On Fri, Sep 1, 2023 at 6:29 PM Rick Bensene via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Tony wrote:
> Didn't Singer own Friden (or at least the name) at one point? I am sure I've
seen calculators
> batched(sic) 'Singer Friden').
Singer effectively began the death of internal
electronic calculator development at Friden when it quietly started selling the
transistorized Friden 1112 electronic calculator, which was made in Japan by Hitachi,
purchased under a temporary OEM agreement between Singer and Hitachi.
The 1112 was an experiment to see how well the machine sold. It did reasonably well, and
that was enough for Singer to slowly begin to dismantle the Friden electronic calculator
development operation, and start selling OEM-acquired (from Hitachi initially) calculators
under the Singer/Friden badge.
By coincidence I bought a Hitachi KK521 (later version with vacuum
fluorescent display tubes, not Nixies) a couple of weeks back. I read
that it was also sold as the Friden EC1117A.
-tony