DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
New Specialties Apothecalc by Texas Instruments
Date of introduction: | 1987 | Display technology: | LCD |
New price: | Display size: | 3 Alpha + 7 | |
Size: | 5.3" x 2.8" x 0.45" 135 x 70 x 11 mm3 |
||
Weight: | 2.3 ounces, 64 grams | Serial No: | 06034 |
Batteries: | LR44 | Date of manufacture: | mth 11 year 1987 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Taiwan (C) | |
Precision: | 7 | Integrated circuits: | Toshiba T9784 |
Memories: | 1 | ||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
Download manual: | (US: 6.5 MByte) |
This
rare Apothecalc computer was developed in a collaboration between New
Specialties, Inc. based in Vidalia, Georgia and Texas Instruments. We know a
similar approach already from the
Jeppesen Sanderson Avstar Flight
computer, which is obviously based on the
TI-35-II scientific
calculator and its financial sibling BA-II.
But this Apothecalc computer designed for the use of
medical personnel to perform apothecary calculations and conversions seems to be
from a different world. We recognized instantly the alphanumeric characters in
the three left-most positions of the display and the [ENT] key.
Dismantling
this rare Apothecalc computer manufactured in November 1987 by Cal-Comp
Electronics in Taiwan reveals an unusual construction with a Toshiba T9784 single-chip calculator circuit
soldered on a double-sided printed circuit board (PCB) and powered by a LR44
battery.
We
didn't discover any technical information about the Toshiba T9784 single-chip calculator
circuit so far, but it seems to be similar to the T9728 located in the Business Edge Financial
calculator introduced in the same time frame.
Inspecting
the PCB of this Apothecalc calculator brought our attention to a small mark reading JSIA-10, we noticed similar marks already with other calculators manufactured by
Cal-Comp Electronics and started compiling a list of the
PCB-Marks on calculators manufactured by OEMs for Texas Instruments.
New
Specialties, Inc. filed on April 7, 1988 for the Trademark of the Apothecalc
logo, it was effective by November 15, 1988. About 7 years later, on May 22,
1995, the Trademark was cancelled. Please notice that Stokes Publishing Company
in Sunnyvale, California, maker of the transparent "The Educator®" calculators,
introduced in 1995 an Apothecalc calculator, too.
The APOTHECALC computer is designed for the
use of medical personnel having a need to perform apothecary calculations
and conversions. The computer is designed to be easy to operate and to allow
the user to concentrate on the problem rather than on the use of the
computer. |
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 23, 2010. No reprints without written permission.