Presenting your collection of non HP calculators, is anyone interested of that?

[rprosperi]

(04-04-2022 11:23 PM)Didier Lachieze Wrote:  I’ve a few 4-bangers from the early 70’s, a period where manufacturers where experimenting with different designs, technologies and form factors,
I love the early Sharp calculators, they were the first to use CMOS (EL-801) the first to use LCD (EL-805 with DSM LCD*). With Busicom for which intel developped the 4004, they were among the firsts to use microprocessors in a calculator with the Rockwell PPS-4 in the programmable PC-1001 in 1973.

Now, what do you think of the design of the Sharp EL-112, 812 and 814 from 1973?

EL-112 quick video & EL-112/814 in details

Note: the EL-812 is the little sister of the 112/814 sharing the same design in a smaller form factor and came a bit earlier, in 1972.

*I don’t have a 805 but I have a 8110.

These all DO qualify as spectacular, at least to me... thanks for sharing these Didier, they are exactly what I was suggesting I'd like to see. Most recent (90's on) low end machines all look about the same, but these are innovative and wonderful.

The 8110 is the earliest calculator I know of with a truly refined/elegant look to it, the brushed bronze finish was almost certainly not used before this, and surely not for the entire surface (rather than just a small square around the keypad).

When I worked for Sharp and traveled to Japan, I got to see a display of many of the earliest calculators made by Sharp at the Nara factory, as I was working with the same group that had made them. There were many models back then, most with the same 4-banger and I'd call them 4-banger+ feature sets, but packaged in wildly different colors, styles and materials.

It's not widely discussed, but Sharp owed most of its success with calculators to early partnership with Rockwell and early CMOS technology.

I'm also on the hunt for a Bowmar MX20 "Brainchild". It is not particularly beautiful or elegant, but it was the first calculator I ever used, so it has a special charm that I will always appreciate.