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DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments invented the Integrated Circuit (IC) in the year 1958. The first calculators with integrated circuits used DTL (Diode Transistor Logic), RTL (Resistor Transistor Logic) or TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic) elements. These ICs are small building blocks with typical 4 logic gates or 2 flip-flops in a 14 to 16 pin plastic housing. To get a working calculator you need more than 50 of them. The Cal-Tech project demonstrated in 1967 a calculator using only 3 LSI circuits (Large Scale Integration) with more than 1,000 transistors per circuit and some additional shift registers. From that starting point the calculator race created every year new integrated circuits with higher complexity following the Law of Moore. Working at another supplier of integrated circuits, the well known company Intel, Moore stated: Every three years the complexity of integrated circuits will double. The law is proved, within 30 years the complexity reached more than a million of transistors per integrated circuit.
In the meantime Texas Instruments stopped the production of integrated circuits for calculators. Most modern TI products use chips from Toshiba. View the calculator chips manufactured by Toshiba here.
It's difficult to get information about the calculator circuits manufactured by Texas Instruments. The following table gives an overview of the known circuits, a brief description and the calculators using them.
• A • B • C • Z |
This set of 3 Integrated Circuits was streamlined
to the Pocketronic with its thermal printer.
These chips are manufactured in a "state of the art"
10-micron 1-metal PMOS process and using Dual-Inline Ceramic or
Plastic (DIC/DIP) packages with 40 pins and 28 pins.
Type | Year | Function | Calculator | Comments |
TMS0120 | 1974 | Single chip, Sci | SR-10 | +,-,= keys, x2,1/x, sqr(x), 8+2 digits |
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, October 13, 2024. No reprints without written permission.