shape. It's missing major pieces...the special Friden Flexowriter (a regular Flexowriter won't work...the Computypers had specially adapted Flexowriters) that is used for I/O, and probably one or two auxiliary paper tape readers. That's what the cables are for on the "desktop" part. Without those, it's just a bunch of electronics. Still cool, though. It likely uses a small magnetic drum memory for numeric storage. Not sure what type of circuitry this machine would have used...probably transistor based on the size, but it could be tube, or some kind of hybrid. Main use of these machines was invoicing and statement generation. My guess is that it's from the late 50's to early 60's. Programming was through a combination of punched tape (or edge-punched cards), a plugboard, and a format control rack in the Flexowriter that set things like tab locations, numeric formatting, locations where user input was needed on a form. This wasn't a stored-program machine. Friden made a bunch of different machines they called Computypers. The first machine from the mid-1950's was made by Benson-Lehner. Friden acquired the rights to it when Benson-Lenher decided it wasn't the kind of equipment they wanted to sell. The Benson-Lehner machine used a Friden electromechanical calculator with modifications to allow the calculation results to be electrically communicated to a typewriter, and solenoids hooked to the keyboards (Friden calculators of the era had two numeric keyboards - a special 10-key for entering multipliers, and a full keyboard (columns of 1 through 9) for everything else) for entering numeric data into the calculator, and other solenoids to activate the math functions. Over time, the electromechanical calculator was replaced with electronics, with technology advances continually increasing the capabilities and shrinking the size. My Godparents had a Friden 5005 Computyper (the last of the breed) that they used for their business. This machine used small-scale IC technology and magnetostrictive delay lines to cram all of what the earlier Computypers did, plus more, into an oversized, modernized Flexowriter-sized desktop machine. Friden engineers in Holland (most of the later Computyper development was done in Nijmegen, Holland) had a heck of a time programming their application for the machine (dairy tank calibration)...they had to use every trick in the book to get it to fit. I hope someone rescues the eBay machine, in spite of the missing pieces. There aren't many of these left anymore, and it'd be a shame to have it end up scrap. Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalcultormuseum.com