Another neat find

[Chiefish]

I picked this little machine up recently and took it apart to see whats inside it. It is basically the same educational tool as the other one I have called the mathiputer, but this is called a Digitor math Module. I read on the vintage computer museums website that these machines came with 4004 inside of the early ones like they have pictured on their site,..

http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/X558.85

so I figured it was worth the few bucks I spent on it. I would like for the museum to dissasemble theirs to see if it actually has a 4004 inside of it
The only thing I can think of is that they revised them some where between the serial numbers of A37528 which is thiers and A41520 which is mine. Its said that they made 100,000 of these when they were being produced, so I would say mine is a pretty low serial number for them.

Any way it works perfect so I know no chips are missing as well as the fact that I have found another picture of ones board on the web which is exactly the same as mine as far as chips go, but that one doesnt work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brumd/4139896225/

Anyone know what the empty socket would have been for, like to program the P1502 as i cant find any info on that chip at all. Also the little white Sprauge chips cool too.

[johnorun]

Another cool find for you ,Carl!

[CPUShack]

Whats the date on that 1502?

Its not a normal Intel chip

[smithy]

Seeing the socket has a J2 next to it, I would have a guess it was for jumpers or an off-board link. All the other ICs are denoted with A1, A2 etc

[CPUShack]

ahh the P1502 is probably a clone of the WD FR1502 40x9 FIFO

[CPUShack]

Spraque UDN6184 - 8-digit gas discharge display driver - Anode
Spraque UDN7183 - 8-digit gas discharge display driver - Cathode
SCL4013 - Dual D-type flip-flop
SCL4049 - Hex inverter/buffer (NOT gate)
SCL4023 - Triple 3-input NAND
SCL4001 - Quad 2-input NOR gate

and from the flickr linked one which I can actually read

N4011 - Buffered Quad 2-Input NAND gate
NE556 - Dual 555 Timer chip

Actually it looks like it DOES the math, in a very tricky way lol

[/quote]

[brum_d]

Hi there, I am the owner of the Digitor you are referring to in the opening post.
Unfortunately, I lack technical knowledge on these things (I bought it mainly for esthetical reasons), so I am afraid I can't be of much help on that. A friend of mine checked it to see if he could get it to work, but in the end it was impossible for him. Apparently, the program on the P1502 is missing, or at least damaged.

Anyway, good to know that the empty socket is normal (we were also wondering about that). The serial number of my device is A 010885.

I'll be following this thread to see if it will give me some info to make my Digitor work eventually.

[Chiefish]

Hi Brum, Funny you have found this post so fast, I am glad you at least know that no chips are missing from yours, as I did read that on youre post about it.
You also have an even lower serial number than either of the other two mentioned, so that tends to tell me that if these were actually built with a 4004 at some point it was before the first 10,885 were released onto the market.
CPUshack, I dont kow what the date code is on the 1502 as I havent pulled any of the chips from the sockets yet, but i will tonight. My guess is that the date is in 76 sometime.
i also think the full number for the 1502 is P1502-011. Its the only part number combo I can even find any mention of on the web. And even then the only description I can find is that its a calculator chip. Which does make sense but I dont think Ive even heard of an intel chip that was just a calculator chip, altho I would think its possible.

So my hunt must continue as I search for one that has an even lower serial number than Brums does to see if theres any Proof that these were actually built with 4004s inside.

At least this thing carries the title of being the first machine using emoticons heh heh heh
http://www.retrothing.com/2009/03/page/3/

[brum_d]

Hello Chiefish,
if you have a pro account on Flickr you can see the referrers, that's how I got to this thread so fast.

I am not sure if you found the link the original patent of the digitor which is on the same page:
http://braadspitt.nl/Digitor-patent.pdf
Also, in the patent there is no mention of a 4004 at all. And I have been suspecting for a while that the vintage computer museum is simply wrong on this one. Could this be the case?

[Chiefish]

Ahh no i didnt see the patent sheet, here is a snippet of it that describes the CPU used in this device. And after reading it , I would have to say someone is mistaken on whats used in this machine, as I dont see any mention at all of a 4004 being used.

[UMMR]

Hello,
very very nice object.
Also, in the background of the 1st picture (right side) I see a nice IBM card.
Paolo

[Chiefish]

[CPUShack]

I used this patent:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=yAptAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=3584398&source=bl&ots=bwV4kj1DzX&sig=Kz7TfSY_tyOqO5RqKoOaUViO1FU&hl=en&ei=T1WvTPHjKYm4sQPtwomoDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

which was listed on the one here:
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/X558.85

[Chiefish]

I wonder where the museum came up with that patent number because I have looked all ove my machine and do not see a patent number on it, How about yours Brum, do you see any patent number. All the rest of the numbers they show are on my label, including the catalog and serial numbers, but no Patent number.

Do you think they have some wrong info posted about this machine ? I am tempted to say Yes. I mean theres no way that the patent documents that Brum has supplied are incorrect thats for sure.

If anyone knows someone from the museum maybe they can email them and have them check into this.

[brum_d]

Nope, there isn't a patent number on my Digitor.
I found the patent browsing this site: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/3947976/fulltext.html (if I remember correctly).

And yes, I too think their info is wrong. Maybe it's a good idea to contact them about it..