Canon Canola 1200

Desk Electronic Calculators

Canon Canola 1200

Note - Grateful thanks to Hauke Sattler for providing the photograph above of his working Canon Canola 1200. The machine in my collection, shown below, has some buttons and a switch missing.

Distinctive features: Uses TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) integrated circuits and'Nixie'-type display tubes.

Capabilities: 4-functions.

Display: 12 digit display using Nixie tubes.

Technology: The circuit board caries 48 Medium and Small-Scale Integrated Circuits (MSI and SSI), date coded to early 1970.

Size: 265 mm wide, 335 mm deep, 93 mm high (10.5" x 13.5" x 4"), 3.5 Kg (8 lbs.).

Introduced in 1969, cost £348GBP (about US$835).

Canon were pioneers in the use of Large-Scale Integrated-Circuits (LSI) in pocket calculators around this time with the Canon Pocketronic. Large calculators like this with many integrated circuits were rapidly becoming obsolete.

Canon Canola 1200 in poor condition with switch and buttons missing.

Removing the cover and keyboard reveals, from top to bottom:

The AC power supply.
The 12 'Nixie'-type display tubes.
The top of one of the two main circuit boards which holds dual-inline small-scale TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) integrated circuits mainly from Texas Instruments, and discrete components. This board probably carries the display logic and drivers.

Removing the previous circuit board and the display reveals another board carrying more TTL integrated circuits, mainly from Texas Instruments and Mitsubishi, giving a total of 48 integrated circuits in the machine.

It is noteworthy that this machine uses a number of Texas Instruments integrated circuits. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Canon was heavily involved with Texas Instruments in the development of the electronics for hand-held calculators culminating in the Canon Pocketronic and its successors.

Vintage Calculators