Sporting Life Super Settler Mk II
Sporting Life Super Settler Mk II
Display is 8 digits, red LED, with an additional window for a 7-segment display.
4 function and betting functions.
Large Scale Integration (LSI) ICs date coded to 1982.
267 x 225 x 89 mm.
Manufactured by Silicon Express, Silicon House, Rothley, Leicestershire, England.
"The Sporting Life" is a British weekly sports newspaper, and a "Settler" is the person behind the counter in a betting shop.
Dating from about 1982, this calculator is included due to its interesting construction. By this time in the development of calculators standard desktop electronic calculators were manufactured in tens of thousands, and generally had vacuum fluorescent displays and one main integrated circuit which performed the calculating functions.
This highly specialised calculator was a bespoke design and was manufactured in small quantities.
Use of large LED displays in a desktop calculator is very unusual, but by this time large 7-segment LED displays were cheap and
very easy to interface to integrated circuits - easier than vacuum fluorescent displays.
The special functions are programmed using a 2732 EPROM (4 x 8 bits) Erasable, Programmable Read-Only Memory, which, if necessary, can
be bulk-erased using intense ultra-violet light and then reprogrammed.
The case is made of wood and sheet metal rather than plastics mouldings, which are expensive to get into production.
Close up showing the specialised keys for betting functions.
With the cover removed showing the circuit boards and the large 7-segment LED displays.
Close up showing the integrated circuits. At bottom right are a Mitsubishi M5L8255AP-5 and an NEC D780C. Just above the display, to the left, is the 2732 EPROM which holds the program for the special functions. This is mounted in a socket so that the program can be altered if necessary. All are date-coded here to 1982.
Below is a hand-held version of the Sporting Life Settler which was produced by Sinclair in about 1978.
