Hand-held Calculators

Home > Hand-held Calculators

Casio Mini Card LC-78

Casio Mini Card LC-78

Casio Mini Card LC-78

Display is 8 digits, yellow LCD.

4-function, %, memory.

Integrated circuit - NEC D896G3 (here date coded 1978).

Batteries - 2x AG10 Silver button cells.

Credit card size (but a little thicker) - 91 x 55 x 5 mm (3.6 x 2.2 x 0.2").

Was the first credit card sized calculator (though a little thicker), introduced in 1978. Cost £17 Sterling (about US$34).

Made in Japan.

By 1978 the use of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and C-MOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) integrated circuits with their very low power consumption allowed the production of a very small and thin calculator powered by two button cells giving a quoted life of 1000 hours. See the bottom of this page for a comparison with one of the first hand-held calculators, the Sharp EL-8.

Casio Mini Card LC-78

Side view showing how thin the calculator is.

Inside

Removing the rear cover reveals the circuit board, with the integrated circuit mounted in a hole in the board.

Circuit board

The other side of the circuit board and the integrated circuit.

Casio Mini Card LC-78G

Casio Mini Card LC-78G

The LC-78G shown here looks identical to the LC-78.

Casio Mini Card LC-78

Compare the size, electronics, battery life and cost of the Casio Mini Card LC-78 with the Sharp EL-8 below, one of the first hand-held calculators from just 7 years, or so, earlier.

This shows the incredible advances in electronics over these years.

Sharp EL-8

Comparison with the Sharp EL-8 hand-held calculator of 1970/1.

Functions:

  • EL-8 - 4 function.
  • Mini Card - 4 function, %, memory.

Batteries:

  • EL-8 - 6x AA rechargeable Ni-Cad cells giving 3 hours use.
  • Mini Card - 2x Silver button cells giving 1000 hours use.

Cost:

  • EL-8 - $345 (about £145 Sterling).
  • Mini Card - about $34 (£17 Sterling).
Sharp EL-8

Sharp EL-8 with the back removed showing the rechargeable battery pack containing 6x AA NiCad cells.

Sharp EL-8 board
Sharp EL-8 board

The calculating circuit board of the Sharp EL-8 with the 5 chips then required to give the standard 4 functions.

The display board of the Sharp EL-8 with the vacuum fluorescent display tubes and the display driver chips.

Home
1) Mechanical Calculators
2) Desk Electronic Calculators
3) Hand-held Calculators
4) Non-Decimal Calculators
5) Calculator Companies
6) Calculator Photo Library
7) Collecting Calculators
8) British Calculators
9) Puzzle Corner
10) Calculator Time-line
11) Calculator Technology
12) To make a Pocket Calculator
13) Index to the Calculators
14) Calculator Resources
15) Frequently Asked Questions
16) Update Information
17) Vintage Calculator News
18) About this site
19) Search this Site

Hand-held Calculators

Sharp QT-8B
Sanyo ICC-0081 Mini Calculator
Canon Pocketronic
Sharp EL-8 & Facit 1111
Busicom LE-120A & LE-120S
Sanyo ICC-82
Minolta Minolcom
Brother PRO-CAL 408
Bowmar 901B
Ragen Microelectronic
Sharp EL-811 & derivatives
Royal Digital III & IV
Busicom LE-100A handy
Busicom LE-80A handy
Hewlett Packard HP-35
Canon LE-10
Rapidman 800
Texas Instruments 2500
Lloyd's Accumatic 100
Sinclair Executive
Casio Mini
Sanyo ICC-809
Sharp EL-801
Texas Instruments SR-10
Sperry Remington 661D & 661
Olympia CD 81
apf Mark V
Ramsgate M-11
Iain Jones International Mini A
Hewlett-Packard HP80
Heathkit IC-2009
MITS 150
Summit Ko9V, K16 & SE88M
Unicom 102
Victor 85
Elka 101
RFT minirex 75
Sharp EL-120
Sharp EL-805
Bowmar MX-55
Keystone 88 & similar
Hewlett-Packard HP-65
Casio fx-10
Calcu-pen
Casio AL-8 & family models
Commodore 776M & 796M
Novus 650
Rockwell 8R
General Instrument EZ3000
Check, billfold, wallet calculators
Edmund Scientific 1945
Texas Instruments Spirit of '76
Pulsar Calculator Watch
Compuchron Calculator Watch
Adler Lady & Sir
Elektronika C3-15
Speech+
Commodore S61
Sharp EL-8026
Texas Instruments TI-30
Canon Multi 8
Casio ST1
Texas Insturments TI 58
Wrist Calculators
Kosmos I & Kosmos Astro
Hanimex Calculator-Recorder
Navigation Calculators
TI58 Special Function Calculators
Sandvik 842S Coromant
Panasonic Electronic Ruler
Teal Photon
Sharp EL-825
Casio Mini Card LC-78
Feet & inches calculators
Elektronika MK-33
Sharp PC1211/Tandy TRS80 PC1
Curta
Slide Rule
Otis King L

Vintage Calculators

© Text & photographs copyright Nigel Tout  2000-2008 except where noted otherwise.