DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Exactra 19 by Texas Instruments
Date of introduction: | October 1974 | Display technology: | LED-stick |
New price: | $16.30 (The Ohio State Univ.) | Display size: | 6 |
Size: | 5.1" x 2.9" x 1.3" 130 x 74 x 34 mm3 |
||
Weight: | 5.1 ounces, 144 grams | Serial No: | 1900039332 |
Batteries: | 3*AA | Date of manufacture: | wk 44 year 1974 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | USA | |
Precision: | 6 | Integrated circuits: | TMC0806 |
Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
Download manual: | (US: 1.3M Bytes) |
When
The Ohio State University approached Texas Instruments early in Summer 1974 with
the demand of Thousands of high quality calculators in the $15.00 to $20.00
range for a Classroom Experiment, they actually initiated the development of
this Exactra 19.
Texas Instruments established with the Exactra 20 already a
budget calculator with an SRP of $39.88 and the Exactra 19 was the result of a
dramatic cost-reduction program:
• Smaller keys without injection molded lettering. • Drop of the sliding switch to use either fix point or floating point notation. • Replacement of the double-sided printed circuit board (PCB) with a single-sided PCB. • Replacement of the TMS0135 single-chip calculator circuit with more cost effective TMC0806. |
Texas Instruments obviously achieved their goals, the Exactra 19 was sold in the bookstores for $16.30 to the students of The Ohio State University.
The manufacturing costs of the keyboard could be reduced by
dropping the double-shot injection molding process in favor of a simple-shot
process. Please notice the 6-digit display already known from the Exactra 20.
Did you notice the "bubble lens" to magnify the small LED display? One of the
most sought part of any Exactra calculator - don't miss the
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
story and learn more about the Exactra
Calculator LED Displays.
The keyboard assembly still has an opening for the sliding
switch to select between fix point or floating point notation, but the switch itself is missing.
The
single-sided printed circuit board (PCB) of the Exactra 19 makes use of the TMC0806
single-chip calculator circuit and a tiny display driver. The remaining parts
form a small power-converter to use the 3 AA-sized batteries instead a 9V
battery block.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.