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---
title: Casio PB-100
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Pocket
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1982'
cpus:
- HD61913 CMOS VLSI
params:
name: PB-100
image: /media/museum/photos/casio_pb100_system_s1.jpg
company: /companies/casio
company_name: Casio
specs:
- label: NAME
value: PB-100
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Casio
- label: TYPE
value: Pocket
- label: ORIGIN
value: Japan
- label: YEAR
value: '1982'
- label: END OF PRODUCTION
value: Unknown
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: Basic interpreter
- label: KEYBOARD
value: 53 keys with numeric keypad
- label: CPU
value: HD61913 CMOS VLSI
- label: SPEED
value: 455 kHz ceramic resonator used as system clock
- label: RAM
value: 1 KB (544 bytes for Basic programs) up to 2 KB
- label: ROM
value: 12 KB
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 1 line x 12 chars plus a 4 digit seven segment display part
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: None
- label: COLORS
value: Monochrome LCD
- label: SOUND
value: None
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: 165 (W) x 71 (D) x 10 (H) mm / 116 g (with batteries)
- label: I/O PORTS
value: |-
12-pin expansion port for printer and cassette interface\
11-pin internal slot for memory module
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: 2 x CR-2032 lithium batteries
- label: PERIPHERALS
value: |-
OR-1 1 kB RAM PACK\
FA-3 cassette interface\
FP-12 mini thermal printer
- label: PRICE
value: 63 (France, Dec. 1984)
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- hardware
- links
- docs
- videos
photos:
- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/casio_pb100_system_s2.jpg
- title: FRONT VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/casio_pb100_frontview_s1.jpg
- title: INSIDE THE PB-100
subtitle: ''
text: |-
**(1)** LCD display\
**(2)** HD61913 main chip\
**(3)** HD61914 1 KB static RAM chip\
**(4)** Expansion connector\
**(5)** Optional 1 KB RAM card connector\
**(6)** LCD contrast knob
image: /media/museum/photos/casio_pb100_inside_s1.jpg
- title: MANUALS
subtitle: ''
text: German user and programming manuals
image: /media/museum/photos/casio_pb100_manuals_s1.jpg
adverts:
- title: FRENCH AD (SEPT. 1983)
subtitle: ''
text: '"Casio. Basic, it''s magic"'
image: /media/museum/pubs/casio_pb100_pub_magique_2.jpg
hardware:
- title: CASSETTE INTERFACE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/casio_pb100_fa3%20interf_s1.jpg
links:
- title: Silrun Systems
url: http://www.silrun.info/
text: Documentations to download for Casio pockets ! Useful.
- title: The Pocket Computer Museum
url: http://pocket.free.fr/
text: The site to visit for pockets computers !
docs:
- title: CASIO PB-100 FRENCH USER MANUAL
url: http://www.ledudu.com/images/pockets/casio/broche/pb100.pdf
cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/casio_pb100_userdoc_french.jpg
text: |-
[**CASIO PB-100 FRENCH USER MANUAL**](http://www.ledudu.com/images/pockets/casio/broche/pb100.pdf)written by Casio
 compiled/archived by www.ledudu.com\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 9,8 MB\
 source : [www.ledudu.com](http://www.ledudu.com)
**... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :**
- title: 60 PROGRAMMES POUR CASIO PB-100
url: http://www.ledudu.com/images/pockets/casio/broche/60programmesspourpb100.pdf
cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/casio_pb100_60progs.jpg
text: |-
[**60 PROGRAMMES POUR CASIO PB-100**](http://www.ledudu.com/images/pockets/casio/broche/60programmesspourpb100.pdf)written by Gilles Probst
 compiled/archived by www.ledudu.com\
 type of document : PDF\
 size : 4,1 MB\
 source : [www.ledudu.com](http://www.ledudu.com)
**... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :**
videos:
- title: Casio PB-100 japanese commercial
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pD6g66Erc
text: 'Length: 14 s'
comments:
- author: Nauman (Washington, DC)
date: Monday 25th April 2011
text: My father bought it from Saudi Arabia (where he had a civil engineering job in 1982) for me when I was 12 years old. I learned my first programming language, BASIC, on it. Astoundingly enough, 30 years later, it is still the best calculator I''ve ever owned and I still use it. In 30 years, I''ve replaced the batteries twice or three times I think. It is truly a marvel. Who makes technology these days that''ll last 30 years?
- author: Jalmari Raippalinna (Finland)
date: Saturday 4th September 2010
text: |-
My first computer, taught me programming when I was 8 years old. I ported lunar lander from ZX Spectrum to PB-100 when I was 9 yers old and only now I understand who unbelievably cool that was, I just wanted to play the game back then.
Now I am a CTO, this computer made the programming my lifestyle!
- author: UZsie (ITA)
date: Monday 17th June 2019
text: |-
My first PC, I recall two things, a blackjack game crammed in the 544 bytes.\
And a regularity race among friends where the actual average speed was kept by me using the pb100 as a mere calculator.\
The first leg we had 30 secs margin, and the guys with 10 secs margin taunted us. They simply lucked out after that, so we won all the other legs. $P
- author: Sean Pead (South Africa)
date: Wednesday 11th January 2017
text: I had one of these with a dock for a tape recorder to store programs. My brother still has it and it works perfectly still
- author: Sukesh Hoogan (India)
date: Sunday 8th January 2017
text: One could attach a thermal printer FP-12 to it.
- author: Rikus Combrinck (South Africa)
date: Tuesday 5th April 2016
text: I got mine as a Christmas gift in 1982 or 1983. I was about 10 at the time and learnt to program in BASIC on it before moving on to a Commodore 64, two or three years later. I still have it in a box somewhere. Great memories!
- author: Dave Tierney (Western Australia)
date: Saturday 12th July 2014
text: I bought mine in 1983 and loaded it with navigation programmes for off shore-sailing and later used it until 1989 for scheduling transport services. I dug it up again after we moved house, put a couple of new batteries in it and its away working again. All I have to do now is find the book and manual and I''ll have another to play with.
- author: Twilighte (Uk)
date: Wednesday 8th August 2012
text: |-
I bought a PB-100 from a Truro charity shop in about''85 and it became the fun thing to mess about on whilst in college. I even bought the or-1 later and managed to write a very simple arcade game using / and $ and \_ characters together with $ for the main craft.\
Unfortunately the on/off button lost coherence one day and I never managed to fix it. It eventually got taken apart and binned but the fond memories still linger,
- author: Dennis (UK)
date: Thursday 19th April 2012
text: |-
It was on one of these that I learned to program in Basic. With the added memory chip ( extra 2K IIRC ) I turned it into a Pilot Nav Computer.
In the UK Clive Sinclair then brought out his ZX and Spectrum computers and we never looked back.
- author: Maunu (Estonia)
date: Monday 28th March 2011
text: |-
In 1992 a guy, who had braught it from abroad, sold it to me. It was helpful to write some programs for routine calculatings at school. Then I forgot it for years, meanwhile it survived a flood...\
Now I gave it to my child for school computings. Maybe teaching her a little programming and playing with mp3-player as a program saving destination as I have a docking unit also.\
BTW, any RAM Expansion Pack for sale? $)
- author: Farid (Pakistan)
date: Sunday 25th May 2008
text: |-
Got one in 1984 ! Learned programming on it and used it for a couple of years before I got my Commodore 64.
It was small, but you could actually write some very interesting code with it.
- author: alessandro (italy)
date: Saturday 21st April 2007
text: still have it . it's in poor condition after 5 years of programming during my school period . 0.5K where not really much but I manage to run several program for electronic calculation . good time goes by
- author: Thomas Lienhard (Switzerland)
date: Sunday 21st March 2004
text: it had a 455kHz ceramic resonator that was used as system clock!
related:
- /museum/casio-fx-700p
- /museum/casio-fx-702p
- /museum/casio-pb-300
oc_id: 1000
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230609171653/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1000
date: '2023-06-09'
---
The PB-100 represents Casio's step towards "real" pocket computers. While its ancestor, the [FX-702P](/museum/casio-fx-702p/), was still called "Programmable Calculator", the PB-100 proudly bears the title "Personal Computer".
However, the PB-100 seems to have been a true low-cost design. Its specifications are clearly inferior to those of its predecessor, the FX-702P, as well as to SHARP's earlier pockets. The limited 12 character display makes BASIC programming and debugging a painstaking endeavor.
In its standard version, it is equipped with 1 KB of RAM which results in only 544 bytes for BASIC, which is really limiting. At least, with the memory module OR-1, it can be upgraded to 1568 bytes of user memory, so it begins to make sense that BASIC memory can be subdivided into 10 independent program areas P0-P9.
Moreover, the keyboard had been reduced to the absolute minimum; at any rate, it provided a QWERTY style layout (the FX-702P had a non-standard alphabetical layout).\
On the other hand, the cute little machine is really small and lightweight, a real pocket device.
The main circuits of the PB-100 are basically made up of two chips. Processor logics, ROM, display driver, and keyboard controller are integrated in a single CMOS VLSI chip HD61913, which has an external 4-bit bus. The second main component is a HD61914, which is a 8192-bit static RAM organized as 2048 words by 4 bits.
In 1983, the PB-100 was also released by Tandy Radio Shack as [TRS-80 PC-4](/museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-pc-4/) and by Olympia as [OP-544](/museum/olympia-op-544-op-644/).
Thanks to **Roman von Wartburg** ([retrocomputing.ch](http://retrocomputing.ch/)) for this information.
---
PB-100 vs mainframe by **Richard Chequer**:\
I have a Casio PB-100 (with the optional OR-1 memory) which I have owned and used since 1983.\
I have shadowed mainframe programs (pension calculations) using the PB-100. A work colleague would code the mainframe solution and I would do the equivalent with the Casio: if the answers agreed, the mainframe code was deemed correct.\
The limitations of the display do mean that you have to write any potential program out on paper prior to typing it in. I have not had many problems with the limited memory: it is not designed for running large programs.\
The only limitation in the code is that there is no "ELSE" construct on IF statements. This did not limit the programming, but the coding required was less elegant and compact than if this construct was implemented.\
I still use the machine today and I consider it to be much easier to use than a programmable calculator. In terms of maintenance it has only required new batteries - and not too many of those, either!