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Technico F-800

Date of introduction:  Feb. 1984 Display technology:  LCD
New price:  $14.95 (SRP Oct. 1984) Display size:  8
Size:  5.4" x 4.7" x 0.25"
 136 x 120 x 7 mm3
   
Weight:  3.6 ounces, 103 grams Serial No:  
Batteries:  n.a. Date of manufacture:  mth 11 year 1984
AC-Adapter:   Origin of manufacture:  Taiwan
Precision:  8  Integrated circuits:  Toshiba T6853BU
Memories:  1    
Program steps:   Courtesy of:  Joerg Woerner

Does this Technico F-800 calculator look familiar to you? Inventa Electronics Corporation of Taipei, Taiwan started already in 1975 manufacturing and marketing calculators under the Technico brand. Inventa Electronics Co. is today known as Inventec Corporation, one of the World's largest manufacturers of mobile devices and computers.

Dismantling the featured F-800 manufactured in November 1984 by Inventa Electronics Corporation in Taiwan reveals a rather complex design centered around a Toshiba T6853BU single-chip calculator circuit soldered on a double-sided printed circuit board (PCB) with both the LC-Display and solar cells and connected to a second double-sided PCB for the keyboard with a short flat flexible cable (FFC).

Inspecting the PCB of the Technico F-800 calculator brought our attention to a small mark reading O810-02B, we spotted this PCB-Mark already with its near a identical offspring TI-2130, too.

We disassembled the Technico F-800 completely to locate a second small PCB-Mark IO800-02D on one of its PCBs, helping to solve a puzzle.

IO800 obviously refers to Technico F-800, while other calculators manufactured by Inventec Corporation like the TI-1775 sport a PCB-Mark like IOTI1775-21A. We assume to decipher Inventa / Invetec PCB-Marks as follows:

IXXX, IOXXX: Original Inventa / Inventec design - brand labeled for Texas Instruments and other companies
ITTIXXX, IOTIXXX or IOBAXXX: Inventec design exclusively for Texas Instruments

We started compiling a list of the PCB-Marks on calculators manufactured by OEMs for Texas Instruments.




If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.

© Joerg Woerner, March 30, 2020. No reprints without written permission.