Texas Instruments (also known by its initials TI), is a US company with its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. It is primarily a manufacturer of semiconductor components, particularly integrated circuits, and defence systems.

TI developed the first calculator integrated circuit (or "chip") and developed a prototype pocket calculator called the Cal-Tech in 1967. In reality the Cal-Tech was too bulky to be pocketable but it achieved its objective, which was to create a market for the ICs among technology companies marketing calculators such as Bowmar and Craig. TI has a patent for the pocket calculator.

Sometime later in 1972 TI became a calculator manufacturer itself with the TI-2500 Datamath. The TI-30, in its various incarnations, is one of the most popular scientific calculators, and it has become one of the main manufacturers of graphing calculators with its TI-8x line. TI graphing calculators have become the standard in US schools, and have resulted in a community of developers of simple BASIC programs for these devices. In addition, some models allow lower level programs to be developed in an assembly-style programming language.

The Texas Instruments TI-2550 II is an arithmetic calculator with 8 digits precision and algebraic logic. It has 9 functions, 27 keys and a VFD (vacuum fluorescent) display. The power source is 2xAA sealed. The calculator was manufactured in Italy; USA.

Type Arithmetic
Functions 9
Keys 27
Logic Algebraic
Display type VFD
Display size
Length 147 mm
Width 81 mm
Thickness 32 mm
Power Source 2xAA sealed
Year introduced 1975
Year discontinued 1976

Kindly dontaed by  Francis Hookham

Manufacturer: Texas Instruments
Date: 1975

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH31230. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

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