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A calculator is an electronic device for performing mathematical calculations, distinguished from a computer by a limited problem solving ability and an interface optimized for interactive calculation rather than programming. Calculators can be hardware or software, and mechanical or electronic, and are often built into devices such as PDAs or mobile phones. Calculator could refer to: A Calculator Calculator (software), calculator software that ships with Mac OS X. Calculator (comics), DC Comics villain. ...
Surface mount electronic components Electronics is the study of the flow of charge through various materials and devices such as semiconductors, resistors, inductors, capacitors, nano-structures and vacuum tubes. ...
This article is about the machine. ...
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 An old mechanical calculator. | | | Modern electronic calculators are generally small, digital, (often pocket-sized) and usually inexpensive. In addition to general purpose calculators, there are those designed for specific markets; for example, there are scientific calculators which focus on advanced math like trigonometry and statistics. Modern calculators are more portable than most computers, though most PDAs are comparable in size to handheld calculators. Image File history File links Calculator. ...
Image File history File links Calculator. ...
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2592x1534, 914 KB) Sergei Frolov,Soviet Calculators Collection,http://www. ...
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2592x1534, 914 KB) Sergei Frolov,Soviet Calculators Collection,http://www. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1241x1800, 201 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Calculator ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1241x1800, 201 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Calculator ...
A modern basic arithmetic calculator For other uses, see Calculator (disambiguation). ...
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Trigonometry The Canadarm2 robotic manipulator on the International Space Station is operated by controlling the angles of its joints. ...
This article is about the field of statistics. ...
Palm IIIxe PDA Personal digital assistants (PDAs or palmtops) are handheld devices that were originally designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. ...
Overview In the past, mechanical clerical aids such as abaci, comptometers, Napier's bones, books of mathematical tables, slide rules, or mechanical adding machines were used for numeric work. This semi-manual process of calculation was tedious and error-prone. A Chinese abacus Calculating-Table by Gregor Reisch: Margarita Philosophica, 1508 For other uses, see Abacus (disambiguation). ...
A Comptometer is a type of mechanical (or electro-mechanical) adding machine. ...
Napiers bones are an abacus invented by John Napier for calculation of products and quotients of numbers. ...
Before calculators were cheap and plentiful, people would use mathematical tables —lists of numbers showing the results of calculation with varying variables— to simplify and drastically speed up computation. ...
A typical 10 inch student slide rule (Pickett N902-T simplex trig). ...
adding machine Older adding machine. ...
Modern calculators are electrically powered (usually by battery and/or solar cell) and vary from cheap, give-away, credit-card sized models to sturdy adding machine-like models with built-in printers. They first became popular in the late 1960s as decreasing size and cost of electronics made possible devices for calculations, avoiding the use of scarce and expensive computer resources. By the 1980s, calculator prices had reduced to a point where a basic calculator was affordable to most. By the 1990s they had become common in math classes in schools, with the idea that students could be freed from basic calculations and focus on the concepts. A solar cell, made from a monocrystalline silicon wafer A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts solar energy into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. ...
Computer operating systems as far back as early Unix have included interactive calculator programs such as dc and hoc, and calculator functions are included in almost all PDA-type devices (save a few dedicated address book and dictionary devices). Ancient UNIX is a term coined by Santa Cruz Operation (now Tarantella, Inc. ...
From the GNU Project dc man page: Dc is a reverse-polish desk calculator which supports unlimited precision arithmetic. It is one of the oldest Unix utilities, predating even the invention of the C programming language; like other utilities of that vintage, it has a powerful set of features but...
hoc, an acronym for High Order Calculator, is an interpreted programming language that was used in the 1984 book The Unix Programming Environment to demonstrate how to build interpreters using Yacc. ...
User with Treo (PDA with smartphone functionality) Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers, but have become much more versatile over the years. ...
Electronic calculators In the past, some calculators were as large as today's computers. The first mechanical calculators were mechanical desktop devices which were replaced by electromechanical desktop calculators, and then by electronic devices using first thermionic valves, then transistors, then hard-wired integrated circuit logic. By the mid-1970s, pocket-sized calculators based on ICs were routinely available, often at prices less than $100, and by the early 1980s the LED displays of 1970s units had been replaced by power-saving liquid crystal displays. Modern electronic calculators range in size from keychain-sized units only a couple of centimeters long all the way up to desktop calculators the size of a textbook, and in complexity from very basic up to graphing calculators capable of video display and sometimes extensive general-purpose programming capability. The tower of a personal computer. ...
A mechanical calculator is a device that does computations without the aid of electricity. ...
In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ...
Assorted discrete transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device, commonly used as an amplifier or an electrically controlled switch. ...
Integrated circuit of Atmel Diopsis 740 System on Chip showing memory blocks, logic and input/output pads around the periphery Microchips (EPROM memory) with a transparent window, showing the integrated circuit inside. ...
LCD redirects here. ...
A typical graphing calculator. ...
Basic configuration A simple modern calculator (usually known colloquially as a "four function" calculator, even with the presence of a square root button) might consist of the following parts: - A power source, such as a battery or a solar panel or both
- A display, usually made from LED lights or liquid crystal (LCD), capable of showing a number of digits (typically 8 or 10)
- Electronic circuitry (often a single chip and some other components)
- A keypad containing:
- The ten digits, 0 to 9
- The decimal point
- The equals sign, to prompt for the answer
- The four arithmetic functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division)
- A Cancel (or clear) button, to clear the calculation
- On and off buttons
- Other basic functions, such as square root and percentage (%) (desktop models will sometimes add tax functions and significant digit selectors to simplify work with money)
- A single-number memory, which can be recalled where necessary. It might also have a Cancel Entry button, to clear the numbers entered. (Many scientific calculators have multiple variables available.)
Since the late-1980s, calculators have been installed in other small devices, such as mobile phones, pagers or wrist watches. A photovoltaic module is composed of individual PV cells. ...
External links LEd Category: TeX ...
LCD redirects here. ...
Look up Keyboard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A keyboard can refer to a: Alphanumeric keyboard, any keyboard that has both letter and numbers on it Typewriter keyboard Computer keyboard IBM PC keyboard Musical keyboard, a keyboard on a musical instrument Keyboard instrument, such as the piano Keyboard synthesizer, a...
The decimal separator is used to mark the boundary between the integer and the fractional parts of a decimal numeral. ...
In mathematics, a square root (√) of a number x is a number r such that , or in words, a number r whose square (the result of multiplying the number by itself) is x. ...
Significant figures (also called significant digits and abbreviated sig figs or sig digs, respectively) is a method of expressing errors in measurements. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
For terminal pagers, see more (Unix) or less (Unix). ...
Scientific and financial calculators More complex scientific calculators support trigonometric, statistical and other mathematical functions. The most advanced modern calculators can display graphics, and include features of computer algebra systems. They are also programmable; calculator applications include algebraic equation solvers, financial models and even games. Most calculators of this type can print numbers up to ten digits or decimal places in full on the screen. Scientific notation is used to notate numbers up to a limit chosen by the calculator designer, such as 9.999999999×1099. If a larger number or a mathematical expression yielding a larger number than this is entered (a common example comes from typing "100!", read as "100 factorial") then the calculator might simply display "Error". Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
A TI-89 The TI-89 and the TI-89 Titanium are graphing calculators developed by Texas Instruments. ...
A wire frame model is a visual presentation of an electronic representation of a three dimensional or physical object used in 3D computer graphics. ...
A basic arithmetic calculator. ...
Sine redirects here. ...
This article is about the field of statistics. ...
In mathematics, several functions are important enough to deserve their own name. ...
A typical graphing calculator. ...
A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. ...
Scientific notation, also known as standard form, is a notation for writing numbers that is often used by scientists and mathematicians to make it easier to write large and small numbers. ...
For factorial rings in mathematics, see unique factorisation domain. ...
"Error" might also be displayed if a function or an operation is undefined mathematically; for example, division by zero or even roots of negative numbers (most scientific calculators do not allow complex numbers, though a few do have a special function for working with them). Some, but not most, calculators do distinguish between these two types of "error", though when they do, it is not always easy for the user to understand because they are often given as "Error 1" or "Error 2". For the album by Hux Flux, see Division by Zero (album). ...
In mathematics, an nth root of a number a is a number b such that bn=a. ...
In mathematics, a complex number is a number which is often formally defined to consist of an ordered pair of real numbers , often written: In mathematics, the adjective complex means that the underlying number field is complex numbers, for example complex analysis, complex matrix, complex polynomial and complex Lie algebra. ...
Financial calculators are similar in overall design to scientific calculators, but specialize in time value of money calculations and are used in the accounting and real estate professions. The time value of money is the premise that an investor prefers to receive a payment of a fixed amount of money today, rather than an equal amount in the future, all else being equal. ...
It has been suggested that Accounting scholarship be merged into this article or section. ...
Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ...
Only a few companies make professional engineering and finance calculators. They include Casio, Sharp, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Victor and Texas Instruments (TI), as well as Chinese manufacturer Karce, who provides OEM calculators for the private label market. Such calculators are examples of embedded systems. Casio Computer Co. ...
Sharp Corporation ) (TYO: 6753 , LuxSE: SRP) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. ...
The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is a very large, global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. ...
Victor Technology LLC (also known as Victor Calculator) is a supplier of printing calculators, scientific calculators, financial calculators, basic calculators, and desktop accessories with headquarters in Addison, Illinois. ...
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ...
OEM is an acronym for any of the following: Object Exchange Model Office of Emergency Management, a general term for emergency management functions Office for Emergency Management, a World War II function within the Executive Office of the United States Government Oracle Enterprise Manager Original Equipment Manufacturer The DOS code...
Swedish grocery store where private label products (under the brands Hemköp and Eldorado, Axfood) are placed along with other brands such as Knorr (Unilever) and Blå band (Campbell Soup). ...
A router, an example of an embedded system. ...
Use in education In most countries, students use calculators for schoolwork. There was some initial resistance to the idea out of fear that basic arithmetic skills would suffer. There remains disagreement about the importance of the ability to perform calculations by hand or "in the head", with some curricula restricting calculator use until a certain level of proficiency has been obtained, while others concentrate more on teaching estimation techniques and problem-solving. Research suggests that inadequate guidance in the use of calculating tools can restrict the kind of mathematical thinking that students engage in.[1] Others have argued that calculator use can even cause core mathematical skills to atrophy, or that such use can prevent understanding of advanced algebraic concepts. For other uses, see Student (disambiguation). ...
Elementary arithmetic is the most basic kind of mathematics: it concerns the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. ...
Estimation is the calculated approximation of a result which is usable even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or noisy. ...
There are other concerns - for example, that a pupil could use the calculator in the wrong fashion but believe the answer because that was the result given. Teachers try to combat this by encouraging the student to make an estimate of the result manually and ensuring it roughly agrees with the calculated result. Also, it is possible for a child to type in −1 × −1 and obtain the correct answer '1' without realizing the principle involved. In this sense, the calculator becomes a crutch rather than a learning tool, and it can slow down students in exam conditions as they check even the most trivial result on a calculator. A knee support crutch A patient using underarm crutches A typical forearm crutch Crutches are medical tools used in the event that ones leg or legs may be injured or unable to support weight. ...
Other concerns on usage Errors are not restricted to school pupils. Any user could carelessly rely on the calculator's output without double-checking the magnitude of the result — i.e., where the decimal point is positioned. This problem was all but nonexistent in the era of slide rules and pencil-and-paper calculations, when the task of establishing the magnitudes of results had to be done by the user. In addition, algorithmic flaws and rounding techniques can sometimes lead to minor precision errors.[2] An order of magnitude is the class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio to the class preceding it. ...
The decimal separator is a symbol used to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal numeral. ...
A typical 10 inch student slide rule (Pickett N902-T simplex trig). ...
Some fractions such as 2/3 are awkward to display on a calculator display as they are usually rounded to 0.66666667. Also, some fractions such as 1/7 which is 0.14285714285714 can be difficult to recognize in decimal form; as a result, many scientific calculators are able to work in vulgar fractions and/or mixed numbers. In arithmetic, a vulgar fraction (or common fraction) consists of one integer divided by a non-zero integer. ...
In algebra, a vulgar fraction consists of one integer divided by a non-zero integer. ...
Calculating vs. computing The fundamental difference between calculators and computers is that computers can be programmed to perform different tasks while calculators are pre-designed with specific functions built in, for example addition, multiplication, logarithms, etc. While computers may be used to handle numbers, they can also manipulate words, images or sounds and other tasks they have been programmed to handle. However, the distinction between the two is quite blurred; some calculators have built-in programming functions, ranging from simple formula entry to full programming languages such as RPL or TI-BASIC. Graphing calculators in particular can, along with PDAs, be viewed as direct descendants of the 1980s pocket computers, essentially calculators with full keyboards and programming capability. The RPL programming language (RPL meaning reverse Polish LISP or, alternatively, ROM-based procedural language) is a handheld calculator system and application programming language used on Hewlett-Packards engineering graphing RPN calculators of the HP-28, HP-48 and HP-49 series. ...
TI-BASIC is the unofficial name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments graphing calculators. ...
User with Treo (PDA with smartphone functionality) Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers, but have become much more versatile over the years. ...
A pocket computer is a small calculator-sized computer programmable in BASIC. This specific category of computers existed primarily in the 1980s. ...
The market for calculators is extremely price-sensitive, to an even greater extent than the personal computer market; typically the user desires the least expensive model having a specific feature set, but does not care much about speed (since speed is constrained by how fast the user can press the buttons). Thus designers of calculators strive to minimize the number of logic elements on the chip, not the number of clock cycles needed to do a computation.
For instance, instead of a hardware multiplier, a calculator might implement floating point mathematics with code in ROM, and compute trigonometric functions with the CORDIC algorithm because CORDIC does not require hardware floating-point. Bit serial logic designs are more common in calculators whereas bit parallel designs dominate general-purpose computers, because a bit serial design minimizes the chip complexity, but takes many more clock cycles. (Again, the line blurs with high-end calculators, which use processor chips associated with computer and embedded systems design, particularly the Z80, MC68000, and ARM architectures, as well as some custom designs specifically made for the calculator market.) A floating-point number is a digital representation for a number in a certain subset of the rational numbers, and is often used to approximate an arbitrary real number on a computer. ...
Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ...
CORDIC (digit-by-digit method, Volders algorithm) (for COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer) is a simple and efficient algorithm to calculate hyperbolic and trigonometric functions. ...
In telecommunication, serial transmission or sequential transmission is the sequential transmission of the signal elements of a group representing a character or other entity of data. ...
In telecommunication, parallel transmission is: The simultaneous transmission of the signal elements of a character or other data item. ...
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Zilog from 1976 onwards. ...
The Motorola 68000 is a CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. ...
The ARM architecture (previously, the Advanced RISC Machine, and prior to that Acorn RISC Machine) is a 32-bit RISC processor architecture developed by ARM Limited that is widely used in a number of embedded designs. ...
Personal computers and personal digital assistants can perform general calculations in a variety of ways: User with Treo (PDA with smartphone functionality) Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers, but have become much more versatile over the years. ...
- Most computer operating systems, at least those that support some kind of multitasking, include calculator programs, both text mode (such as the Unix bc (1) language) and graphical mode (Mac OS Calculator, Microsoft Calculator, KCalc, Grapher). Most, though not all, imitate the interface of a physical calculator. Some shell programs and interpreted programming languages also provide interactive calculation functions.
- For more complex calculations requiring large amounts of organized data, spreadsheet programs such as Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc provide calculation and sometimes reporting functions.
- Computer algebra programs such as Mathematica, and others can handle advanced calculations.
- Client-side scripting can be used for calculations, e.g. by entering "
javascript:alert('calculation written in JavaScript')" in a web browser's address bar (as opposed to "http://website name"). Such calculations can be embedded in a separate Javascript or HTML file as well. - Online calculators such as the calculator feature of the Google search engine can perform calculations server-side.
Multitasking may refer to any of the following: Computer multitasking - the apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks by a computers central processing unit. ...
Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...
bc is an arbitrary precision calculator language with syntax similar to the C programming language. ...
Microsoft Calculator is a calculation application for Microsoft Windows. ...
this is an excellant calculator. ...
Grapher is a software program bundled with Mac OS X v10. ...
In computing, a shell is a piece of software that provides an interface for users (command line interpreter). ...
Screenshot of a spreadsheet under OpenOffice A spreadsheet is a rectangular table (or grid) of information, often financial information. ...
Microsoft Excel (full name Microsoft Office Excel) is a spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. It features calculation and graphing tools which, along with aggressive marketing, have made Excel one of the most popular microcomputer applications to date. ...
OpenOffice. ...
A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. ...
For other uses, see Mathematica (disambiguation). ...
The following tables provide a comparison of computer algebra systems (CAS). ...
Client-side scripting generally refers to the class of computer programs on the web that are executed client-side, by the users web browser, instead of server-side (on the web server). ...
JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ...
An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ...
JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ...
HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ...
This page is a summary of services and tools provided by Google Inc. ...
In computer networking, the term server-side refers to operations that are performed by the server in a client-server relationship. ...
History
Origin: the abacus -
The first calculators were abaci, and were often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. Abacuses were in use centuries before the adoption of the written Arabic numerals system and are still used by some merchants, fishermen and clerks in China and elsewhere. Scanned and uploaded by Malcolm Farmer Source: Article for abacus, 9th edition Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 1 (1875) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
Scanned and uploaded by Malcolm Farmer Source: Article for abacus, 9th edition Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 1 (1875) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
A Chinese abacus Calculating-Table by Gregor Reisch: Margarita Philosophica, 1508 For other uses, see Abacus (disambiguation). ...
The 17th century William Oughtred invents the slide rule in 1622 and is revealed by his student Richard Delamain in 1630.[3] Wilhelm Schickard built the first automatic calculator called the "Calculating Clock" in 1623. [4]Some 20 years later, in 1643, French philosopher Blaise Pascal invented the calculation device later known as the Pascaline, which was used for taxes in France until 1799. The German philosopher G.W.v. Leibniz also produced a calculating machine. William Oughtred William Oughtred (March 5, 1575 – June 30, 1660) was an English mathematician. ...
Wilhelm Schickard Wilhelm Schickard (April 22, 1592 – October 23, 1635) was a German polymath who built the first computer in 1623. ...
Blaise Pascal (pronounced ), (June 20 [[1624 // ]] – August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. ...
A Pascaline, signed by Pascal in 1652 Blaise Pascal invented the second mechanical calculator, called alternatively the Pascaline or the Arithmetique, in 1645, the first being that of Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. ...
Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (July 1, 1646 in Leipzig - November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ...
The Calculus Ratiocinator is a concept appearing in the writings of Gottfried Leibniz, usually paired with his characteristica universalis, which he mentioned much more frequently. ...
The 19th century
 The London Science Museum's working difference engine, built from Charles Babbage's design. - In 1822 Charles Babbage proposed a mechanical calculator, called a difference engine, which was capable of holding and manipulating seven numbers of 31 decimal digits each. Babbage produced two designs for the difference engine and a further design for a more advanced mechanical programmable computer called an analytical engine. None of these designs were completely built by Babbage. In 1991 the London Science Museum followed Babbage's plans to build a working difference engine using the technology and materials available in the 19th century.
- In 1853 Per Georg Scheutz completed a working difference engine based on Babbage's design. The machine was the size of a piano, and was demonstrated at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855. It was used to create tables of logarithms.
- In 1872, Frank Baldwin in the U.S.A. invented the pinwheel calculator, which was also independently invented two years later by W.T. Odhner in Russia. The Odhner models, and similar designs from other companies, sold many thousands into the 1970s.
- In 1875 Martin Wiberg re-designed the Babbage/Scheutz difference engine and built a version that was the size of a sewing machine.
- Dorr E. Felt, in the U.S.A., invented the Comptometer in 1884, the first successful key-driven adding and calculating machine ["key-driven" refers to the fact that just pressing the keys causes the result to be calculated, no separate lever has to be operated]. In 1886 he joined with Robert Tarrant to form the Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company which went on to make thousands of Comptometers.
- In 1891 William S. Burroughs began commercial manufacture of his printing adding calculator. Burroughs Corporation became one of the leading companies in the accounting machine and computer businesses.
- The "Millionaire" calculator was introduced in 1893. It allowed direct multiplication by any digit - "one turn of the crank for each figure in the multiplier".
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Babbage redirects here. ...
Part of Babbages Difference engine, assembled after his death by Babbages son, using parts found in his laboratory. ...
The analytical engine, an important step in the history of computers, was the design of a mechanical general-purpose computer by the British professor of mathematics Charles Babbage. ...
The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. ...
Portrait of Per Georg Scheutz Per Georg Scheutz (September 23, 1785 – May 22, 1873) was a 19th-century Swedish lawyer, translator, and inventor, who is best known for his pioneering work in computer technology. ...
Images of the Palais dIndustrie The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was a Worlds Fair held in Paris, France. ...
This article is about the capital of France. ...
-1...
For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...
Baldwin Calculating Engine from 1874. ...
Martin Wiberg (September 4, 1826 - December 29, 1905) was born in Viby, Scania enrolled at Lund University in 1845 and became a doctor of philosophy in 1850. ...
For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...
A Comptometer is a type of mechanical (or electro-mechanical) adding machine. ...
William Seward Burroughs (1857-1898), US inventor William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), author and grandson of William Seward Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950), American author of Tarzan fame The Burroughs Corporation began in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company in St. ...
This article is about the machine. ...
1900s to 1960s
Mechanical calculators reach their zenith
 Mechanical calculator from 1914 The first half of the 20th century saw the gradual development of the mechanical calculator mechanism. Image File history File links Mechanical-Calculator. ...
Image File history File links Mechanical-Calculator. ...
The Dalton adding-listing machine introduced in 1902 was the first of its type to use only ten keys, and became the first of many different models of "10-key add-listers" manufactured by many companies.
 An Addiator could be used for addition and subtraction. In 1948 the miniature Curta calculator, that was held in one hand for operation, was introduced after being developed by Curt Herzstark in a Nazi concentration camp. This was an extreme development of the stepped-gear calculating mechanism. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x2110, 215 KB)A picture of an addiator, taken May 22, 2005 by James Yolkowski (User:JYolkowski). ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x2110, 215 KB)A picture of an addiator, taken May 22, 2005 by James Yolkowski (User:JYolkowski). ...
The Addiator was a mechanical add/subtract calculator, made by Addiator Gesellschaft, Berlin. ...
The Curta was a small, hand-cranked mechanical calculator introduced in 1948. ...
Curt Herzstark was born in July 26, 1902 in Vienna, and died October 27, 1988 in Nendeln, Liechtenstein. ...
From the early 1900s through the 1960s, mechanical calculators dominated the desktop computing market (see History of computing hardware). Major suppliers in the USA included Friden, Monroe, and SCM/Marchant. (Some comments about European calculators follow below.) These devices were motor-driven, and had movable carriages where results of calculations were displayed by dials. Nearly all keyboards were full — each digit that could be entered had its own column of nine keys, 1..9, plus a column-clear key, permitting entry of several digits at once. (See the illustration of a 1914 mechanical calculator.) One could call this parallel entry, by way of contrast with ten-key serial entry that was commonplace in mechanical adding machines, and is now universal in electronic calculators. (Nearly all Friden calculators had a ten-key auxiliary keyboard for entering the multiplier when doing multiplication.) Full keyboards generally had ten columns, although some lower-cost machines had eight. Most machines made by the three companies mentioned did not print their results, although other companies, such as Olivetti, did make printing calculators. Computing hardware has been an important component of the process of calculation and computer data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared. ...
Friden Calculating Machine Company (Friden, Inc. ...
The Monroe Calculator Company was a leading maker of adding machines and calculators founded in 1912 by Jay R. Monroe and now known as Monroe Systems for Business. ...
The Marchant Calculating Machine Co. ...
In these machines, Addition and subtraction were performed in a single operation, as on a conventional adding machine, but multiplication and division were accomplished by repeated mechanical additions and subtractions. Friden made a calculator that also provided square roots, basically by doing division, but with added mechanism that automatically incremented the number in the keyboard in a systematic fashion. Friden and Marchant (Model SKA) made calculators with square root. Handheld mechanical calculators such as the 1948 Curta continued to be used until they were displaced by electronic calculators in the 1970s. 3 + 2 = 5 with apples, a popular choice in textbooks[1] This article is about addition in mathematics. ...
5 - 2 = 3 (verbally, five minus two equals three) An example problem Subtraction is one of the four basic arithmetic operations; it is the inverse of addition. ...
In mathematics, multiplication is an elementary arithmetic operation. ...
In mathematics, especially in elementary arithmetic, division is an arithmetic operation which is the inverse of multiplication. ...
Friden Calculating Machine Company (Friden, Inc. ...
In mathematics, a square root (√) of a number x is a number r such that , or in words, a number r whose square (the result of multiplying the number by itself) is x. ...
The Curta was a small, hand-cranked mechanical calculator introduced in 1948. ...
| | | | | |
 Olivetti Divisumma 24 (1964) | The Facit, Triumphator, and Walther calculators are typical European machines. Similar-looking machines included the Odhner and Brunsviga. Although these are operated by handcranks, there were motor-driven versions. Most machines that look like these use the Odhner mechanism, or variations of it. The Olivetti Divisumma did all four basic operations of arithmetic, and has a printer. Full-keyboard machines, including motor-driven ones, were also used in Europe for many decades. Some European machines had as many as 20 columns in their full keyboards. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 619 KB) Summary Description: Swedish calculator FACIT build in 1954 Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 619 KB) Summary Description: Swedish calculator FACIT build in 1954 Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 483 KB) Summary Description: Calculator Triumphator CRN1 build 1958 in Germany (DDR) Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This file contains additional information...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 483 KB) Summary Description: Calculator Triumphator CRN1 build 1958 in Germany (DDR) Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This file contains additional information...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 467 KB) Summary Description: Calculator Walther WSR160 build 1960 bei Walther, Germany Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This file contains additional information...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 467 KB) Summary Description: Calculator Walther WSR160 build 1960 bei Walther, Germany Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This file contains additional information...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 667 KB) Summary Description: Internal view of the calculator Divisumma 24 build by Olivetti in 1964 Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 667 KB) Summary Description: Internal view of the calculator Divisumma 24 build by Olivetti in 1964 Source: made by author Date: 2006-02-12 Author: Hannes Grobe Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Calculator Metadata This...
The development of electronic calculators The first main-frame computers, using firstly vacuum tubes and later transistors in the logic circuits, appeared in the late 1940s and 1950s. This technology was to provide a stepping stone to the development of electronic calculators. A 1990 Honeywell-Bull DPS 7 mainframe CPU Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for mission critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing. ...
Structure of a vacuum tube diode Structure of a vacuum tube triode In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube, or (outside North America) thermionic valve or just valve, is a device used to amplify, switch or modify a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ...
Assorted discrete transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device, commonly used as an amplifier or an electrically controlled switch. ...
In 1954, IBM, in the U.S.A., demonstrated a large all-transistor calculator and, in 1957, the company released the first commercial all-transistor calculator, the IBM 608, though it was housed in several cabinets and cost about $80,000[1]. For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ...
For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...
Assorted discrete transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device, commonly used as an amplifier or an electrically controlled switch. ...
The Casio Computer Co., in Japan, released the Model 14-A calculator in 1957, which was the world's first all-electric "compact" calculator. It did not use electronic logic but was based on relay technology, and was built into a desk. Casio Computer Co. ...
Automotive style miniature relay A relay is an electrical switch that opens and closes under the control of another electrical circuit. ...
In October 1961, the world's first all-electronic desktop calculator, the Bell Punch/Sumlock Comptometer ANITA (A New Inspiration To Arithmetic/Accounting) was announced.[5][6] This British designed-and-built machine used vacuum tubes, cold-cathode tubes and Dekatrons in its circuits, with 12 cold-cathode "Nixie"-type tubes for its display. Two models were displayed, The Mk VII for continental Europe and the Mk VIII for Britain and the rest of the world, both for delivery from early 1962. The Mk VII was a slightly earlier design with a more complicated mode of multiplication and was soon dropped in favour of the simpler Mark VIII version. The ANITA had a full keyboard, similar to mechanical Comptometers of the time, a feature that was unique to it and the later Sharp CS-10A among electronic calculators. Bell Punch had been producing key-driven mechanical calculators of the Comptometer type under the names "Plus" and "Sumlock", and had realised in the mid-1950s that the future of calculators lay in electronics. They employed the young graduate Norbert Kitz, who had worked on the early British Pilot ACE computer project, to lead the development. The ANITA sold well since it was the only electronic desktop calculator available, and was silent and quick. The British ANITA calculator, first manufactured by Sumlock in 1960, was the first electronic desktop calculator. ...
Structure of a vacuum tube diode Structure of a vacuum tube triode In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube, or (outside North America) thermionic valve or just valve, is a device used to amplify, switch or modify a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ...
Detail of the top of a dekatron - central anode disk surrounded by 30 internal cathode pins A dekatron in operation. ...
The ten digits of a Z560M Nixie tube. ...
A Comptometer is a type of mechanical (or electro-mechanical) adding machine. ...
Sharp Corporation ) (TYO: 6753 , LuxSE: SRP) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. ...
A Comptometer is a type of mechanical (or electro-mechanical) adding machine. ...
The Pilot ACE was one of the first computers built in the United Kingdom, at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the late 1940s. ...
The British ANITA calculator, first manufactured by Sumlock in 1960, was the first electronic desktop calculator. ...
The tube technology of the ANITA was superseded in June 1963, by the U.S. manufactured Friden EC-130, which had an all-transistor design, 13-digit capacity on a 5-inch CRT, and introduced reverse Polish notation (RPN) to the calculator market for a price of $2200, which was about triple the cost of an electromechanical calculator of the time. Like Bell Punch, Friden was a manufacturer of mechanical calculators that had decided that the future lay in electronics. In 1964 more all-transistor elctronic calculators were introduced: Sharp introduced the CS-10A, which weighed 25 kg (55 lb) and cost 500,000 yen (~US$2500), and Industria Macchine Elettroniche of Italy introduced the IME 84, to which several extra keyboard and display units could be connected so that several people could make use of it (but apparently not at the same time). The British ANITA calculator, first manufactured by Sumlock in 1960, was the first electronic desktop calculator. ...
Categories: Possible copyright violations ...
Cathode ray tube employing electromagnetic focus and deflection Cutaway rendering of a color CRT: 1. ...
Postfix notation is a mathematical notation wherein every operator follows all of its operands. ...
Sharp Corporation ) (TYO: 6753 , LuxSE: SRP) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. ...
There followed a series of electronic calculator models from these and other manufacturers, including Canon, Mathatronics, Olivetti, SCM (Smith-Corona-Marchant), Sony, Toshiba, and Wang. The early calculators used hundreds of Germanium transistors, since these were then cheaper than Silicon transistors, on multiple circuit boards. Display types used were CRT, cold-cathode Nixie tubes, and filament lamps. Memory technology was usually based on the delay line memory or the magnetic core memory, though the Toshiba "Toscal" BC-1411 appears to use an early form of dynamic RAM built from discrete components. Already there was a desire for smaller and less power-hungry machines. General Name, Symbol, Number germanium, Ge, 32 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 14, 4, p Appearance grayish white Standard atomic weight 72. ...
Not to be confused with Silicone. ...
Cathode ray tube employing electromagnetic focus and deflection Cutaway rendering of a color CRT: 1. ...
The ten digits of a Z560M Nixie tube. ...
An incandescent lamp bulb and its glowing filament. ...
Mercury memory of UNIVAC I (1951) Delay line memory was a form of computer memory used on some of the earliest digital computers, such as the EDSAC and UNIVAC I. // The basic concept of the delay line originated with World War II radar research, as a system to reduce clutter...
A 16×16 cm area core memory plane of 128×128 bits, i. ...
DRAM is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor. ...
The Olivetti Programma 101 was introduced in late 1965; it was a stored program machine which could read and write magnetic cards and displayed results on its built-in printer. Memory, implemented by an acoustic delay line, could be partitioned between program steps, constants, and data registers. Programming allowed conditional testing and programs could also be overlaid by reading from magnetic cards. It is regarded as the first personal computer produced by a company (that is, a desktop electronic calculating machine programmable by non-specialists for personal use). The Olivetti Programma 101 won many industrial design awards. Olivetti Lettera 22, 1950 Ing. ...
The Monroe Epic programmable calculator came on the market in 1967. A large, printing, desk-top unit, with an attached floor-standing logic tower, it was capable of being programmed to perform many computer-like functions. However, the only branch instruction was an implied unconditional branch (GOTO) at the end of the operation stack, returning the program to its starting instruction. Thus, it was not possible to include any conditional branch (IF-THEN-ELSE) logic. During this era, the absence of the conditional branch was sometimes used to distinguish a programmable calculator from a computer. The Monroe EPIC was a programmable calculator come on the market in the 1960s. ...
A conditional branch is a basic logical structure. ...
The first handheld calculator was developed by Texas Instruments in 1967. It could add, multiply, subtract, and divide, and its output device was a paper tape.[7][8] Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ...
1970s to mid-1980s
 Old calculator LED display. The electronic calculators of the mid-1960s were large and heavy desktop machines due to their use of hundreds of transistors on several circuit boards with a large power consumption that required an AC power supply. There were great efforts to put the logic required for a calculator into fewer and fewer integrated circuits (chips) and calculator electronics was one of the leading edges of semiconductor development. U.S. semiconductor manufacturers led the world in Large Scale Integration (LSI) semiconductor development, squeezing more and more functions into individual integrated circuits. This led to alliances between Japanese calculator manufacturers and U.S. semiconductor companies: Canon Inc. with Texas Instruments, Hayakawa Electric (later known as Sharp Corporation) with North-American Rockwell Microelectronics, Busicom with Mostek and Intel, and General Instrument with Sanyo. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 241 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 385 pixel, file size: 112 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 241 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 385 pixel, file size: 112 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...
Photo of transistor types (tape measure marked in centimeters) Transistor in the SMD form factor The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device used for amplification and switching. ...
An integrated circuit (IC) is a thin chip consisting of at least two interconnected semiconductor devices, mainly transistors, as well as passive components like resistors. ...
A semiconductor is a solid material that has electrical conductivity in between that of a conductor and that of an insulator; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically. ...
Canon Inc. ...
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ...
Sharp Corporation ) (TYO: 6753 , LuxSE: SRP) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. ...
Rockwell International was the ultimate incarnation of a series of companies under the sphere of influence of Willard Rockwell, who had made his fortune after the invention and successful launch of a new bearing system for truck axles in 1919. ...
Busicom was a company that owned the rights to the first microprocessor but sold them back to Intel. ...
Mostek was an integrated circuit manufacturer, founded in 1969 by ex-employees of Texas Instruments. ...
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ...
General Instrument (GI) was a diversified electronics manufacturer which specialised in semiconductors and cable television equipment. ...
Sanyo Electric Co. ...
Pocket calculators By 1970 a calculator could be made using just a few chips of low power consumption, allowing portable models powered from rechargeable batteries. The first portable calculators appeared in Japan in 1970, and were soon marketed around the world. These included the Sanyo ICC-0081 "Mini Calculator", the Canon Pocketronic, and the Sharp QT-8B "micro Compet". The Canon Pocketronic was a development of the "Cal-Tech" project which had been started at Texas Instruments in 1965 as a research project to produce a portable calculator. The Pocketronic has no traditional display; numerical output is on thermal paper tape. As a result of the "Cal-Tech" project Texas instruments was granted master patents on portable calculators. Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ...
Sharp put in great efforts in size and power reduction and introduced in January 1971 the Sharp EL-8, also marketed as the Facit 1111, which was close to being a pocket calculator. It weighed about one pound, had a vacuum fluorescent display, rechargeable NiCad batteries, and initially sold for $395. The Sharp EL-8, introduced in January of 1971, was the first portable electronic calculator. ...
The nickel-cadmium battery (commonly abbreviated NiCd or NiCad) is a popular type of rechargeable battery for portable electronics and toys. ...
However, the efforts in integrated circuit development culminated in the introduction in early 1971 of the first "calculator on a chip", the MK6010 by Mostek,[9] followed by Texas Instruments later in the year. Although these early hand-held calculators were very expensive, these advances in electronics, together with developments in display technology (such as the vacuum fluorescent display, LED, and LCD), lead within a few years to the cheap pocket calculator available to all. Mostek was an integrated circuit manufacturer, founded in 1969 by ex-employees of Texas Instruments. ...
A full view of a typical vacuum fluorescent display used in a videocassette recorder A close-up of the VFD highlighting the multiple filaments, tensioned by the sheet metal springs at the right of the image A vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) is a type of display used commonly on consumer...
External links LEd Category: TeX ...
LCD redirects here. ...
The first truly pocket-sized electronic calculator was the Busicom LE-120A "HANDY", which was marketed early in 1971. Made in Japan, this was also the first calculator to use an LED display, the first hand-held calculator to use a single integrated circuit (then proclaimed as a "calculator on a chip"), the Mostek MK6010, and the first electronic calculator to run off replaceable batteries. Using four AA-size cells the LE-120A measures 4.9x2.8x0.9 in (124x72x24 mm). External links LEd Category: TeX ...
Mostek was an integrated circuit manufacturer, founded in 1969 by ex-employees of Texas Instruments. ...
The first American-made pocket-sized calculator, the Bowmar 901B (popularly referred to as The Bowmar Brain), measuring 5.2×3.0×1.5 in (131×77×37 mm), came out in the fall of 1971, with four functions and an eight-digit red LED display, for $240, while in August 1972 the four-function Sinclair Executive became the first slimline pocket calculator measuring 5.4×2.2×0.35 in (138×56×9 mm) and weighing 2.5 oz (70g). It retailed for around $150 (GB£79). By the end of the decade, similar calculators were priced less than $10 (GB£5). LED redirects here. ...
The Sinclair Executive was Clive Sinclairs first venture into the pocket calculator market. ...
GBP redirects here. ...
The first Soviet-made pocket-sized calculator, the "Elektronika B3-04" was developed by the end of 1973 and sold at the beginning of 1974.
One of the first low-cost calculators was the Sinclair Cambridge, launched in August 1973. It retailed for £29.95, or some £5 less in kit form. The Sinclair calculators were successful because they were far cheaper than the competition; however, their design was flawed and their accuracy in some functions was questionable. The scientific programmable models were particularly poor in this respect, with the programmability coming at a heavy price in transcendental accuracy. Sinclair Cambridge with its case (on 5cm squares) The Sinclair Cambridge calculator was a 4-function, pocket-sized calculator manufactured by Sinclair Research Ltd. ...
GBP redirects here. ...
Transcendental in philosophical contexts In philosop
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