The EC-130 no doubt served as the inspiration for the Hewlett-Packard desktop calculators. It clearly preceded the HP 9100A, Hewlett-Packard's first calculator, which came The Friden EC-130 was the first calculator to use Reverse Polish Notation (RPN). To duplicate the internal logic of one of today's calculator chips with discrete components would give you a rather large box, too big for a desktop, which might draw a few hundred watts, and costĭid Friden really use RPN before Hewlett-Packard? The circuits were primitive by today's standards but When the EC-130 was designed, ICs were hopelessly expensive so the design used all discrete PNP germanium diodes and transistors. I don't know to what degree he was responsible for the remarkably innovative architecture of the EC-130, but I do know he had a significant hand in the design. In external appearance, the EC-130 was a very good-looking, highly distinctive, stylish, rather low box with a gracefully-curved top cover over the electronics.ĭo you remember any of the people at Friden who developed the Friden EC-130?įriden had a wonderfully-capable engineer named Robert Ragen, one of the most brilliant people I have ever met, and a very pleasant, rather Lost a bit in the translation to production dies. It was a fascinating, exciting, and very memorable experience to see this calculator for the first time it was beautifully styled. What did you think when you first saw the Friden EC-130 in 1964? Nicholas Bodley, one of the original eight technicians to be trained at the Friden factory to service this amazing Thus the world's first "solid state" calculator. Unlike the Anita, the Friden 130 had no vacuum tubes and was In 1964 the EC-130 was a miracle machine.
Will be rusting in a junk pile and people will be amazed that anyone actually paid over a thousand dollars for it. Put another way, 35 years from now your fancy 200 MHz Pentium computer But 35 years ago the Friden EC-130 was worth its lofty price. Today it seems absurd that anyone would have actually paid this huge amount of money for theĬalculating power you can now buy at your local K-Mart store for about five dollars.
This breakthroughĮlectronic calculator, the Friden EC-130, first sold in 1964 for about $2,100 (roughly $6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars). My research leads me believe that the world's second electronic calculator was made in the USA by a company with a long history in the mechanical calculator business. (In spite of 1965 newspaper and magazine articles claiming that the Victor 3900 was the world's first Integrated Circuit calculator, the machine was apparently never produced!)
If you doubt this please read, "Victor's Model 3900, A Calculator Catastrophe" published in the Fall 1997 issue But sources like magazine ads and newspaper articles are not always reliable. Since this historic milestone took place less than 35 years ago, practically yesterday in historical terms, one would think the record would beĬrystal clear. I believe that Friden deserves the award. Another expert says it was Sony who deserves the credit. I've heard experts claim it was made in Japan by Sharp. (see "The world's first electronic calculator: Who made it? International Calculator Collector issue # 14, Fall, 1996) But who deserves the "award" for production of the world's second electronic calculator is hotly contested. Most experts agree that the world's first electronic calculator was the ANITA MARK VII which was made in England and first sold in 1961.
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