Novus 4510 Mathematician

The Novus 4510 Mathematician calculator has an eight-digit red LED display and is powered by a 9-volt battery. It has a off-white case with a matte black keyboard label that has silver trim. It has an on/off switch on the left side near the top and a jack for an AC adapter on the top right side. This machine was also known as the National Semiconductor Mathematician and the Novus 4510. Novus was simply another name National Semiconductor used to market their calculators.

The Mathematician is a basic scientific calculator. Like the machines from Hewlett-Packard, the Mathematician uses Reverse-Polish Notation (RPN) for calculation, however, as a low-cost unit it only provides a 3-level stack, and the top register is not copied downward when the stack drops as it is on the HPs. The machine's display is limited to eight digits and does not support either scientific notation or overflow - if the result of a calculation exceeds 99999999 the machine simply displays all it's decimal points and all "0"s. The machine has an automatic power-down mode that lights only the decimal points after a period of inactivity.

Size (approx): 76mm x 150mm x 25-30mm (w,h,d)
Weight 130g excluding batteries
Power: 9V DC, 1 x PP3 size battery. It accepts an adaptor/charger (undefined but 9V centre negative) located on the top side on the right. There is a power save function that switches the display off.
Case: Two-piece beige matt case with heavily inset red display filter which gives a clear image. The keyboard surround is a grey plastic panel that sits in a recess and is printed silver with the calculator name and key labels. A similar grey panel sits in its own upper recess with the manufacturers name. The whole calculator is slightly wedge shape so sits in the hand or desk equally well. They keys are squishy and long travel but work well enough. The on/off switch is on the left side level with the display.
Display: 8 digit red LED (small dot type) with bubble lens with a ninth digit for negative and error indications.

Features: Four functions plus percentages, square root, pi, change sign, register exchange, squares, reciprocal, powers, logs, trigs, degree/radian switching and five function memory. reverse Polish Notation.
Age: 1975

Manufacturer: Novus was a brand name of National Semiconductor of Malaysia

Our calculator has serial number of 105922 and is complete with the soft case and AC adaptor which was very kindly donated by John Anthony (Tony) Kidd

Manufacturer: National Semiconductor
Date: 1975

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH30933. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.