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Ricoh/Oi Electric Aleph-Zero Desktop Calculator
Photo of Aleph-Zero on display at offices of Oi Electric in Japan
Desktop electronic calculator utilizing approximately 1700
Parametron ferromagnetic devices as logic elements. Parametron devices were
compact and reliable, but required much more power, and were
considerably slower than transistors. Total
power consumption for the Aleph Zero was around 300 Watts, roughly four times
the power draw of transistorized calculators of similar capability.
Four function plus one-key automatic square root and summation function.
Full automatic floating decimal. One memory register. Utilizes Nixie Tube
display elements. Ten digit capacity.
The Aleph Zero was designed by research & development engineers at Ricoh Co.,
Ltd., but due to Ricoh's lack of production-level high-complexity electronics
manufacturing capability (it was primarily in the business of
producing copying machines and cameras), the manufacture of the
calculator was farmed out to Oi Electric Co, Ltd., a large communications
electronics manufacturer that had the ability to produce this complex
electronic device.
The Aleph Zero may likely have been the first Japanese-made all-electronic
calculator that was in regular production. It definitely preceded Sharp's
Compet 10 to market. Though
the Aleph Zero was advanced for its time, providing automatic
sqare root and a memory register, at around the same time, Mathatronics
in the US was debuting its
Mathatron calculators, which
were by far the most advanced electronic calculators to date, and held that
position until late 1965, when Olivetti in Italy introduced the famous
Programma 101.
Due to the mainstreaming of transistor technology, and high level of
interest by calculator manufacturers in newly available integrated circuit
technology, the Aleph Zero was the only Parametron-based calculator
built for commercial sale in Japan. There were other Parametron-based
desktop calculators that were built in the former Soviet Union after the
Aleph Zero was taken off the market. The Aleph Zero was not the last
Parametron-based desktop electronic calculator produced in the world, though
being very the first, it has a definite place in electronic calculator history.