Not to be outdone, Texas Instruments introduced its first calculator, the Datamath (or TI-2500), later that year. In other words, it did the work of a slide rule and more. It could not only add, subtract, multiply, and divide but compute trigonometric functions, logarithms, and exponents. Hewlett-Packard Corporation joined the market in early 1972 with the HP-35 scientific calculator. Chips in early Busicom calculators were made in the United States by Mostek, while those in the Bowmar and Canon were by Texas Instruments. Handheld calculators were introduced into the United States in 19 by the Japanese firms of Busicom (Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation) and Sharp (Hayakawa Electric) as well as the American firm of Bowmar. Business patterns established with calculators such as design in one country, manufacture in another, distribution by third parties, rapid introduction of new models, and decreasing cost also would appear with other electronic devices. Many companies that sold calculators, such as Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, Tandy Corporation, and Commodore, would also market microcomputers and digital watches, other novelties of interest at the time. Like microcomputers, they incorporated changes in microprocessor technology and displays. Parents bought new toys that offered both instruction in arithmetic and other games for their children.Ī few calculators were programmable, offering an alternative to large computers and to the microcomputers introduced in the same decade. Educators asked how much students should even learn written procedures for multiplication, division, and taking square roots. Engineers abandoned slide rules, business people gave up desktop calculating machines, and shoppers replaced simple adding machines and adders. In the course of the 1970s, handheld electronic calculators transformed the way tens of millions of people did arithmetic.
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