Elektronika MK-85


In 1986 appeared the "Elektronika MK-85," the first Soviet calculator with microcomputer "BASIC" programming language. Elektronika MK-85 was almost exact copy of the Casio FX-700P.

At 145 roubles, it was quite expensive; but despite this, all the store counters selling "Elektronika" in Moscow and Leningrad were sweep away when it appeared. Only by 1988 it was possible to purchase one of this calculators with no rush. It had, not without a purpose, the same BASIC programming language used in true computers!

The MK-85 came in two variants - with one (MK-85) or six (MK-85M) kilobytes of memory. The calculator allowed working with numbers which exponents were as large as +/ - 4096. Although it is also true that finding the sine of a number with a power close to 4096 could not only take quite some time, but also cause the loss of programs entered previously. The programs, by the way, were not erased from the calculator memory after turning the power off - too novelty. In normal mode the calculator worked very, very slowly. For example, the calculation of the sine of 3 required whole 3.5 seconds. It was possible to put the calculator in "accelerated mode" by pressing the "+" key. Then the same calculation took "only" 0.5 seconds, but you could see the batteries literally "decay" in front of your eyes, and very soon you had to replace them. The accelerated mode was only recommended when the calculator was connected to an external power supply. The calculator had a 16-digit display, and one line had capacity for up to 63 symbols. A user was able to input up to 10 programs, and it was possible to debug a program by using a debugging mode. Besides, the calculator had 26 memory registers, which could be increased at the expense of a reduction of the programs memory area.