Object Record
Texas Instruments TI-66 Programmable Calculator
Texas Instruments TI-66 Programmable Calculator back
TI 66 calculatoat
| Catalog Number | 12.0001.001 |
| Title | Texas Instruments TI-66 Programmable Calculator |
| Collection | Howard Nash Collection |
| History |
Dr. Howard Nash was a senior investigator in the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) Laboratory of Molecular Biology for much of his long career. His early studies focused on ways to unravel mechanisms of DNA recombination and repair in bacteriophages. Later, he used fruit flies to probe how conciousness and anesthesia work on the molecular level. His research provided information on how our genes can affect our responses to anesthesia. In addition he was a well-respected mentor to many who are now leading in their fields of research. The TI-66 was produced by Texas Instruments (TI) beginning in 1983, and included a printer port. Although it was a TI product, it was built by Toshiba from Toshiba components--a collaboration to challenge Hewlett Packard's successful HP-41 calculator. The single circuit board is also the keyboard backplate. From "TI-66 Programmable Manual," Texas Instruments, 1983: "The calculator has arithmetic, logarithmic, trigonometric, statistical, polar to rectangluar conversion, and other functions for use in calculations. The TI-66 can have a maximum of 512 program steps or 64 data memories with each memory convertible to 8 program steps." Hewlett Packard (HP) and Texas Instruments (TI) each introduced a programmable calculator in 1972, the HP 65 and TI 52, respectively. Each of these calculators incorporated a small motor for passing the card by a reading device; the dimension of the HP and TI programming cards were however quite different. In 1977 TI introduced the TI 59, a calculator that featured increased ROM (read-only memory) which could be increased further by a plug-in ROM module. The calculator also featured a port for connecting a printer. The TI 66 introduced in 1983 incorporated many additional features over the TI 59. Major parts of this calculator, such as the two ICs, were actually designed in collaboration with, and manufactured, by Toshiba in Japan. The landscape instead of the customary portrait orientation of the TI 66 visibly distinguished this machine from its competitors. The calculator contained more than 170 built-in engineering and statistical functions. Data was calculated to 13 digits, ten of which were displayed on the liquid crystal screen. The keyboard contained the customary 14 arithmetic keys as well as an additional 28 keys for mathematical operations and programming. Programs could be written on the keyboard or loaded from a magnetic card, which, as its predecessor, was passed by the reading port by a small built-in card reader. User-written programs could also be copied onto those magnetic cards for later use. The TI 66 could be programmed to perform up to 512 steps. TI also provided an optional thermal printer that is controlled from the calculator keyboard. This machine comprises an artifact in the Howard Nash Collection. |
| Description | Gray/silver plastic case with slightly bent readout bar. The buttons are gray (function) and cream (numbers). There are nine rows of five buttons each. Handwritten on the back in black marker is "Nash 36/1D18." |
| Date | c. 1983 |
| Year Range from | 1983 |
| Year Range to | 1985 |
| Organizations | NIH; NIMH, Laboratory of Molecular Biology |
| Buildings |
Building 36 (Lowell P. Weicker Building) Building 35 (John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center) |
| NIH Property # | none |
| Old NIH Property # | none |
| Serial # | 024 186268 |
| People |
Nash, Howard |