Calculators (2) : Casio personal-mini

Although calculators came in many shapes and sizes (especially in the 1970s) the vast majority followed a common pattern: a screen at the top with the keys below. The Casio personal-mini however had the display to the left of the keys. To use terminology from photography or publishing most calculators are portrait format but the Casio was landscape.

The calculator first appeared in 1975 and was part of a line of Casio Mini calculators. The personal-mini was powered by a MicroPD178C CPU and had a six-digit vacuum flourescent display. Just the four basic arithmetic functions were provided though the keypad had an arrow key to allow shifting of the digits if the number was too large for the display allowing numbers of up to twelve digits to be worked with. The calculator was low-priced and very popular.