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
Compact Software Compact Software Compact Software was the first commercially successful microwave computer-aided design (CAD) company. The company was founded in 1973 by Les Besser to commercialize his eponymous program COMPACT (Computerized Optimization of Microwave Passive and Active CircuiTs), released when he was at Farinon Electric Company. Besser began working on simulators during his employment at HP (1966–1969), using the BASIC computer language and time-sharing computers. After leaving HP, he joined the newly formed microwave division of Fairchild Semiconductor, where he authored his first-generation program, SPEEDY, in 1970 to promote Fairchild's transistors. SPEEDY lacked the optimization feature, represented by the 'O' in