DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Canon F-7
Date of introduction: | 1974 | Display technology: | LED-stick |
New price: | Display size: | 8 + 2 | |
Size: | 7.0" x 3.4" x 1.8" | ||
Weight: | 10.2 ounces | Serial No: | 503217 |
Batteries: | 4*AA | Date of manufacture: | year 1974 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Japan | |
Precision: | 10 | Integrated circuits: | Hitachi HD3650, HD3651, HD3653, HD3666 |
Memories: | 2 | ||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
The Palmtronic F-7 was introduced shortly after the Texas Instruments SR-50 and uses a very similar calculator architecture developed by Hitachi. Instead the single-chip calculator chips found inside the F-5 and F-6 models, it uses a processing chip (CPU) HD3650 surrounded by a Read Only Memory (ROM) HD3651, a T-CHIP (Timing Chip) HD3653 and the HD3666 labelled PUC. The same CPU was used in the desktop sized Canola F-11 and the metric conversion calculator FC-80.
Comparing the Palmtronic F-7 with the SR-50 gives some differences:
Item | SR-50 | F-7 |
Number of keys | 40 | 36 |
Display organization | 10 + 2 | 8 + 2 |
Calculating accuracy | 13 digits | 10 digits |
Calculator forensics | 9.000005... | 8.991... |
Number of memories | 1 | 2 |
Constants and conversions | none | 20 |
Once again Texas Instruments demonstrated its capabilities in calculating algorithm. The Canon F-7 looks great but lacks precision. We found similar poor performance with the F-5 and F-2. On the other hand takes the calculation of 69! (1*2*3...*69) with the F-7 only a fraction of time compared to the SR-50. It is easy to understand, with similar calculating performance engineers have to balance between speed and accuracy.
Read more about the successful TMC0501 family introduced by Texas Instruments with the SR-50 and expanded till the TI-59.
Don't miss the first TI-less calculator sold by Canon, the LE-80M.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, July 2, 2002. No reprints without written permission.