4 Jun
1998
4 Jun
'98
5:07 p.m.
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
