Hitachi HITAC 201

After the completion of the HITAC 301, Hitachi started working on an affordable compact computer in 1960 that was easy to set up for smaller businesses to do their business accounting on. The result of this development was the HITAC 201. Hitachi set the HITAC 201’s development targets by getting feedback from its personnel in office managerial departments on the initial specifications. The eventual targets were: (1) develop an inexpensive magnetic tape unit and make it possible to connect around four sortable decks; (2) connect a kana-character line printer; and (3) have a storage capacity of about 4,000 words and an instruction set tailored for business accounting.