DATAMATH  CALCULATOR  MUSEUM

Texas Instruments SR-52

Date of introduction:  September 16, 1975 Display technology:  LED-stick
New price:  $ 395.00 (SRP 1975), DM 1199.00 Display size:  10 + 2
Size:  6.5" x 3.3" x 1.7"
 164 x 84 x 44 mm3
   
Weight:  10.0 ounces, 284 grams Serial No:  20180
Batteries:  BP1A Date of manufacture:  wk 51 year 1975
AC-Adapter:  AC9130A or DC9105 Origin of manufacture:  USA (DTA)
Precision:  12/13 Integrated circuits:  TMC0501, TMC0524, TMC0562, TMC0563, TMC0595, 2*TMC0599, SN97211
Logic:  AOS - 10 Pending Operations, 9 () Displays:  DIS234G
Memories:  20    
Program steps:  224 Courtesy of:  Joerg Woerner
Download leaflets:   (US: 4.5M Bytes)
  (US: 3.5M Bytes)
  (US: 7.8M Bytes)
Download manuals:   (US: 26.8M Bytes)
  (US: 2.8M Bytes)

If you call the SR-52 a pocket calculator you need really huge pockets. Introduced in Fall 1975, this wonderful calculator integrated a card reader for magnetic strips, a huge memory for 224 program steps and the revolutionary Algebraic Operating System (AOS™) into a housing similar to the SR-50A calculator. By the way, the SR-52 was the thickest calculator ever with a whooping 1.8". Together with the calculator a "Printed Cradle" PC-100 was introduced, a thermal printer and plotter which secured the SR-52. In September 1975 a the SR-52 was with a Suggested Retail Price of US$ 395 (around US$ 2,200 inflation adjusted in 2023 money) not really a bargain. The SR-52 was clearly placed against the Hewlett-Packard HP-65, later the HP-67 featured an identical memory space to the SR-52.

The SR-52 was an important milestone in the history of programmable calculators based on the TMS0500 Building Blocks for Scientific and Programmable Calculators introduced in January 1974 with the SR-50 and leading to the legendary TI-59.

The remarkable SR-52 uses most features of the TMC0500 Architecture. A deeper exploration of the calculator reveals a TMC0501 Revision E or TMC0501E Arithmetic Chip surrounded by one TMC0524 SCOM (Scanning and Read Only Memory) Chip, two TMC0561/TMC0562 BROM (Bare Read Only Memory) Chips for a combined 3k*13 Bits instruction memory.

In addition you'll notice on the printed circuit board (PCB) two
TMC0599 Multi-Register Chips for program and data and finally a TMC0595 Magnetic I/O Chip controlling the internal magnet card read/writer.

A calculator with a similar feature set was sold with the huge desktop-model SR-60. The related SR-56 lacks the magnetic card reader and sports a smaller user memory.

In November 1976 Texas Instruments announced PPX-52 (Professional Program Exchange), a service for SR-52 users in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to gather, compile and redistribute programs for the calculator. It was in Fall 1977, shortly after the introduction of the TI-59, merged with the PPX-59. All PPX-52 Newsletters are available for free download as a service provided by the Datamath Calculator Museum.

Don't miss the secrets of the SR-52 and read about some Undocumented Features.

At first glance the calculating precision of the SR-52 was reduced from 13 digits to 12 digits compared with earlier scientific calculators based on the TMC0501 Arithmetic chip, for instance the SR-51. But fellow collector Palmer Hanson revealed in October 2009, almost 35 years after its introduction, the remaining secrets of the SR-52. Don't miss the Story "Twelve or Thirteen Digits on the SR-52." 

If you are interested in the calculating accuracy of scientific calculators, don't miss the Calculator forensics

Comparing the Constant ROM Content with the programmed constants frequently used with computing algorithm of trigonometric functions like sine, cosine, or tangent of an SR-50 manufactured in May 1974 still using the original TMC0521-2 SCOM Chip with the TMC0524B Chip of the featured SR-52 with our TMS0500 Platform after recording their ROM Images showed no differences.
If you are interested in "huge pocket calculators" you should view the Canon Palmtronic F-7 and Casio PRO fx-1.



The SR-52 is featured in the Texas Instruments Incorporated bulletins CB-SR52 dated 1975, SR-52_FL, CB-195A dated 1976 and in the Texas Instruments Deutschland GmbH leaflet ER-1976 dated 1976.

Fellow collectors - if you own a SR-52 please report us the serial number and date code on the back of the calculator for our SR-52 Database.

SR-52 Database

Serial Number Origin Date code Logo Owner
11115 USA

DTA 4675

  Francois Lanciault
11215 USA

DTA 4475

  Juri Schauder
11270 USA

DTA 4475

  Hugh Fraser
11486 USA

DTA 4675

  Robert Phillips
11583 USA

DTA 5275

  Dave Ramey
11930 USA

DTA 5275

  Mark Crouse
12361 USA

DTA 0276

  Miroslav Krob
13186 USA

DTA 4775

  Kirk B. Muri
13416 USA

DTA 4575

  Mikel J. Harris
13948 USA

DTA 4775

  Joerg Woerner
14131 USA

DTA 4775

  Alberto Fenini
14328 USA

DTA 4875

  Willy Kunz
14440 USA

DTA 4875

  Didier Lachieze
15621 USA

DTA 0476

  Marc Yaseen
16307 USA

DTA 0476

  André Wilhelmus
16511 USA

DTA 0476

  Victor Rollinger
16587 USA

DTA 0476

  Katie Poole
17125 USA

DTA 0676

  Wesley Griffith
17538 USA

DTA 0776

  Claus Buchholz
18314 USA

DTA 0776

  Bill Brown
18679 USA

DTA 0776

  Bo Sörensson
20180 USA

DTA 5175

  Joerg Woerner
23643 USA

DTA 0876

  Francis Teyssier
24777 USA

DTA 0876

  Wolfgang Kemper
25031 USA

DTA 0876

  Erik Theunissen
32253 USA

DTA 1176

  Alberto Fenini
32860 USA

DTA 1176

  Alberto Fenini
33359 USA

DTA 1276

  Joerg Woerner
33663 USA

DTA 1376

  Mac Derscheid
33998 USA

DTA 1376

  François Lanciault
34505 USA

DTA 1376

  Daniel Rios
35405 USA

DTA 1376

  Kirk B. Muri
35678 USA

DTA 1376

  Thierry Bru
35849 USA

DTA 1376

  Ralph Pandel
36325 USA

DTA 1376

  Joerg Woerner
36603 USA

DTA 1476

  Klaus Sieber
36844 USA

DTA 1376

  Joerg Woerner
37331 USA

DTA 1576

  Bernd Ulmann
37692 USA

DTA 1376

  Joerg Woerner
38362 USA

DTA 1376

  Kirk B. Muri
38938 USA

DTA 1376

  J. Steve Dodds
38945 USA

DTA 1376

  Greg Lane
40046 USA

DTA 1076

  Gene McNair
42047 USA

DTA 0876

  Terry Bertrand
43520 USA

DTA 1076

  Marie Lisa Collas
43176 USA

DTA 0876

  Brian DeLuca
43939 USA

DTA 1076

  Peter Bach
48299 USA

DTA 0976

  Ricardo Rodríguez
48955 USA

DTA 1076

  Huub van Luijt
47413 USA

DTA 0876

  Julian Burke
49362 USA

DTA 1076

  Joerg Woerner
50061 USA

DTA 0876

  Peter Carlsen
50591 USA

DTA 0876

  Wolfgang Mueller
50683 USA

DTA 0876

  François Gueissaz
50913 USA

DTA 0876

  Angelo Elifani
51248 USA

DTA 0876

  Zbynek Hak
51130 USA

DTA 0876

  Alain Chancé
51796 USA

LTA 2076

  Clemens Driessen
53151 USA

LTA 1776

  Joerg Woerner
53750 USA

LTA 1776

  Helmut Albrecht
58729 USA

LTA 1776

  Martin Desax
58890 USA

LTA 1776

  Greg Lane
021832 USA

LTA 3576

  Kirk B. Muri
022300 USA

LTA 3576

  Thierry Bru
026605 USA

LTA 4376

  Ronald Richardson
030069 USA

LTA 2476

  Eric Moorhouse
041139 USA

LTA 0377

  Alberto Fenini
041189 USA

LTA 0377

  Joerg Woerner
046268 USA

LTA ___

  Tom Gervascio
051553 USA

LTA 2076

  Karol Groh
052418 USA

LTA 1776

  Alberto Fenini
053040 USA

LTA 1776

  Alberto Fenini
057299 USA

LTA 2576

  Tony Buckley
058528 USA

LTA 1776

  Alberto Fenini
060224 USA

LTA 2076

  Frank Nijkamp
060985 USA

LTA 2076

  Phylip Hoarau
061844 USA

LTA 3076

  Phylip Hoarau
061959 USA

LTA 3076

  Michael Guettler
062175 USA

LTA 3076

  Tom Johnson
063252 USA

LTA 3276

  Wesley Griffith
064546 USA

LTA 3476

  Josef Ladra
065498 USA

LTA 3776

  Harry Brugmans
068734 USA

LTA 2976

  Katie Poole
068862 USA

LTA 2976

  Peter Carlsen
071226 USA

LTA 3976

  Kirk B. Muri
075155 USA

LTA 3776

  Alberto Fenini
076747 USA

LTA 3876

  Kirk B. Muri
084280 USA

LTA 4776

  Thomas Rode
084673 USA

LTA 4776

  Wesley Griffith
084920 USA

LTA 4776

  Kirk B. Muri
086542 USA

LTA 5176

  Thomas Gardiner
087639 USA

LTA 4576

  Marc Paquette
088976 USA

LTA 4676

  William Eburn
089043 USA

LTA 4676

  Glenn Chappell
936029 USA

LTA 4476

  Gianni Civita
938730 USA

LTA 4276

  Marco Antonio Silveira de Souza
941409 USA

LTA 4276

  Pablo Walls
942043 USA

LTA 4176

  Ed Gersten
942058 USA

LTA 4276

  Alberto Fenini
952114 USA

LTA 0577

  Ron Silva
953114 USA

LTA 4176

  Alberto Fenini
953968 USA

LTA 4176

  Kirk B. Muri
954104 USA

LTA 4176

  Kevin N. Schwinkendorf
955025 USA LTA 0877   Kirk B. Muri
955072 USA LTA 0877   Thierry Bru
955283 USA LTA 0677   Chris Tang
956626 USA LTA 0877   Alexey A Nikitin
956636 USA LTA 0977   Carl Crown
956679 USA LTA 0977   Kirk B. Muri
959591 USA LTA 0677   Joerg Woerner
961340 USA LTA 0877   Marie Lisa Collas
963481 USA LTA 0977   Kipp Cannon
6829819 USA LTA 1477   Gary D. Snyder
6831404 USA LTA 1777   Blake McBride
6831992 USA LTA 1777   David Fair
6832449 USA LTA 1777   Thierry Bru
6832457 USA LTA 1777   Ron Webb
9100952 Netherlands 2376 ACH   Inger-Lise Ekkelund Andersen
9101045 Netherlands 2276 ACH   Guy Drew
9101078 Netherlands 2276 ACH   Warry Spykstra
9102384 Netherlands 3076 ACH   R. Wuest
9102385 Netherlands 3076 ACH   Bernd Leutner
9103345 Netherlands 3176 ACH   Ken Turnbull
9105555 Netherlands 3976 ACH   Roswitha Piesch
9105611 Netherlands 3976 ACH   O.G.Petersen
9105875 Netherlands 3976 ACH   Pierre Houbert
9105950 Netherlands 3976 ACH   Glenn Whitney
9108399 Netherlands 2376 ACH   Angelo Elifani
9113384 Netherlands 0577 ACH   Andre Labbe
9114604 Netherlands 4776 ACH   Bernd Ulmann
9115819 Netherlands 5176 ACH   Rik Bos
9116929 Netherlands 4076 ACH   Miroslav Krob
9117294 Netherlands 4176 ACH   Acibase Alessandro
9117356 Netherlands 4176 ACH   Arnold Kaarsbaan
9117427 Netherlands 4176 ACH   PJ Ballard
9118313 Netherlands 4476 ACH   Forró Béla Romania
9118881 Netherlands 4476 ACH   Lars Wickenberg
9119066 Netherlands 4476 ACH   Zbynek Hak
9119560 Netherlands 4576 ACH   Didier Lachieze
9120784 Netherlands 2177 ACH   Marie Lisa Collas
9123649 Netherlands 1777 ACH   Matthias Krambeck
9124016 Netherlands 1477 ACH   Andre Labbe
9124590 Netherlands 1477 ACH   Andre Labbe
9124590 Netherlands 1477 ACH   Martin Gubler
9124732 Netherlands 1677 ACH   Leonardo Galeone
912481? Netherlands 1577 ACH   Andreas Eidenberger
912520_ Netherlands 1277 ACH   Chris Straub
             

AOS™ is a trademark of Texas Instruments.

 

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

© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.