235: (equivalent to $ 491,202 in 2023) per month during development with the first 25 production units delivered to Victor by April 1965. If the deadline was met, Victor would pay another $ 500,000 bonus. Victor turned over the design documents on its original tube-based design, and GMe began the task of developing the design so it could be implemented in a series of custom-designed ICs. One key concept of the design was that the initial prototype using Milliwatt Logic ICs would be designed to allow groups of them to be replaced by single larger ICs when future higher-density designs emerged.
27:
274:(PCBs) containing dozens of Milliwatt chips. This proved a far higher difficulty and budget than anticipated. The conversion was carried out by converting one PCBs at a time until 23 new ICs were completed and the prototype was up and running in all-IC form. The ICs were much more complex than previous designs, each containing about 300
605:
306:
The system was formally announced at the
Business Equipment Manufacturers Association in October 1965, with deliveries expected in early 1966. Production problems continued, and by the time they reached the market, chip yield was once again a problem. Redesigns followed, with almost half of the 29
154:
in 1966. Development continued with the first examples shipping in 1967, but continued problems led Victor to cancel the contract. Philco continued offering the device for a short period, but gave up and closed GMe in 1968. By this time, a number of companies had competing products at lower price
314:
By this time the initial production examples were in the field and Victor was finding them very difficult to maintain. It returned the unsold examples to Philco and abandoned the product. Philco continued sales as the Philco 3900, which led to some purchases by their parent,
285:
The company worked night and day to produce the 25 models for the April deadline. Victor paid the bonus, but the company had already spent more than that during development. By this time, several other electronic calculators had entered the market, including the
319:. In early 1968, Ford managers visited the GMe offices and decided it should be moved to Philco headquarters in Pennsylvania. This led to most of GMe's employees quitting. Philco eventually decided to simply close GMe and the product was abandoned in June 1968.
198:
had begun their wholescale replacement of tubes. Victor was concerned that the delay of redesigning it with transistors instead of tubes would once again allow it to be beaten to market. A new plan emerged for a design that would leapfrog any other system. The
266:
portable television, pulled out the tube, and began adapting it to the calculator role. It turned out the magnetic deflection system it used was not up to the task, and the company instead found a suitable electrostatically deflected system of similar size.
222:(MOS) IC design for the military, and soon branched out to similar products under the Milliwatt Logic product line. In 1964, Howard Bogert built a simple 8-digit calculator using GMe's Milliwatt Logic ICs, and a small article on it was published in
307:
ICs having to be redesigned. Additional funds were required to complete the development, and GMe turned to its initial funding source, Pyle
National. To GMe's surprise, Pyle responded by selling its stake in GMe to
179:
but concluded in the early 1960s that they were destined to be replaced by electronic versions. These had been widely rumored, with specific stories about two such systems being developed in the
294:. The 3900 was more advanced than any of these, especially in accuracy, speed, and display. By mid 1965, the company received considerable interest in the design and set the price at
150:
GMe had problems producing the PMOS ICs in quantity, ultimately requiring half of the 29 chips to be redesigned to wider tolerances. Bordering on insolvency, GMe was purchased by
350:
on a backplane. The PCBs are roughly rectangular, but sloping down at the rear to fit within the sloping outer case. Each card holds the equivalent of about 1,500 gates.
147:(GMe) in 1964 to introduce it to the market in early 1966. It was announced in October 1965 and first demonstrated at the Business Equipment Exposition later that month.
374:, The first commercial equipment to use metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuits will be introduced at the Business Equipment Exposition in New York City....
128:
screen to produce a 5-line display, has separate memory for storing three intermediate results, supports numerical rounding, and is still "smaller than a typewriter".
331:
with the individual digits and symbols represented by physical patterns inside the tube. The display in any given location is created by pulling the
219:
524:
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228:
in March 1964. This caught the attention of Victor, and by
October 1964 the two companies had reached a development agreement.
258:, 105 would have been needed and the price would be too high. Friden, Inc. had recently introduced a system using a small
254:. A key part of Victor's design is a multi-digit, 5-line display. Had this used the standard solution of the era,
183:. To gain familiarity with the basic concepts, in 1962 the company put together a team to build a prototype using
211:
144:
50:
191:
215:
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over the pattern and then moving it to the correct location on the screen. It is similar in concept to the
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The prototype was running in early 1965 and attention turned to producing the ICs that would replace the
271:
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176:
117:
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340:
603:, "Two Speed Arithmetic Calculator", issued 1969-07-01, assigned to Space Systems Loral
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was effectively zero. Significant remedial work was needed before it reached a usable 20 to 30%.
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transistors, compared to earlier designs with perhaps 12 to 20. The result is that the
180:
26:
624:
516:
To the
Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology
332:
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124:(ICs). For its era, the 3900 is extremely advanced; it has a 4-inch (100 mm)
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571:
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194:, one of the rumored UK machines, had reached the market. By this point,
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343:(BCD) format and displayed on up to five 20-digit rows on the screen.
346:
Internally, the system has a series of PCBs running front-to-back in
251:
263:
218:. In June 1964 the company had successfully produced its first
203:(IC), introduced in 1960, appeared to be a way to do this.
187:. The machine was complete by late 1963, filling a room.
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in 1963. When this was successful, the company sought a
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214:(GMe) was formed earlier in 1963 by three members of
616:. Pennsylvania State University. 1967. p. 346.
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74:
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46:
36:
143:firm to reduce it to IC form. It contracted with
238:Leading development was Bogert. He was aided by
536:"The Victor 3900 - History's Forgotten Miracle"
242:, who would later design coprocessors for the
8:
19:
311:in December 1965, completed in March 1966.
585:"Coming of age in the calculator business"
487:
475:
25:
18:
508:. Hitchcock Publishing. 1965. p. 54.
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231:The agreement would have Victor pay GMe
451:
427:
364:
298: (equivalent to $ 17,645 in 2023).
386:
262:(CRT) display. Bob Norman purchased a
583:Valery, Nicholas (13 November 1975).
7:
599:, Bogert Howard Z &
371:
131:The original prototype was built by
548:"Victor 3900 Electronic Calculator"
463:
339:. Numbers are stored in a 22-digit
534:Bensene, Rick (28 February 2020).
398:
31:Promotional photo of a Victor 3900
14:
504:"Business Automation Showcase".
120:to have been built entirely of
1:
566:. February 1968. p. 29.
244:Atari Video Computer System
62:; 57 years ago
647:
190:That year, the tube-based
16:1965 electronic calculator
540:The Old Calculator Museum
220:metal–oxide–semiconductor
212:General Micro-electronics
175:had a successful line of
145:General Micro-electronics
51:General Micro-electronics
24:
597:US expired 3453601A
327:The display is a small
216:Fairchild Semiconductor
631:Electronic calculators
513:Bassett, Ross (2007).
292:Olivetti Programma 101
272:printed circuit boards
177:mechanical calculators
248:Atari 8-bit computers
118:electronic calculator
341:binary coded decimal
578:. 19 November 1965.
506:Business Automation
302:Production and sale
122:integrated circuits
21:
554:. 18 October 1965.
317:Ford Motor Company
201:integrated circuit
169:Victor Comptometer
133:Victor Comptometer
41:Victor Comptometer
207:IC implementation
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614:Technical Survey
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329:cathode ray tube
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260:cathode ray tube
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126:cathode ray tube
105:Numerical keypad
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488:Datamation 1968
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476:Automation 1965
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589:New Scientist
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572:"Victor 3900"
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560:"Victor 3900"
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526:9780801886393
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519:. JHU Press.
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141:semiconductor
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452:Bassett 2007
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428:Bensene 2020
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185:vacuum tubes
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137:vacuum tubes
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75:Discontinued
57:Release date
47:Manufacturer
601:Miner Jay G
552:Electronics
387:Valery 1975
309:Philco-Ford
256:Nixie tubes
196:transistors
164:Development
152:Philco-Ford
114:Victor 3900
20:Victor 3900
564:Datamation
354:References
337:Charactron
288:Friden 130
233:US$ 50,000
372:Elec 1965
359:Citations
240:Jay Miner
37:Developer
625:Category
464:Pat 1969
323:Hardware
155:points.
399:Ad 1965
296:$ 1,825
173:Chicago
159:History
93:5-line
90:Display
82:1968-06
80: (
65: (
607:
523:
250:, and
135:using
280:yield
252:Amiga
101:Input
576:Time
521:ISBN
290:and
276:pMOS
264:Sony
112:The
67:1967
60:1967
171:of
95:CRT
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406:^
379:^
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84:)
69:)
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