AKA: Compet 20, AKA (Label): MODEL CS-20A, Product number (P/N): CS20A (CS-20A),
Keywords/Tags: CS20A (CS-20A) | 20A | Compet
Date of intro: sep-1965, Origin: Japan (List), Dimensions: 470x394x229mm, Weight: 16000g,
Power: AC,
Display: Type = Display (Nixie) (List), Brand = NEC: CD59 {1x}; NEC: CD65 {14x}, Digits = 14+1,
Number of keys: 23, #Key-Blue: 2, #Key-Grey: 7, #Key-White: 14,
Keyboard Array (Rows x Columns): 06x06, Keyboard Layout: [CLE] [.] [(Multiplication)(Minus)] [(ArrowRight)] - [+] [-] - [M] [7] [8] [9] - [RC] [4] [5] [6] [x] [(Division)] - [CL] [0] [000] [=],
Classification: / Desktop with Display,
Featuring: Logic-technology: DTL (Diode Silicon-Transistor Logic), discrete components,
Related with: SHARP_docu: (Broch.) *: Sharp compet elektro... (CS15A,CS20A,CS30A); SHARP_docu: (Ad.) CS20A: What if Einstein had used a Compet 20?; SHARP_parts: (Misc) Matchbox (CS20A),
Components: 1980 Diode(s), 630 Transistor(s) on 20 PCB(s),
Original Equipment Manufacturer : SHARP: CS20A (List of all Export-OEM-models from SHARP), Resemblance with: FACIT: 1121,
Known Serial-numbers: 613404 | 644706 | 711901 (List of all S/Ns from SHARP)
Initial Cost Price: 379.000 JPY (30.699.000,00 €), Collector value: 9,5/10,
Courtesy of: CALCUSEUM (Serge DEVIDTS),
Info: After the intro of the CS10A, the price had to be reduced somehow.
But by subjecting the transistors to aging and other stringent selection methods, there was a limit to what could be accomplished with mass production.
HAYAKAWA Electric (SHARP) decided to adopt silicon transistors, and in 1965 it came out with the CS20A, a numerical keypad calculator.
Senior Executive Director SAEKI was delighted with this calculator and for the next challenge he instructed his development team to make a calculator - an electronic abacus -
that could be easily used in grocery stores This goal became the roadmap for the increasingly smaller and more affordable calculators of the future.
The CS20A was the center of attention at the 31st Business Show in Osaka in October 1965.
In 1966, SHARP Electronics Corporation (SEC) (HAYAKAWA Electric's US sales subsidiary) began selling the CS-20A.
The company was to achieve synergy through superior products and aggressive marketing so as to raise the Sharp brand image across the country
Internet: Link-1: THE OLD CALCULATOR MUSEUM, Link-2: THE DAWN OF PERSONAL ELECTRONIC CALCULATORS AND COMPUTERS
Intro-Sequence #: 2, Predecessor: SHARP: CS10A, Successor: SHARP: CS21A