DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments BA-35 Business Analyst (1996)
Date of introduction: | 1989 | Display technology: | LCD |
New price: | Display size: | 8 (5 + 2) | |
Size: | 5.3" x 2.8" x 0.45" 135 x 70 x 11 mm3 |
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Weight: | 2.3 ounces, 64 grams | Serial No: | |
Batteries: | 2*LR44 | Date of manufacture: | wk 10 year 1996 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Italy | |
Precision: | 11 | Integrated circuits: | TP0456/CD4571B |
Memories: | 1 | ||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
Download manual: | (US: 3.7M Bytes) |
The BA-35 Business Analyst was introduced already in 1982 as "BA-35 Student Business Analyst" and received two major redesigns: In 1984 the BA-35 Student Business Analyst received a new, stylish housing, and in 1989 the appearance changed to the black/red design and the name to BA-35 Business Analyst.
The featured BA-35 Business Analyst was manufactured in March 1996 and is 100% identical with the model introduced in 1989. At first glance no reason to honor this late model, but you have to dig deeper into the history of Texas Instruments calculators of the 90's.
For more than 15 years, with the introduction of the SR-40 and
the Business Analyst there were always Scientific and Financial calculator
siblings.
Just follow this time line:
Year | 1976 | 1978 | 1982 | 1985 | 1989 |
SCIENTIFIC | |||||
SR-40 | TI-50 | TI-35 silver | TI-30 III | TI-30 Stat | |
BUSINESS | |||||
Business Analyst | Business Analyst-II | BA-35 Student Bus. Analyst | BA-35 Student Bus. Analyst | BA-35 Business Analyst |
Motivation for these changes were in most cases major progress in
the technology of the single-chip calculator circuits or manufacturing cost
optimizations.
In 1978 Texas Instruments introduced the first C-MOS calculator chips based on the TMS1000
Microcomputer family. The TP0320 architecture is similar to the TMC0980
chips introduced two years earlier for the TI-30 calculator.
In 1981/82 the chips were improved, and Texas Instruments introduced their enhanced C-MOS calculators
chips, located e.g. in the TI-30 III and BA-35 Student
Business Analyst.
And then, in 1993, we noticed a major change: Texas Instruments introduced a complete line of new calculators based on Toshiba single-chip calculator circuits:
• TI-30X New display with 10 + 2 digits, 3 memories • TI-30X SOLAR With Anylite solar-cells • TI-35X Adds 2-dim statistics and hex-calculations • TI-36X SOLAR With Anylite solar-cells • BA Real Estate Financial calculations |
We assumed that Texas Instruments terminated the production of
their own C-MOS calculator chips, but dismantling the featured BA-35 Business
Analyst reveals a big surprise: The calculator was manufactured in 1996 and uses
still the CD4571, introduced already in 1982 and based on technology known from
the SR-16 - a scientific calculator
manufactured in October 1974.
In 1996 the BA-35 Student Analyst was discontinued and the
successor got solar cells, don't miss the BA-35
Solar.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, November 1, 2008. No reprints without written permission.