SR-52 was a giant leap. How?

[toml_12953]

(06-17-2017 12:12 AM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Hi all.

I've wondered about the monumental leaps from the 50A & 51A to the 52/56.

Although they were pricey (perhaps moderately affordable) for their day, what technology and cost issues made it possible to add

over eight parentheses levels and hierarchy stack when the 51 and 50 only had Sum of Products hierarchy?

10 (SR-56) and over 20 (SR-56) data registers,

100 and 224 step program memories,

Single variable statistics for the SR-56,

Well, you know the remaining features sets,

But, what made it possible and how did TI get so far ahead of functionality improvements between the slide rule and the programmable slide rule?

Thanks

Competition between HP and TI really spurred both companies on to develop products far quicker and with more features than if either was the only company making calculators. Read some of the ads from both companies printed in the mid to late '70's. Many touted the advantages of AOS over RPN (in TI ads) and vice-versa (in HP ads) They were at each others throats and the consumer benefitted. TI claims to have been the inventor of the integrated circuit and had their own chip foundry so they definitely had the technology at their disposal. Market share and ultimately profit drove the companies to hire the best engineers and software people.

Long live competition!