# Historical Portable Computers - Sanyo CZ-0911PG + Sharp PC-1211 **URL:** \ **Category:** Off Topic\ **Created:** [March 18, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/historical-portable-computers-sanyo-cz-0911pg-sharp-pc-1211/223935 "2023-03-18T09:03:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gsharp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/gsharp/32/25083_2.png) [@gsharp](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/gsharp)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/historical-portable-computers-sanyo-cz-0911pg-sharp-pc-1211/223935/1 "2023-03-18T09:03:47Z")
Back in 1973 while studying architecture I got a part-time (well almost full-time)) job in a start-up Environmental Consultancy Firm … Australia has just introduced the requirement for Environmental Impact Statements for all major developments curtesy of the new national Labour government under Gough Whitlam… I started initially drafting their illustrations but quickly got involved in preparing sections for visual, noise and climate impacts as well as managing the flora and fauna study team. I seriously loved the work and it was a hard decision to return back to architecture after 4 years of environmental studies on coal mines, aluminium smelters, airports, titanium mining, waste disposal sites etc field studies in forests… counting trees and chasing snakes… Going from a $50/week subsidised fulltime student to a well paid professional consultant was quite a temptation… and allowed me to buy this Sanyo CZ-0911PG ($200 if I recall) hand held programable Computer… well before IBM’s were around. ![sanyo](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/2/e/2ea261d5b6b8558e6028a1e89cc14acb910e00db.jpeg) Unfortunately… the Sanyo has been lost in one of the numerous lifetime moves but I held onto the book that came with the computer that contained a wealth of practical programs to load into it. With another move coming up soon I could not bear to let this little gem fade away into garbage oblivion and thought it might be appreciated by the programmers amongst the Forum team so I just spent the last 4 hours slicing it up and scanning it into a PDF to share in the public domain. [SANYO CZ-0911PG PROGRAM LIBRARY 1973.pdf](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/v9AisiqIq2QhzUARQYZziH0TllL.pdf) (1.8 MB) Here is a link to a short description of the device - I have a gut feeling it maybe worth more now that when I bought it… alas the device probably is in an old box somewhere unknown now! [https://www.rskey.org/cz0911pg](https://www.rskey.org/cz0911pg) OH!, I entered the structural programs into this device and finished my 2nd Year Structural Engineers Exam in 30 minutes, and had to pretend to look busy for the remaining 2 hours before handing my paper in 🙂 Passed ! **SHARP PZ 1211 Portable Computer - (Tandy TS-80)** Also bought this on a trip to Japan in 1983 - the complete kit with printer and carry case… again a great little workhorse in its day and was still working back in the 2010 but relegated to a cupboard drawer, and finally failed a few years later ![sharp pc-1211](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/8/8/88aee3f4318bee51e7c912a2f9e1f4a72cefe47c.jpeg) Like the Sanyo it had a great library of BASIC routines for everyday tasks and I could not bear to throw it into the garbage so spent another few hours cutting of the spine , scanning and assembling as a PDF to put it in the public domain… hope all budding Dynamic component writers find it useful, Here is are the BASIC routines… 300 pages 49Mb [PDF](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1szjcVhQfiEuFvPpQ1mzsAFe8Vkw5MXyp/view?usp=share_link) too big for here but here are some samples ![1](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/c/8/c8dfddb32886d94934e8869b4aaf3ac8dbf8b063.jpeg) ![2](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/a/5/a5ef3a1cef59fa3b53b97773352074c86c5e259c.jpeg) ![3](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/9/e/9e861a4685ec6c2e5905ae4b4f782952e065c840.jpeg) ![4](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/9/8/9891a9d3632f72eb2264c2d2a359993ee1df2007.jpeg) ![5](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/4/6/4648751f3466a68410a32e64a03e5e73244a47f0.jpeg) Also stumbled across this website for all you calculator nerds! [http://mycalcdb.free.fr/](http://mycalcdb.free.fr/) ---
**Author:** ![kevin58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/51bf81/32.png) [@kevin58](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kevin58)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 5:32pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/historical-portable-computers-sanyo-cz-0911pg-sharp-pc-1211/223935/2 "2023-12-26T17:32:23Z")
Blimey - those images bring back a few memories - we must be of a similar vintage 😄 I remember both from yesteryear although in the late 70s I owned the HP 35 which used inverse polish notation and cost over a month’s wages. Thanks for sharing 👍 ---
**Author:** ![gsharp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/gsharp/32/25083_2.png) [@gsharp](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/gsharp)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/historical-portable-computers-sanyo-cz-0911pg-sharp-pc-1211/223935/3 "2023-12-26T21:18:10Z")
For fun the other day I found a website that summarised what dollars really cost back in the past in todays term. Apparently that $200 calculator would have cost me $2400 today… 🙂