On Fri, 5 Jun 1998, Bill Richman wrote:
> Recently, someone made the comment that the 4004 and 8008 were used in
> some old calculators. Can anyone supply brands and/or models that
> would have used these?
The story goes that the 4004 was the result of a deal made between intel
and Busicom, the calculator guys. So if you see a calc that looks like
this one:
http://hightech.cplaza.or.jp/1996/19960617/19960617/jpg/0649.JPG
buy it, but don't take the chip out of it! It's probably worth a fortune.
(The picture is reportedly of a Busicom calc sitting on the desk of Gordon
Moore.)
Another story goes that the 8008 was co-designed by a maker of terminals
(Datapoint, I think), but they didn't use it in the end (too slow, I
think). But you're more likely to find an 8008 in a terminal than in a
calc.
> My company is having a big junk sale of
> tables, chairs, and old calculators and typewriters soon, and the
> state is having an auction this weekend. I already snuck into the
> store room and opened up one of the oldest calculators, but it had
> some big 40-pin ceramic chip on it with a number I'd never heard of.
> I'll probably pick up a couple just because they have some nice nixie
> tubes in them, if they go cheap enough, but I'd like to score some old
> CPUs at one of these events if they're there. Any suggestions?
People do collect calculators, you know. I wouldn't mind finding
something like a Sharp EL-8
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/7227/shar_can.jpg
Buy all of the nixie-tube calcs you can carry. I think they go for around
$50 each at e-overpay.
If you want to buy an 8008, this guy will sell you one for $200!
http://members.aol.com/fuboco/chip.htm
-- Doug
Received on Fri Jun 05 1998 - 00:07:55 BST
