Old Calculator Museum Advertising & Documentation Archive
Wang Electronic Calculators - Wang 370 Programmer
Wang 370 Programmer Advertisement Computers & Automation, February 1968.
This is a very early advertisement for the Wang 370 Programmer. The 370 Programmer was a system
that connected to any (though it's usefulness was maximized on the Wang 362E or
Wang 360SE electronics packages) 300-series electronics package that provided
true programmability (via punched cards). The earlier Wang CP-1 and CP-2 punched card programmers were very simple devices
that provided no form of automatic looping or logical decision-making processes. The 370 (and it's companion punched
card reader, the 371) provided these critical programming functions that transformed the calculator system into something like
a small computer system. The 370 also provided I/O interfacing capabilities that would allow external devices such as printers,
plotter, and additional memory to be added to the system.
The Wang 370 Programmer was Wang's attempt to milk as much lifetime out of the 300-series calculators as they could.
Dr. Wang had been invited to a secret showing of a calculator under development by Hewlett Packard that became the HP 9100A.
When Dr. Wang saw this prototype machine, he immediately knew that his calculator business was at serious risk. Work began
immediately to create a better and more powerful calculating system based on the existing 300-series calculators, and the
Wang 370 was the result. However, it was too-little, too late, as when the HP 9100A was announced, sales of Wang's calculators into
scientific and engineering environments dropped like a rock. The 300-series calculators, even with the addition of the 370
Programmer and its peripherals, was no match for the speed and versatility of HP's amazing calculator.
