From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sinclair Executive
Sinclair Executive
The Sinclair Executive was Clive Sinclair’s first ven- tested them operating like this, but Sinclair said that it
ture into the pocket calculator market. The Executive tested all the chips before it used them.[1][2][3] This had
was the world’s first "slimline" pocket calculator. It was the effect of extending battery life to about 20 hours of
variously described as "a piece of personal jewelry" (New continuous use.
Scientist) and "at once a conversation piece, a rich man’s
plaything and a functional business machine" (Design
Magazine). An example of the calculator is displayed at
See also
the Museum of Modern Art in New York. • Sinclair Oxford
• Sinclair Sovereign
History
The Executive was launched in August 1972 at the price
References
of GB£79.95 plus VAT, which at that time was about two [1] Pocket calculator weighs in at 2.5 ounces, Electronics,
or three times the average weekly wage. July 3rd. 1972, "Electronics International" section
p3E
[2] Pocket calculators add up to a big market, New
Design Scientist, 20th. July 1972, p144
The Executive weighed only 2.5 ounces (71 g) and mea- [3] Dale, R. (1985) The Sinclair story, London: Duckworth
sured 5.5 × 2.25 × 0.4 inches (14 × 5.7 × 1.0 cm).
The Executive was remarkably thin for its time, made
possible by the first use of button-type batteries to power
External links
a calculator. To do this, Sinclair had to overcome the • Planet Sinclair—Sinclair Executive information
problem of the power hungry calculator electronics and • Planet Sinclair—Sinclair Executive photo gallery
LED display. It was common to pulse the power to the LED • Clive Sinclair and the Pocket calculator
display to reduce power consumption, but Sinclair’s engi-
neers found that it was also possible to rapidly pulse the
main calculator integrated circuit (chip). This method of
operation relied on the capacitance of the devices in the
chip to retain information during a calculation, and it
was claimed that the power consumption of the chip was
reduced from 350 milliwatts to about 20 milliwatts. Texas
Instruments, the manufacturer of the chip, said it had not
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Categories:
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• Sinclair calculators
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sinclair Executive
Sinclair Executive calculator
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