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Texas Instruments TI-1766 II

Date of introduction:	1986	Display technology:	LCD
New price:		Display size:	8
Size:	4.6" x 2.5" x 0.35" 117 x 63 x 8 mm³
Weight:	1.9 ounces, 55 grams	Serial No:
Batteries:	n.a.	Date of manufacture:	mth 03 year 1986
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	Taiwan (I)
Precision:	8	Integrated circuits:
Memories:	1
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

With the TI-1766 Texas Instruments entered already in 1981 the market of basic LCD-calculators powered by solar cells. Due to the improvements of both the power consumption of the calculator electronics and the efficiency of the solar cells the size of the solar cells usually was shrunken from model year to model year.

This TI-1766 II introduced in 1986 continued this trend and its solar cells are just about half of the TI-1766 (4^rd design) introduced in 1983. In the meantime we discovered even from the TI-1766 II three different versions and it is difficult to understand, why the 2^nd design – introduced in 1987 – increased the size of the solar cells dramatically!

Digging deeper into similar Texas Instruments solar-powered calculators of that era revealed a big surprise: There was obviously a switch back to larger solar cells in 1986. This may be illustrated best by the TI-60x series of calculators and their siblings TI-1768:

Calculator	Introduction	Manufactured	Solar cells
TI-603	1986	11/85	Small
TI-1766 II	1986	03/86	Small
TI-606	1986	06/86	Large
TI-1768	1986	03/87	Large
TI-1766 II	1987	07/87	Large
TI-606	1987	05/87	Medium
TI-1766 II	1988	10/90	Small
TI-1768	1989	06/89	Small
TI-606	1989	08/91	Small

Dismantling the TI-1766 II reveals a standard design of a far-east design of the 80's and reveals the manufacturer of both the calculator and the single-chip calculator circuit. Deciphering the date code "I-0386" points to Inventec Corporation, Taiwan.

If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.