Hitachi Calculator Integrated Circuits

Hitachi was founded in 1910 by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Hitachi started already in 1965 the development of Integrated Circuits (ICs), based on technology from RCA in the United States. The first products of the HD100 Series were designed in Emitter-coupled Logic ECL (Emitter-coupled Logic) technology, a high-speed bipolar transistor logic family using a 15 um manufacturing process and used in October 1966 with Sharp's CS-31A, the World’s first electronic calculator incorporating ICs.

Hitachi followed soon with the HD700 Series, a family of SSI (Small Scale Integration) ICs in PMOS technology and consisting of simple inverters, logic gates, flip flops and 4-bit to 16-bit shift registers, packaged in 10-pin and 12-pin metal can housings (TO-100 and TO-101, respectively) and operated with a single 24V supply. These kinds of chips, commonly referred as JMOS devices for Japanese MOS, were manufactured around 1966 to 1971 not only by Hitachi, but with similar or identical functionality, from companies like Mitsubishi, NEC and Toshiba, too and provided similar functionality to the DTL and TTL Logic Families introduced in the Western world.

The HD700 Series proved to be very successful and allowed with the CS-16, introduced in March 1967 and considered the World’s first calculator incorporating MOS ICs, a dramatic reduction in size, weight and component count and paving the way for the famous QT-8D, introduced in October 1969 and recognized as the World’s first electronic calculator incorporating LSI (Large Scale Integration) ICs manufactured by the Autonetics division of US company Rockwell Electronics.

Hitachi complemented the HD700 Series in 1969 with the HD3100 Series, offering a more complete product portfolio and adding MSI (Medium Scale Integration) complexity like BCD Adders or 44+4-bit Shift Registers and switching to more economical Dual In-line Packages (DIPs) with 14 to 24 pins.

First Hitachi chipset

With the goal do get independent from Western chip manufacturers, Hitachi started in 1969 the design of their own PMOS (p-channel Metal–oxide Semiconductor) LSI chips for desktop calculators and introduced in January 1971 the HD3201 Series. The functionality of a 14-digit desktop calculator was divided into 9 chips, named HD3201-HD3209 but depending on the functionality of the calculator, between 9 and 11 chips were used.
These chips are manufactured in a 10 um PMOS metal-gate process with enhancement mode transistors used for both gates and loads and using Ceramic Quad In-line Packages (QIP) with 42 pins.

First Hitachi chipset for Casio

When Casio developed their first desktop calculators using LSI chips, they turned to Hitachi. To reduced manufacturing costs of the devices, Hitachi replaced the expensive 42-pin Ceramic Quad In-line Package used with the original HD3201-HD3209 chipset with more economical solutions and added multiple new MSI and LSI chips to their portfolio of "Building Blocks for Electronic Desktop Calculators.
These chips are manufactured in a 10 um PMOS metal-gate process with enhancement mode transistors used for both gates and loads and using Ceramic or Plastic Dual In-line Packages (DIP) with 16 or 24 pins.

First Hitachi chipset for Sharp

Sharp introduced in October 1969 with the famous Micro Compet QT-8D the World's first battery operated electronic calculator, based on four LSI (Large Scale Integration) chips manufactured by the Autonetics division of Rockwell. This was the first pocketable calculator priced at less than JP¥100,000 (less than US$300) and turned out to be a popular product, paving the long-lasting success of Sharp in the calculator business. With the goal of the major Japanese calculator manufacturers, to get independent from Western chip suppliers, Sharp turned in 1971 with the chipset for their 12-digit desktop calculators CS-122 and CS-223 to Hitachi. The outcome was a modular design that used the Hitachi HD3215, HD3216 und HD3217 chips for the base model CS-122, while the HD3218 chip was added for the CS-223 featuring an additional memory function.
These chips are manufactured in a 10 um PMOS metal-gate process with enhancement mode transistors used for both gates and loads and using Ceramic or Plastic Dual In-line Packages (DIP) with 16 or 24 pins.
Starting in February 1972, Sharp manufactured these LSI chips with their own PMOS technology, too and marked them SD3215, SD3216, SD3127 and SD3218, respectively.

Second Hitachi chipset

Following Moore's Law, Hitachi was early in 1972 able to combine the functionality of their original chipset used for example with Friden's 1117 calculator to just the LSI chips.
These chips are manufactured in a 10 um PMOS metal-gate process with enhancement mode transistors used for both gates and loads and using Plastic Dual In-line Packages (DIP) with 28 pins.

First Hitachi "single-chip" calculator circuits

First Hitachi "true" single-chip calculator circuits

Work-In-Progress.

Hitachi LSI/MOS Packaging Timeline