National Semiconductor Novus 4510 Mathematician from 1976

[jebem]

I saw this rare RPN machine for sell at a local antiquary shop, mixed together with old books in a upper shelf, and I couldn't resist myself to spend yet another 40 Euro in order to convince the owner to let it go.

Apparently the machine was acquired in 1976 in Lisbon by the original owner during his studies at engineering school. He is retired now and decided to open a shop to spend the time and make a few more income to face this never ending economic crisis.

The hardware build is simple, and comprises two main parts:
- The PCA, featuring a good quality one sided copper trace on fiberglass PCB;
- The Keyboard assembly fixed to the front case using plastic rivets.
A single plastic big sized flat cable from the keyboard assembly plugs in into a female connector in the PCA.

Internal active components are:
- NS MM5760N Slide Rule Processor (1975 week 43);
- NS DM8864 9-digit LED cathode driver (1975 week 49);
- NS A1298 0.110 inch, 9-digit, common cathode GsAsP 7-segment LED numeric display (1975 week 36).


Edit to add documentation information:

user guide available at Katherine Wasserman excellent site.

The NS MM5760 processor details can be found here.

Current consumption (measured using a fresh 9Volt 6LR61 battery):
- After Power ON (one digit lit with "0" plus decimal point lit): 23mA
- All digits lit ("8"'s plus minus sign lit): 62mA
- After entering battery saver mode (all decimal points lit): 25mA
Real funny, where the battery saver mode consumes more current than the initial power ON state.