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Diehl Combitron or Combitron S Desktop Calculator
Diehl Combitron S
(Note: Unit pictured is missing clear plastic piece that provids serration for tearing off printed paper tape)
Image Courtesy Martin Willemsen
The Combiton was the first all-electronic calculator from famous German mechanical and electromechanucal calculator manufacturer
Diehl, introduced in late 1966. Diehl's innovation in mechanical calculators carried over to their electronic
machines. The Combitron, and the later Combitron-S, were both ahead of their time.
The machines utilized a generalized microprogrammed architecture, which was very advanced for the time.
The Combitron was not programmable, but the Combitron S provided learn-more programmability with programs
up to 66 steps in length. Both machines utilized a built-in printer for output.
Memory consisted of two magnetostrictive delay lines, one that
held the microcode that was automaticall loaded from a punched metal tape at power-up time, and the other contained
working registers of the calculator, and learn-mode stored programs (Combitron S).
These machines utilized fully-transistorized logic (with amazingly few transistors due to their
microprogrammed design and heavy reliance on the delay lines for data storage).
Both machines provided the basic four math functions with automatic square root. Fixed decimal. The Combitron S
also had additional memory registers, and capabilities for interfacing to external peripherals such as punched
paper tape readers and punches. Examples of either the Combitron or Combitron S are wanted for the museum.