The sorocal is a retro-cool Japanese marvel of current and ancient technology: a calculator combined with an abacus. Sharp made four models in the seventies and eighties, including the one that you see above. Math students used the manual system to verify the results of the electronic system.
Link -via Retronaut | Photo: Partners & Spade
Heh, this looks like those house alarms' control panels.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
Also, for a skilled operator doing addition and subtraction on the abacus is much faster then punching in numbers on a calculator.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)