Old Calculator Museum Advertising & Documentation Archive
Sharp Compet 30 (CS-30B)
Advertisement for Sharp Compet 30 Model CS-30B Electronics Magazine, July, 1967
The Sharp Compet 30 (CS-30B) is an update to original version of this
calculator, Sharp's Compet 30 Model CS-30A. The CS-30A was introduced
in late 1966 as a reduced cost version of Sharp's first silicon transistor-based
desktop calculator, the Compet 20.
The B version of the Compet 30 was introduced in March of 1967,
shortly after the introduction of Sharp's
first production electronic calculator to use Integrated Circuits, the
reclusive Compet 31 (CS-31A), which
debuted in Japan in February of 1967. The Compet 31 was not exported to the US
due to concerns over patent issues raised by Texas Instruments (TI) in the US.
TI held patents on the invention of the integrated circuit, and
was threatening to have the US Customs Dept. blockade any Japanese electronics containing integrated
circuits until TI was allowed to start up a jointly-owned venture in Japan
to produce integrated circuits. This conflict resulted in delays of
any IC-based calculators from Japan showing up on US retail shelves. This
conflict lasted long enough to hold up deliveries to the US of Sharp's next IC-based
electronic calculator, the revolutionary Sharp Compet 32.
The Compet 31 was identical in function the Compet 30 model
CS-30B other than the memory register of the Compet 31 was implemented using
Mitsubishi-made TTL ICs versus the discrete transistor memory register
implementation of the CS-30B.
The CS-30B included some improvements that made the calculator
easier to use than the original Compet 30 CS-30A version.
CS-30B added two indicators at the left end of the display; an error
indicator that lit red when an overflow occurred, and another indicator
that lit yellow to indicate that the memory register contained non-zero
content. These small changes provided better operator visibility of
overflow conditions, reducing the chance for error when an overflow
occurred. The memory status indicator helped the operator keep tabs on
the status of the memory register, also helping to reduce errors related to
use of the memory register.
