Commodore Minuteman 1

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Commodore company, initially dealing with repair and then production of typewriters and mechanical calculators, seeing the potential in electronics, started distribution of mostly Japanese electronic calculators very early. In 1971, in cooperation with Bowmar USA, the C110 pocket calculator was launched, which, together with Bowmar's own 901B model, became known as the first American-made pocket calculator. The first member of the Commodore’s Minuteman series was born from the transformation of this type, which tried to use all the features of the Texas Instruments circuit, so it also had a fixed decimal point setting, which is usual for desktop machines. The defining feature of the machine was the white, angular designed housing with the square-like Klixon-keyboard in the middle, which remained unchanged compared to the one used in the C110, as did the machine's printed circuit board and the display. The upper and lower parts of the machine were connected to each other with a snapping mechanism; the lower part, called Power Pak, containing the batteries, aimed at longer, almost continuous use, could simply be replaced with another one. The incredible success of pocket calculators finally encouraged Commodore to break away from its previous partners and flood the market with cheap, self-made machines.