Product number (P/N): 68,
Keywords/Tags: 68
Date of intro: ~1968, Origin: USSR (List),
Power: AC,
Display: Type = Display (Nixie) (List), Brand = ELEKTRONIKA: IN82, Digits = 14, Extra Display features: Type = Display (Incandescent bulb) (List), Quantity = 2,
Number of keys: 27, #Key-Black: 11, #Key-Red: 5, #Key-White: 11,
Classification: / Desktop with Display,
Featuring: Logic-technology: DTL (Diode Transistor Logic), discrete components,
Components: 4788 on 14 PCB(s),
Original Equipment Manufacturer : SHARP: CS30B (List of all Export-OEM-models from ELEKTRONIKA), Resemblance with: FACIT: 1122; SHARP: CS30B,
Serie-members: ELEKTRONIKA: 68; ELEKTRONIKA: B3-01,
Known Serial-numbers: 708297 (List of all S/Ns from ELEKTRONIKA)
Collector value: 9.5/10,
Courtesy of: CALCUSEUM (Serge DEVIDTS),
Info: The ELEKTRONIKA: 68 and the ELEKTRONIKA: B3-01 are essentially the exact same device.
It represents one of the earliest, desktop electronic calculators developed in the Soviet Union.
Developed in the late 1960s (starting around 1968) as the model 68, it was officially designated as the Elektronika B3-01 when mass production began in the early 1970s.
In Soviet naming conventions, ‘B’ stands for bytovaya (consumer electronics) and ‘3’ indicates the calculator category.
The device contains no microchips (integrated circuits).
It is built entirely using discrete components spread across multiple circuit boards.
Produced at the Elektronpribor factory in Fryazino, the Soviet government used mass production of this calculator specifically to test, refine, and perfect the manufacturing reliability of their KT315 transistor.
The display cannot show a minus symbol.
Negative results are shown on the display in two's complement format.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, Soviet engineers frequently studied advanced Western and Japanese electronic consumer goods to replicate their functionality using domestic components. The relationship with the SHARP: CS30B highlights several key aspects of Soviet tech adaptation.
The architecture, logic design, and user interface of the ELEKTRONIKA: 68 / DD were directly adapted from the SHARP.
The reason the ELEKTRONIKA natively outputs negative numbers in two's complement format instead of displaying a clean minus sign is because it directly inherited the specific logic and component behaviors of the early SHARP discrete transistor designs.
While the architectural blueprint was adapted from SHARP, the actual components inside the ELEKTRONIKA were entirely Soviet-made.
The original SHARP: CS30B utilized roughly 650 Japanese silicon bipolar transistors and 1.600 diodes to process its calculations.
Soviet engineers at the Elektronpribor factory mapped this entire schematic node-for-node, substituting the Japanese components with roughly 600 newly designed Soviet KT315 transistors and 1.500 domestic diodes.
Both calculators utilized a array of 14 desktop Nixie tubes to display calculations.
SHARP used Japanese Nixie models, which the Soviet Union successfully matched by populating the ELEKTRONIKA with domestic IN8-2 Nixie tubes.
This cloning process was not a unique incident, it established a long-running pattern where ELEKTRONIKA calculators were built directly on the backs of SHARP designs.
Internet: Link-1: SOVIET DIGITAL ELECTRONICS MUSEUM