Accuron 600
Brief History
In the first years of the 70s, there was a lot of competition in the production of the cheapest pocket calculators: japanese companies produced huge quantities of calculators with a capacity of six or less digits, but the National Semiconductor in the USA also entered this competition in 1974: their chip could be used to build the simplest calculator of all time: it was capable of displaying six digits, but it could not handle decimal fractions, so it did not have a decimal point key either. Like Hewlett-Packard machines, it used Reverse Polish Notation (RPN), but it didn't have a separate ENTER key, while it was replaced by the + key. In addition to its many shortcomings, it is worth mentioning that it handled negative numbers properly and also had a CE function to correct incorrect keyings: the C key deletes the X register of the two-level stack and replaced by the contents of the Y register.
National Semiconductor produced their own models built with this chip, which were the cheapest machines available in the U. S.: it costs only half of a standard eight-digit machine. The interesting thing about the first model (600) was that a switch could turn on a fixed decimal point after the fourth digit, so — since the machine still didn’t calculate fraction part — multiplications and divisions gave erroneous results. This feature has been removed from later models.
Using that chip, many companies have built six-digit calculators, such as the malaysian Accuron with model 600.
You can read more about this and competing six-digit models in our special article.
Manufacturer: | Accuron Company (Malaysia) |
Mfg. date: | 1975 |
Size: | 5,8×10,4×2,1 cm |
Weight (ready for operate): | n.a. |
Type: | four-function |
Capacity: | 6 digits (internal precision) |
Operating logic: | RPN |
CPU: | NSC MM5736N |
Registers: | 2 standard |
Features: | Fixfixed-point notation: the listed decimals can be chosen (0) |
Display: | 6 digit LED (NSC A1166) |
Power: | 9V battery |
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