AKA: Elles logent sur un confetti l'équivalent de 7500 transistors et condensateurs,
Date of intro: aug-1971,
Classification: / Documentation / Article,
Publisher-1: SCIENCE & VIE, Publisher-2: FELLOT Luc,
Info: The article describes the rapid development of small electronic calculators in Japan during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Japanese companies such as Sharp and Sanyo competed to produce increasingly compact calculators. Sharp claimed to have created the world’s smallest calculator, while Sanyo challenged this claim with an even lighter model.
This miniaturization became possible because of major advances in integrated circuits. Earlier electronic calculators were large machines containing thousands of individual electronic components.
By integrating many components into extremely small semiconductor chips, manufacturers could dramatically reduce the size, weight, power consumption, and complexity of calculators.
The article gives the example of an integrated circuit measuring only 1.7 millimetres per side that could replace the equivalent of about 1,875 diodes, capacitors, transistors, and other components.
The article also discusses the enormous growth of the Japanese electronics industry.
Companies such as Sanyo expanded from relatively small manufacturers into major industrial corporations producing calculators as well as televisions, radios, refrigerators, and other electronic products.
The demand for electronic calculators grew rapidly, while improvements in manufacturing caused their prices to fall substantially.
A major technological development was Large Scale Integration (LSI).
LSI made it possible to place thousands of electronic components on a tiny silicon chip.
The article explains how advances in semiconductor manufacturing continually increased the number of components that could fit into the same space.
It also introduces the newer MOS (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) technology, which promised even greater integration and further miniaturization.
Another important innovation was the calculator's optoelectronic display.
Instead of older display technologies, manufacturers increasingly used semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The article explains how these diodes produce visible light when electrical current passes through them and describes their use in numerical displays.
The photograph on the final page shows an example of such an integrated display circuit.
Overall, the article presents the pocket calculator as an example of a much broader technological revolution.
Integrated circuits, semiconductor technology, and LEDs allowed electronic devices to become smaller, faster, cheaper, and more reliable.
The calculator therefore illustrates how advances in microelectronics were beginning to transform everyday technology and simplify tasks that previously required much larger and more complicated machines.