Calculator This led the way to the first credit-card-sized calculators, such as the Casio "Mini Card LC-78" of 1978, which could run for months of normal use on button cells. There were also improvements to the electronics inside the calculators. All of the logic functions of a calculator had been squeezed into the first "calculator on a chip" integrated circuits (ICs) in 1971, but this was leading edge technology of the time and yields were low and costs were high. Many calculators continued to use two or more ICs, especially the scientific and the programmable ones, into the late 1970s. The
Skyles Electric Works Skyles Electric Works Skyles Electric Works was founded in California by Bob Skyles, a former Commodore engineer, to produce hardware add-ons for the Commodore PET. Like Apple Computer it began in a garage in Cupertino, but for most of the company's existence it was based in Mountain View. The first products from Skyles Electric Works were memory expansions and keyboards (the first PETs had calculator-style keys which were unsuited to touch-typing). The earliest software products were firmware, including the "Command-O" and "Disk-O-Pro", which enhanced the BASIC language of the PET. However the company also published cassette and disk-based software including