The first calculator in the USSR. Domestic calculators and their foreign counterparts. History in pictures. Schickard's calculating clock

Everyone had to use a calculator. He has already become an everyday subject, not surprising. But what is the history of its development? Who invented the calculator first? How did the medieval device look and function?

Ancient computing tools

With the beginning of the emergence of trade and exchange, people began to feel the need for an account. For this purpose, they used fingers and toes, grains, stones. Around 500 BC. NS. the first abacus appeared. The abacus looked like a flat board on which small objects were laid out in grooves. This type of calculus became widespread in Greece and Rome.

The Chinese used 5 as the basis of counting, not 10. Xuan-pan is a rectangular frame for calculations, on which threads are vertically stretched. The design was conventionally divided into 2 parts - the lower "Earth" and the upper "Sky". The lower balls were units and the upper ones were tens.

The Slavs followed in the footsteps of their eastern neighbors, only slightly changed the device. The board counting device appeared in the 15th century. The difference from the Chinese suan-pan is that the ropes were placed horizontally, and the decimal system was used.

The first mechanical device

A German mathematician and astronomer, in 1623 he was able to realize his dream and became the author of a device based on a clock mechanism. The counting clock could perform the simplest mathematical operations. But since the device was complex and large, it was not widely used. Johannes Keppler became the first user of the mechanism, although he believed that the calculations were easier to perform in the head. From this point on, the history of the calculator begins, and transformations in the design and functions of the device will gradually bring it to its modern form.

The French physicist and philosopher Pascal 20 years later proposed a device that could count by means of gears. To add or subtract, you had to turn the wheel the required number of times.

In 1673, the device, improved by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, became the first calculator - later the name stuck in history. With the help of it, it became possible to perform multiplication and division. However, the cost of the mechanism was high, so it was impossible to make the device available for use.

Mass production

It was known for a long time who invented the calculator - the Leibniz mechanism was even acquired by Peter 1. His ideas were used by Wagner and Levin. After the death of the inventor, a similar device was built by Burckhardt, and Müller and Knutzen were engaged in further improvement.

For commercial purposes, the device was used by the Frenchman Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar. The entrepreneur organized the serial production in 1820, his car hardly differed from the first calculator. There was controversy who invented it from these two scientists, the Frenchman was even accused of appropriating someone else's achievement, but the design of Colmar's calculating machine was still different.

In tsarist Russia, the first adding machine is the result of the work of the scientist Chernyshov. He created the device in the 50s of the XIX century, but the name was patented in 1873 by Frank Baldwin. The principle of operation of a mechanical counting machine is based on cylinders and gears.

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, mass production of calculators began in Russia. In the Soviet Union, the device with the name "Felix" became widespread in the 30s of the last century and was used until the end of the 70s.

Electronic calculators

The first electronic calculator was invented by the Cassio brothers. In 1957, the era of rapid development in the computer industry began. The Casio 14-A device weighed as much as 140 kg, had an electrical relay and 10 buttons. The display showed numbers and displayed the result. By 1965, the weight had dropped to 17 kg.

The domestic electronic calculator is a merit of the scientists of the Leningrad University, who developed it in 1961. The EKVM-1 model entered commercial production already in 1964. Three years later the device was improved, it could work with trigonometric functions. The engineering calculator was first invented by Hewlett Packard in 1972.

The next stage of development is microcircuits. Who invented this generation of calculators in the USSR? The development involved 27 engineers. They spent about 15 years, until the engineering calculator "Electronics B3-18" went on sale in 1975. Square roots, degrees, logarithms and a transistor microprocessor won popular recognition, but the cost of the device was 200 rubles and not everyone could afford it.

A breakthrough in Soviet technology was the VZ-34 microcalculator. At a cost of 85 rubles, it became the first domestic home computer. The software made it possible to install not only engineering, but also game programs.

The MK-90 became a masterpiece of the last century. The device had no analogues at that time: a graphic display, non-volatile RAM and programming in BASIC language.

The history of the development of such a computing mechanism as a calculator begins in the 17th century, and the first prototypes of this apparatus existed in the 6th century BC. The word "calculator" itself comes from the Latin "calculo", which means "I count", "I count". But a more detailed study of the etymology of this concept shows that initially one should talk about the word "calculus", which translates as "pebble". After all, initially it was pebbles that were used as an attribute for counting.

The calculator is one of the simplest and most frequently used mechanisms in everyday life, but this invention has a long history and valuable experience for the development of science.

Antikythera mechanism

The first prototype of the calculator is considered to be the Antikythera Mechanism, which was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century near Antikythera Island on a sunken ship belonging to Italy. Scientists believe that the mechanism can be dated to the second century BC.

The device was designed to calculate the movement of planets and satellites. Also, the Antikythera Mechanism could add, subtract and divide.

Abacus

While trade relations between Asia and Europe were beginning to improve, the need for various accounting transactions became more and more. That is why in the VI century the first prototype of a calculating machine, the Abacus, was invented.

An abacus is a small wooden board on which special grooves have been made. In these small depressions, most often pebbles or tokens, denoting numbers, lay.

The mechanism worked according to the principle of Babylonian counting, which was based on the sexagesimal system. Any digit of the number consisted of 60 units and, based on where the number was located, each groove corresponded to the number of units, tens, etc. Due to the fact that holding 60 pebbles in each recess was rather inconvenient, the recesses were divided into 2 parts: in one - pebbles denoting tens (no more than 5), in the second - pebbles denoting units (no more than 9) ... At the same time, in the first compartment, the pebbles corresponded to units, in the second compartment - to tens, etc. If in one of the grooves the number required for the operation exceeded 59, then one of the pebbles was transferred to the next row.

The abacus was popular until the 18th and had many modifications.

Counting machine by Leonardo da Vinci

In the diaries of Leonardo da Vinci, one could see the drawings of the first calculating machine, which were called the "Madrid Code".

The apparatus consisted of several rods with wheels of different sizes. Each wheel had teeth at its base, thanks to which the mechanism could work. Ten rotations of the first axle resulted in one rotation of the second, and ten rotations of the second axle resulted in one complete revolution of the third.

Most likely, during his lifetime, Leonardo was never able to transfer his ideas to the material world, so it is generally accepted that in the second half of the 19th century, the first model of a calculating machine, created by Dr. Roberto Guatelli, appeared.

Napier's sticks

The Scottish explorer John Napier, in one of his books published in 1617, outlined the principle of multiplication with wooden sticks. Soon, this method became known as Napier's sticks. This mechanism was based on the then popular lattice multiplication method.

"Napier's sticks" were a set of wooden sticks, most of which had a multiplication table, as well as one stick with numbers from one to nine.

In order to perform the multiplication operation, it was necessary to lay out the sticks that would correspond to the value of the digit of the multiplier, and the top row of each plank had to form the multiplier. In each line, the numbers were summed up, and then the result after the operation was added.

Schickard's calculating clock

More than 150 years have passed since Leonardo da Vinci invented his calculating machine when the German professor Wilhelm Schickard wrote about his invention in one of his letters to Johannes Kepler in 1623. According to Schickard, the apparatus could perform addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division.

This invention went down in history as one of the prototypes of the calculator, and it got the name "mechanical watch" because of the principle of the mechanism, which was based on the use of stars and gears.

Schickard's calculating clock is the first mechanical device that could perform 4 arithmetic operations.

Two copies of the device burned down during a fire, and the drawings of their creator were found only in 1935.

Blaise Pascal's Counting Machine

In 1642, Blaise Pascal began developing a new calculating machine at the age of 19. Pascal's father, collecting taxes, was forced to deal with constant calculations, so his son decided to create an apparatus that could facilitate such work.

Blaise Pascal's Counting Machine is a small box containing many gears connected to each other. The numbers required to perform any of the four arithmetic operations were entered using the wheel revolutions that corresponded to the decimal place of the number.

Within 10 years, Pascal was able to design about 50 copies of machines, 10 of which he sold.

Squid Adding Machine

In the first half of the 19th century, Thomas de Calmar created the first commercial device that could perform four arithmetic operations. The adding machine was created on the basis of the mechanism of the predecessor of Kalmar - Wilhelm Leibniz. Having managed to improve the already existing apparatus, Kalmar called his invention an "adding machine".

Squid's adding machine is a small iron or wooden mechanism with an automated counter inside which you can perform four arithmetic operations. It was a device that surpassed a number of existing models, as it could handle thirty-digit numbers.

Adding machines of the 19-20 century

After humanity realized that computing greatly simplifies the work with numbers, in the 19-20 centuries many inventions related to calculating mechanisms appeared. The most popular device during this period was the adding machine.

Squid adding machine: invented in 1820, the first commercial mechanism to perform 4 arithmetic operations.

Chernyshev's adding machine: the first adding machine that appeared in Russia, invented in the 50s of the 19th century.

Odner's adding machine - one of the most popular adding machines of the twentieth century, appeared in 1877.

Adding machine Mercedes-Euklid VI: The first adding machine capable of performing four arithmetic operations without human assistance, invented in 1919.

Calculators in the 21st century

Nowadays, calculators play a significant role in all spheres of life: from professional to household. These computing devices have replaced abacus and abacus for humanity, which were popular in their time.

Based on the target audience and characteristics, calculators are divided into simple, engineering, accounting and financial. There are also programmable calculators that can be taken out in a separate class. They can work with complex programs pre-built into the mechanism itself. To work with charts, you can use a graphing calculator.

Also, classifying calculators by performance, they distinguish between compact and desktop types.

The history of calculating technology is the process of acquiring experience and knowledge by mankind, as a result of which the calculating mechanisms were able to harmoniously fit into human life.

This post is about the netbooks of Soviet schoolchildren, office workers and engineers.
Why do I say that? In those days, when I was in school, I had no idea about computers - why are they and what they are.
We just didn't have them. But we had calculators.
Almost every classmate of mine wore this or that model to school - algebra, geometry, physics ... in these lessons without a calculator was nowhere.
These machines were called microcalculators - they were solar-powered or mains powered. And some models even came with a case - just like mobile phones today ...
Already in the early 90s, computer gaming clubs began to appear in certain places, where you could pay a ruble or two to play Montezuma, Mario or air simulators, and some "cool" classmates even have home Atari or Robiki ... ... the children wanted to play computer games that were just beginning to gain fashion ... Some played ... on calculators.
Yes, yes ... there were programmable calculators on which you could "play". Under the cut, under all the photos of the calculators, I'll tell you about this ...

1. Electronics MK-51. Convenient and functional. From 7th to 11th grade he went with me to school from call to call

2. Office monster Electronics B3-05 M. It did not yet have an LCD screen, and the numbers burned with thin green threads.

3. Electronics B3-09 M. The unit in the photo was released back in 1976 ...

4. Electronics B3-18 A - the first domestic engineering microcalculator. Produced since 1976

5. Electronics B3-36. Charging almost like some Sony-Ericsson mobiles

6. Electronics MK-37A

7. Electronics MK-41. Another office monster

8. Electronics MK-44. And one more. How cheerfully they beat off trills at such accountants, quickly entering the numbers obtained into yellow paper sheets ...

9. Electronics MK-52 - the first Soviet microcalculator with non-volatile electrically erasable memory (4 Kb EPROM, 10,000 rewrite cycles), which ensures the safety of programs when the power is turned off and acts as a buffer when exchanging data with external devices

10. Electronics MK-56. Memory of 98 instructions and 14 registers, speed of about 5 simple operations per second. Turning off the calculator erases the memory contents

11. Electronics MK-59, manufactured for the national economy and export))

12. Electronics MK-41. Always touched by his form. As if the horse reared up

13. Electronics MK-60. The first Soviet solar-powered calculator

14. Electronics MK-61. Here it is - a programmable calculator that I "played" on. If you can call it that

15. He, dear

16. Electronics MK-71 - Soviet engineering calculator powered by solar cells. Produced since 1986 at the Angstrem plant, sold at a price of 75 rubles. Full domestic analogue of Casio fx-950

17. Electronics MK-85 - a programmable calculator (microcomputer) with a built-in BASIC interpreter. Produced by the Angstrem plant, Zelenograd from 1986 to 2000, sold in the Elektronika chain of stores at a price of 145 rubles, which at that time was much cheaper than any other computer equipped with a BASIC interpreter, then at a free retail price

And a little about games on programmable calculators.
There were a great many games for the PMK. Many of these games are now lost and cannot be found even among the vast expanses of the Internet.
What was a typical PMC game like? To fully cover all the characteristic features of such games, we will choose some kind of dynamic game, for example, Star Fighter 4.
First it was necessary to enter the program code. He looked like this

This is already a game)))) yes, yes

As we know from the instructions (and it must be read before the game in order to know what these or those letters-numbers mean, because there are no intuitive graphics here):

"8" on the left is a meaningless digit, the appearance of which is inevitable on the screen (these are the conditions for creating video messages for PMK);
"-" means enemy unmanned probes;
a blinking "8" in the center is our crosshair;
there are also: "L" - light fighters, "C" - medium fighters, "G" - heavy fighters, "E" - bodyguard ships (not shown in the illustration).

Purpose of the game: destroy all ships of the enemy, the Evil Empire. There are 9 moves to destroy each link. If during this time we do not destroy a link of enemy ships, another link comes to us from the rear and destroys - the inscription "EGGOG" will appear, which is analogous to "game over" for most PMK games. If we manage to destroy them, then we will move on to the next link. After the destruction of the last link (bodyguard ships "E"), the evidence of our victory "BLESC-93" will appear.
How do you make a move, you ask, because after pressing any key, the calculator interrupts the calculations (and therefore the game)? The answer is simple - the "R-GRD-G" lever is used to move in space. R - to the left, G - to the right, GRD - shot.
While the message is flashing, we move the lever to the desired position and wait. The calculator performs the necessary calculation and now the new disposition is blinking. You can make a new move ...

Here's a dry-handed micro-calculator game

Previous 5 issues in the series

Sergey Frolov

Collecting domestic computers, I was always interested to know whether domestic calculators and other calculating machines have foreign counterparts.
It took a lot of time to learn about these analogues. It turned out to be quite difficult: I had to sit in the evenings on the Internet for a long time, thoroughly browse the sites where other collectors show their exhibits, write down the names of models, save images of equipment and compare them with domestic equipment.
In addition to collectors' sites, the well-known online auction Ebay, where all kinds of gizmos are sold, and, of course, calculators and other calculating equipment, helped a lot in finding analogues. Navigating on Ebay takes a particularly long time, because sellers do not bother themselves with a detailed description of the goods being sold, often limiting themselves to a general description such as "Vintage calculator", etc. analogue to the collection. Pay attention to the photographs presented: there are both photographs of analogues from other sites, the owners of which have kindly allowed to use the photographs, and my own photographs for analogues of domestic cars, which I still managed to acquire. The mass copying of computer technology most likely began with our Odner adding machine. Here with this model:

This is the first mass-produced Odner system, released in 1890. Prior to this, a trial version of a slightly different form was released in a batch of 50 copies, but it was this model that became a truly massive and role model all over the world.
To get an idea of the clones of the Odhner system, take a look at the very famous brand adding machines featured on the wonderful Rechenmaschinen-Illustrated website: Brunsviga, Facit, Hamann-Manus, Swedish manufacturer of adding machines under the brand name "Original-Odhner", Thales and Triumphator.
At first, foreign firms received the rights to manufacture adding machines from Odner and his descendants, but after the revolution, hardly anyone began to pay royalties to the Soviet government. Accordingly, the Soviet Union also began to copy its Western counterparts.
In general, there is a very big plus in copying: a lot of time is saved on the development and debugging of new technologies, and the savings can be spent on something more necessary. Below you can look at the photos of domestic calculating machines and their foreign counterparts. By and large, the photos speak for themselves, without requiring comments, but for some cars I will make a few remarks.
For each model of calculators, I also provided links to sites where you can see more photos of analogs (the topmost link leads to my site with photos of the domestic version).

Bystrica and Bystrica 2 - Bohn Contex Model 20

Thanks Prof. Dr. C.-M. Hamann

A very original palm-operated calculator.

Thanks to Freddy Haeghens for submitting a photo.

The closest analogue of Odner's adding machine and, probably, the last of the sold adding machines in the USSR (late 70s). We had two options: mechanical BK-1 (Facit TK) and electromechanical BK-2 (Facit EK).
In addition, BK-3 and BK-4 were also produced, but what kind of calculators they were, it was not yet possible to find out.

Sharp Compet CS-30A - DD Electronics

Thanks to Tony Epton for submitting a photo.

By the way, this calculator has one special feature: it does not have negative numbers. If you subtract three from two, but all nines will appear on the indicator, then the number is represented in the complementary code.

T3-16 - HP 9100B The first desktop calculator with engineering features and programmability from Hewlett Packard was called the HP 9100A. It appeared in 1968. Our copy was called "Electronics 70" and, as the name suggests, appeared in 1970. It was a very complex calculator. For its release, the production of special transistors was mastered, the analogues of which were used in the HP 9100A. I spoke to a person who exploited Electronics 70 for a bit. He said it was a unique calculator that had all the tracks on the circuit board gilded. Unfortunately, I could not get hold of "Electronics 70", and I cannot show its photographs.
But I managed to get the "Electronics T3-16", which was made on the basis of the HP 9100B. In fact, the HP 9100B was an improved version of the HP 9100A.
If you go to the site where I took photos of T3-16 (http://www.leningrad.su/museum/show_calc.php?n=211), you can see how complex this calculator is: a large number of microcircuits, memory on magnetic cores , a magnetic card reader where user programs were stored, a cathode ray tube where information was displayed, and so on. Of course, this little computer turned out to be very difficult to manufacture and operate, and could not be produced in large quantities.

Electronics 24-71 - Sharp QT-8D

Calculators were generally pioneers in electronics. New technologies were mastered for their microcircuits, new types of indicators were produced. For example, in this model, for the first time in the USSR, a vacuum luminescent indicator of the type IV-1 (number sign and overflow) and IV-2 (numbers) was used. Pay attention to the silhouette of the signs. It is unique for this calculator and has not been used anywhere else. All products with indicators on luminous green numbers started with this calculator model.

Electronics B3-04 - Sharp EL-805

The first domestic pocket calculator. Gold glass plate. 1974th year. In half a year, we managed to completely copy its analogue - Sharp EL-805: develop microcircuits from scratch, master the technology of liquid crystals, and so on. There is only a slight difference in the two models - in the form of a cover that covers the indicator (seen in the photo).
The calculator turned out to be very unreliable and practically unrepairable. The machines of the first issues were called "Micro computers", and later the term "Micro calculator" was used for the first time.

Electronics B3-18 - Anita 202SR
Electronics B3-18A - Rockwell 61R

At about the same time as with B3-04, the question arose about creating an engineering calculator. Our industry took two paths and almost simultaneously released the first two domestic engineering calculators: Electronics C3-15 and B3-18. Two ways were as follows: we made the first calculator ourselves, involving leading mathematicians to compose algorithms for calculating functions, and the second became a copy of the Anita 202SR calculator.

A year later, a modification of the B3-18 was released under the name B3-18A (Rockwell 61R)

A copy was made, but problems arose: the calculator chip required precise adjustment of the supply voltage. On each chip, they wrote (mostly with a pencil) the operating voltage of the microcircuit with an accuracy of hundredths of a volt!

Electronics B3-23 - EZ2000

In addition to complete copying of calculators (including control microcircuits), design copying was also used. This can be seen on the example of the Electronics B3-23 (EZ2000), B3-02 (Sharp EL-8001), B3-11 (ICC-82D) and MK-85 (Casio fx-700P) calculators, but more on the latter below.

As I already wrote, for the first domestic microcalculator Elektronika B3-04, the prototype was taken by the Sharp EL-805 as the first calculator on liquid crystals. A microcalculator Electronics B3-30 is also taken from the first calculator on liquid crystals, but a slightly different technology - black symbols on a light background - the same that is now installed in almost all models. The same model was called the Sharp EL-8020.

For a long time, we, together with another well-known collector of domestic calculators - Australian Andrew Davie, believed that Electronics B3-36 was one of the most beautiful calculators in terms of design. But recently I was able to get hold of its prototype - a rather rare Rockwell THE 74K calculator.

As you can see, the design is almost completely repeated, and the functions of the calculator are 100 percent.

B3-35 - Hanimex ESR Master

The same can be said about the Electronica B3-35 calculators (Hanimex ESR Master). This model differs from B3-36 practically only in design.

B3-38 - Casio fx-48

To date, I have not been able to get my hands on a Casio fx-48 calculator. Shown here is a photograph taken many years ago from an Ebay auction. This is the smallest domestic calculator. It was taken from Casio fx-48.

MK-51 - Casio fx-2500

Around the same time, one of the most popular microcalculators was made - Electronics MK 51 (Casio fx-2500). What is most interesting is that the same chip is used for Electronics B3-38 and MK-51. The fact is that Casio very widely uses technology, when the same processor chip is used for the production of calculators and a large range of calculators is produced for it. If you have an MK-51 calculator, then you can check an interesting fact that if you press the F key and a number key, the function that is drawn for the F1 key of the B3-38 calculator will be executed.

MK-71 - Casio fx-950

The same can be said about the Electronics MK-71 (Casio fx-950) calculators. Casio has a similar model with an 8-digit indicator instead of a 10-digit one. It's called Casio fx-900. This model does not have a lever for switching the calculation mode of trigonometric functions and the choice of degrees-degrees-radians is performed by buttons. And the most interesting thing is that you can go from fx-950 to fx-900 by setting this lever to an intermediate position - between degrees and radians or between radians and grades. I checked it works on both MK-71 and Casio fx-950.

MK-53 - Monroe M112

There are some confusion with this calculator. Although Monroe made calculators, I'm not sure if this calculator was developed by Monroe. The fact is that many calculator companies either used ready-made calculator chips, or used OEM versions of other companies and put only their own logos. Most likely this model was made from some Sharp calculator. It is unlikely that this is Casio, because Casio calculators have a minus sign to the left of the number, while Sharp calculators have a separate dot (in this model - on the left side of the display). Moreover, this calculator is the only calculator in the USSR with a clock and a stopwatch. MK-87 does not count, because there is a separate calculator and a clock - also separately.

And now the fun part is personal computers. The most famous calculator with BASIC - Electronics MK-85 also has its own prototype. This is the Casio FX-700P. However, the task was not to make a complete copy of the FX-700P. One of the reasons was the lack of Cyrillic on the keyboard. But the task was nevertheless set - to make a complete copy both in appearance and in built-in functions.
In the same way, an exact copy of the Wang 2000 computer (Spark 226) was made in due time in order to be able to run the programs developed for Wang, which were in large numbers.

MK-85M - Casio fx-700P

The development was hard, I had to tinker a lot with the indicator in order to achieve an acceptable level and contrast uniformity. Nevertheless, we managed to make the MK-85, and this machine was a success.
Of course, there were some drawbacks. One of them was terrible performance. As I was told by one person who took part in the development of this model, the difficulty was that the functions were calculated by expansion in a series, while in the fx-700P it was done digit by digit. And one more factor that affected the speed is the storage of numbers: in hexadecimal form in MK-85 and in decimal form in FX-700P.
The MK-85 uses a 16-bit microprocessor, command system compatible with DEC PDP-11. Casio has a 4-bit processor focused on processing one digit of a number. Maybe this also influenced the speed of calculations.

MK-87 - Casio PF-3000

This is a very rare calculator. They were released only about 6000-8000 thousand copies. A line for the production of touch buttons was purchased in Japan. The result is a very complex and very expensive notebook calculator with a 16-bit microprocessor. Its prime cost turned out to be more than a hundred rubles, and things did not go beyond the experimental batch.
Its prototype - the first calculator-notebook from Casio - PF-3000 is slightly different, but in general they are the same typewriter in terms of functions.

And finally, I would like to say about the MK-90 / MK-92. Although this calculator and the MK-90 are our own Russian-made calculator, some design details are borrowed from the Casio PB-410, especially external cartridges for storing programs on batteries. The MK-92 is very similar with its color plotter to the Casio FA-10. It is a pity that it was not possible to connect the MK-92 to the TV.

That's all, actually. But do not think that we were engaged in only copying Western counterparts. We also produced calculators of our own production. Take at least MK-61, MK-52. Seemingly unpretentious design, but the programming capabilities turned out to be at a high level, and these calculators became the most popular.
Do not think that only we copied from others. Industrial espionage and the use of each other's advanced technologies are standard practice among competing powers. A very clear example of the use of our technologies is the American F-15 aircraft. It is very much like our MiG-25. But that's a completely different story.

Thank you for the attention.

Text, photos - Sergey Frolov

Iron Ghosts of the Past - 2008

Additions or amendments to

These machines were called microcalculators - they were solar-powered or mains powered. And some models even came with a case - just like mobile phones today ...

1. Electronics MK-51. Convenient and functional. From 7th to 11th grade he went with me to school from call to call

2. Office monster Electronics B3-05 M. It did not yet have an LCD screen, and the numbers burned with thin green threads.

3. Electronics B3-09 M. The unit in the photo was released back in 1976 ...

4. Electronics B3-18 A - the first domestic engineering microcalculator. Produced since 1976

5. Electronics B3-36. Charging almost like some Sony-Ericsson mobiles

6. Electronics MK-37A

7. Electronics MK-41. Another office monster

8. Electronics MK-44. And one more. How cheerfully they were beating trills at such accountants, quickly entering the numbers obtained into yellow paper sheets ...

9. Electronics MK-52 - the first Soviet microcalculator with non-volatile electrically erasable memory (4 Kb EPROM, 10,000 rewrite cycles), which ensures the safety of programs when the power is turned off and acts as a buffer when exchanging data with external devices

10. Electronics MK-56. Memory of 98 instructions and 14 registers, speed of about 5 simple operations per second. Turning off the calculator erases the memory contents

11. Electronics MK-59, manufactured for the national economy and export))

12. Electronics MK-41. Always touched by his form. As if the horse reared up

13. Electronics MK-60. The first Soviet solar-powered calculator

14. Electronics MK-61. Here it is - a programmable micro calculator on which I "played". If you can call it that

15. He, dear

16. Electronics MK-71 - Soviet engineering calculator powered by solar cells. Produced since 1986 at the Angstrem plant, sold at a price of 75 rubles. Full domestic analogue of Casio fx-950

17. Electronics MK-85 - a programmable calculator (microcomputer) with a built-in BASIC interpreter. Produced by the Angstrem plant, Zelenograd from 1986 to 2000, sold in the Elektronika chain of stores at a price of 145 rubles, which at that time was much cheaper than any other computer equipped with a BASIC interpreter, then at a free retail price

And a little about games on programmable calculators.
There were a great many games for the PMK. Many of these games are now lost and cannot be found even among the vast expanses of the Internet.
What was a typical PMC game like? To fully cover all the characteristic features of such games, we will choose some kind of dynamic game, for example, Star Fighter 4.
First it was necessary to enter the program code. He looked like this

All this code is completely accurately entered into the memory of the PMK (as we can see from the number of steps - 104 - this program is suitable only for MK-61 and MK-52). God forbid to be mistaken - it will take a lot of time to find the error, unless you are, of course, a happy owner of MK-52 and do not load this program from the EPROM.
After the program code is entered, it is necessary to fill in the registers (these are variables in the PMK). We enter the necessary information into the registers. It is usually printed immediately after the program code.
Traditionally, the data to be entered into the register is written in the format of the keys pressed. In the case of our game, this is: “6 хП0; a number from 0 to 1 хП3; 3 хП7; 50 xP8; 69 xP9; 88858893 V? 336542 KV VP 7 hPA; 87 xPB; 59 hPS; 7 F10x хПД ". Writing "6 хП0" in this example means that the number 6 is entered into register 0.
For comparison, imagine that you bought a sheet (not a disc, but a sheet) with Oblivion, and enter it step by step into your computer, instead of automatically installing from the disc ... Now you get the idea.
After all the necessary data has been entered into the registers, the "V / O" and "S / P" keys are pressed, starting the program from step number 00.
Star Fighter is a dynamic game, which means that now we will need to carefully peer at the dimly flickering screen. If we are in a room with too much sunlight (or, God forbid, outdoors), then for the calculator it is best to make a visor out of thick cardboard to shade the flickering indicator.
So, we look intently at the flicker. At first, this is a mess of incomprehensible numbers and symbols, and then the same video message begins to flicker with enviable constancy:

This is already a game)))) yes, yes
As we know from the instructions (and it must be read before the game in order to know what these or those letters-numbers mean, because there are no intuitive graphics here): "8" on the left is a meaningless digit, the appearance of which is inevitable on the screen (these are conditions for creating video messages for PMK); "-" means enemy unmanned probes; a blinking "8" in the center is our crosshair; there are also: "L" - light fighters, "C" - medium fighters, "G" - heavy fighters, "E" - bodyguard ships (not shown). Purpose of the game: destroy all ships of the enemy, the Evil Empire. There are 9 moves to destroy each link. If during this time we do not destroy a link of enemy ships, another link comes to us from the rear and destroys - the inscription "EGGOG" will appear, which is analogous to "game over" for most PMK games. If we manage to destroy them, then we will move on to the next link. After the destruction of the last link (bodyguard ships "E"), the evidence of our victory "BLESC-93" will appear.
How do you make a move, you ask, because after pressing any key, the calculator interrupts the calculations (and therefore the game)? The answer is simple - the "R-GRD-G" lever is used to move in space. R - left, G - right, GRD - shot.
While the message is flashing, we move the lever to the desired position and wait. The calculator performs the necessary calculation and now the new disposition is blinking. You can make a new move ...
Here's a dry-handed micro-calculator game