Contex 230

Beskrivelse

The Danish company Contex was known worldwide for its electromechanical calculators with an interesting design. Seeing the efforts of the competition to start the production of digital calculators, they started to design the D series desktop calculators in cooperation with Dutch company Philips. These had a very similar appearance to their previous models; their production started in 1971. The simpler, smaller-capacity models were soon followed by more sophisticated versions, one of their notable representatives was the Contex 230 from 1973. With its 12-digit capacity, free memory register, and fixed-point notation with adjustable rounding, it represented the top category of four-function machines. Its specialty in addition to the keyboards undeniable similarity with mechanical appliances is the Philips-made Pandicon tube, which is actually a seven-segment, multi-digit cold-cathode (Nixie) display tube. Despite their best efforts, Contex soon went bankrupt due to Japanese dumping, and Philips stopped producing such integrated circuits.