A push-button (also spelled pushbutton ) or simply button is a simple switch mechanism to control some aspect of a machine or a process . Buttons are typically made out of hard material, usually plastic or metal . The surface is usually flat or shaped to accommodate the human finger or hand, so as to be easily depressed or pushed. Buttons are most often biased switches , although many un-biased buttons (due to their physical nature) still require a spring to return to their un-pushed state.
60-564: The HP-22 was a finance-oriented pocket calculator produced by Hewlett-Packard between 1975 and 1978. It was designed as a replacement for the short-lived HP-70 , and was one of a set of three calculators, the others being the HP-21 and HP-25 , which were similarly built but aimed at different markets. As with most HP calculators then and now, the HP-25 used RPN entry logic, with a four-level stack. It also had ten user-accessible memory registers. As
120-407: A button can perform multi-function working with key combinations . Calculators usually have liquid-crystal displays (LCD) as output in place of historical light-emitting diode (LED) displays and vacuum fluorescent displays (VFD); details are provided in the section Technical improvements . Large-sized figures are often used to improve readability; while using decimal separator (usually
180-399: A calculator could be made using just a few chips of low power consumption, allowing portable models powered from rechargeable batteries. The first handheld calculator was a 1967 prototype called Cal Tech , whose development was led by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments in a research project to produce a portable calculator. It could add, multiply, subtract, and divide, and its output device
240-669: A development from the "Cal-Tech" project. It had no traditional display; numerical output was on thermal paper tape. 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 1.59 pounds (721 grams), had a vacuum fluorescent display , rechargeable NiCad batteries, and initially sold for US$ 395. However, integrated circuit development efforts culminated in early 1971 with
300-588: A full single chip calculator IC for the Monroe Royal Digital III calculator. Pico was a spinout by five GI design engineers whose vision was to create single chip calculator ICs. Pico and GI went on to have significant success in the burgeoning handheld calculator market. The first truly pocket-sized electronic calculator was the Busicom LE-120A "HANDY", which was marketed early in 1971. Made in Japan, this
360-406: A mechanical linkage so that the act of pushing one button causes the other button to be released. In this way, a stop button can "force" a start button to be released. This method of linkage is used in simple manual operations in which the machine or process has no electrical circuits for control. Red pushbuttons can also have large heads (called mushroom heads) for easy operation and to facilitate
420-409: A pilot light is commonly added to draw the attention of the user and to provide feedback if the button is pushed. Typically this light is included into the center of the pushbutton and a lens replaces the pushbutton hard center disk. The source of the energy to illuminate the light is not directly tied to the contacts on the back of the pushbutton but to the action the pushbutton controls. In this way
480-485: A pocket calculator. Launched in early 1972, it was unlike the other basic four-function pocket calculators then available in that it was the first pocket calculator with scientific functions that could replace a slide rule . The $ 395 HP-35 , along with nearly all later HP engineering calculators, uses reverse Polish notation (RPN), also called postfix notation. A calculation like "8 plus 5" is, using RPN, performed by pressing 8 , Enter↑ , 5 , and + ; instead of
540-428: A point rather than a comma ) instead of or in addition to vulgar fractions . Various symbols for function commands may also be shown on the display. Fractions such as 1 ⁄ 3 are displayed as decimal approximations , for example rounded to 0.33333333 . Also, some fractions (such as 1 ⁄ 7 , which is 0.14285714285714 ; to 14 significant figures ) can be difficult to recognize in decimal form; as
600-437: A result, many scientific calculators are able to work in vulgar fractions or mixed numbers . Calculators also have the ability to save numbers into computer memory . Basic calculators usually store only one number at a time; more specific types are able to store many numbers represented in variables . Usually these variables are named ans or ans(0). The variables can also be used for constructing formulas . Some models have
660-420: A series of separate identical seven-segment displays to build a metering circuit, for example. If the numeric quantity were stored and manipulated as pure binary, interfacing to such a display would require complex circuitry. Therefore, in cases where the calculations are relatively simple, working throughout with BCD can lead to a simpler overall system than converting to and from binary. (For example, CDs keep
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#1732875810869720-461: A start button when pushed will cause the process or machine operation to be started and a secondary contact designed into the operation or process will close to turn on the pilot light and signify the action of pushing the button caused the resultant process or action to start. To avoid an operator from pushing the wrong button in error , pushbuttons are often color-coded to associate them with their function. Commonly used colors are red for stopping
780-419: Is common in electronic systems where a numeric value is to be displayed, especially in systems consisting solely of digital logic, and not containing a microprocessor. By employing BCD, the manipulation of numerical data for display can be greatly simplified by treating each digit as a separate single sub-circuit. This matches much more closely the physical reality of display hardware—a designer might choose to use
840-467: Is needed to fit all the desired functions in the limited memory space available in the calculator chip , with acceptable calculation time. The first known tools used to aid arithmetic calculations were: bones (used to tally items), pebbles, and counting boards , and the abacus , known to have been used by Sumerians and Egyptians before 2000 BC. Except for the Antikythera mechanism (an "out of
900-405: Is notably different from the layout of telephone Touch-Tone keypads which have the 1 - 2 - 3 keys on top and 7 - 8 - 9 keys on the third row. In general, a basic electronic calculator consists of the following components: Clock rate of a processor chip refers to the frequency at which the central processing unit (CPU) is running. It is used as an indicator of
960-598: Is the first calculator in the world which includes the square root function. Later that same year were released the ELKA 22 (with a luminescent display) and the ELKA 25, with an built-in printer. Several other models were developed until the first pocket model, the ELKA 101 , was released in 1974. The writing on it was in Roman script , and it was exported to western countries. The first desktop programmable calculators were produced in
1020-655: Is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations , ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics . The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized devices became available in the 1970s, especially after the Intel 4004 , the first microprocessor , was developed by Intel for the Japanese calculator company Busicom . Modern electronic calculators vary from cheap, give-away, credit-card-sized models to sturdy desktop models with built-in printers. They became popular in
1080-507: The ANITA was superseded in June 1963 by the U.S. manufactured Friden EC-130, which had an all-transistor design, a stack of four 13-digit numbers displayed on a 5-inch (13 cm) cathode-ray tube (CRT), and introduced Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) to the calculator market for a price of $ 2200, which was about three times the cost of an electromechanical calculator of the time. Like Bell Punch, Friden
1140-590: The Autumn of 1971, with four functions and an eight-digit red LED display, for US$ 240 , while in August 1972 the four-function Sinclair Executive became the first slimline pocket calculator measuring 5.4 by 2.2 by 0.35 inches (137.2 mm × 55.9 mm × 8.9 mm) and weighing 2.5 ounces (71 g). It retailed for around £79 ( US$ 194 at the time). By the end of the decade, similar calculators were priced less than £5 ($ 6.85). Following protracted development over
1200-687: 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. 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. The ANITA weighed roughly 33 pounds (15 kg) due to its large tube system. Bell Punch had been producing key-driven mechanical calculators of
1260-611: The ability to do computer algebra . Graphing calculators can be used to graph functions defined on the real line, or higher-dimensional Euclidean space . As of 2016 , basic calculators cost little, but scientific and graphing models tend to cost more. Computer operating systems as far back as early Unix have included interactive calculator programs such as dc and hoc , and interactive BASIC could be used to do calculations on most 1970s and 1980s home computers. Calculator functions are included in most smartphones , tablets , and personal digital assistant (PDA) type devices. With
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#17328758108691320-493: The ability to extend memory capacity to store more numbers; the extended memory address is termed an array index. Power sources of calculators are batteries , solar cells or mains electricity (for old models), turning on with a switch or button. Some models even have no turn-off button but they provide some way to put off (for example, leaving no operation for a moment, covering solar cell exposure, or closing their lid ). Crank -powered calculators were also common in
1380-413: The adding machine as a means of completing this operation. There is a debate about whether Pascal or Shickard should be credited as the known inventor of a calculating machine due to the differences (like the different aims) of both inventions. Schickard and Pascal were followed by Gottfried Leibniz who spent forty years designing a four-operation mechanical calculator, the stepped reckoner , inventing in
1440-552: The algebraic infix notation : 8 , + , 5 , = . It had 35 buttons and was based on Mostek Mk6020 chip. The first Soviet scientific pocket-sized calculator the "B3-18" was completed by the end of 1975. In 1973, Texas Instruments (TI) introduced the SR-10 , ( SR signifying slide rule ) an algebraic entry pocket calculator using scientific notation for $ 150. Shortly after the SR-11 featured an added key for entering pi (π). It
1500-577: The beginning or end of periods. It had a 12-digit LED display. A shift key provided access to functions whose legends were printed on the faceplate above the corresponding keys. Its HP development codename was Turnip , and it was a member of the Woodstock series. Its US price was $ 165 in 1975, $ 125 in 1978. A version adapted to support an additional backward-facing display manufactured by Educational Calculator Devices named EduCALC 22 GD existed as well. Calculator An electronic calculator
1560-415: 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 tube technology of
1620-524: The course of two years including a botched partnership with Texas Instruments, Eldorado Electrodata released five pocket calculators in 1972. One called the Touch Magic was "no bigger than a pack of cigarettes" according to Administrative Management . The first Soviet Union made pocket-sized calculator, the Elektronika B3-04 was developed by the end of 1973 and sold at the start of 1974. One of
1680-428: The early computer era. The following keys are common to most pocket calculators. While the arrangement of the digits is standard, the positions of other keys vary from model to model; the illustration is an example. The arrangement of digits on calculator and other numeric keypads with the 7 - 8 - 9 keys two rows above the 1 - 2 - 3 keys is derived from calculators and cash registers . It
1740-493: The eve of the industrial revolution made large scale production of more compact and modern units possible. The Arithmometer , invented in 1820 as a four-operation mechanical calculator, was released to production in 1851 as an adding machine and became the first commercially successful unit; forty years later, by 1890, about 2,500 arithmometers had been sold plus a few hundreds more from two arithmometer clone makers (Burkhardt, Germany, 1878 and Layton, UK, 1883) and Felt and Tarrant,
1800-486: The fighter pilots are alerted and " scrambled " to their planes to defend the base. Push buttons were invented sometime in the late 19th century, certainly no later than 1880. The name came from the French word bouton (something that sticks out), rather than from the kind of buttons used on clothing. The initial public reaction was curiosity mixed with fear, some of which was due to widespread fear of electricity, which
1860-463: The first Japanese one) was the Casio (AL-1000) produced in 1967. It featured a nixie tubes display and had transistor electronics and ferrite core memory. 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 could be programmed to perform many computer-like functions. However, the only branch instruction
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1920-483: The first direct multiplication machine in 1834: this was also the second key-driven machine in the world, following that of James White (1822). It was not until the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution that real developments began to occur. Although machines capable of performing all four arithmetic functions existed prior to the 19th century, the refinement of manufacturing and fabrication processes during
1980-552: The first low-cost calculators was the Sinclair Cambridge , launched in August 1973. It retailed for £29.95 ($ 41.03), or £5 ($ 6.85) less in kit form, and later models included some scientific functions. The Sinclair calculators were successful because they were far cheaper than the competition; however, their design led to slow and less accurate computations of transcendental functions (maximum three decimal places of accuracy). Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard (HP) had been developing
2040-603: The introduction of the first "calculator on a chip", the MK6010 by Mostek , followed by Texas Instruments later in the year. Although these early hand-held calculators were very costly, these advances in electronics, together with developments in display technology (such as the vacuum fluorescent display , LED , and LCD ), led within a few years to the cheap pocket calculator available to all. In 1971, Pico Electronics and General Instrument also introduced their first collaboration in ICs,
2100-547: The logic circuits, appeared in the 1940s and 1950s. Electronic circuits developed for computers also had application to electronic calculators. The Casio Computer Company, in Japan , released the Model 14-A calculator in 1957, which was the world's first all-electric (relatively) compact calculator. It did not use electronic logic but was based on relay technology, and was built into a desk. The IBM 608 plugboard programmable calculator
2160-473: The machine or process and green for starting the machine or process. In popular culture , the phrase "the button" (sometimes capitalized) refers to a (usually fictional) button that a military or government leader could press to launch nuclear weapons . Akin to fire alarm switches, some big red buttons, when deployed with suitable visual and audible warnings such as flashing lights and sirens for extreme exigent emergencies, are known as "scram switches" (from
2220-619: The mid-1960s. They included the Mathatronics Mathatron (1964) and the Olivetti Programma 101 (late 1965) which were solid-state, desktop, printing, floating point, algebraic entry, programmable, stored-program electronic calculators. Both could be programmed by the end user and print out their results. The Programma 101 saw much wider distribution and had the added feature of offline storage of programs via magnetic cards. Another early programmable desktop calculator (and maybe
2280-461: The mid-1970s as the incorporation of integrated circuits reduced their size and cost. By the end of that decade, prices had dropped to the point where a basic calculator was affordable to most and they became common in schools. In addition to general purpose calculators, there are those designed for specific markets. For example, there are scientific calculators , which include trigonometric and statistical calculations. Some calculators even have
2340-695: The only other competitor in true commercial production, had sold 100 comptometers . It wasn't until 1902 that the familiar push-button user interface was developed, with the introduction of the Dalton Adding Machine, developed by James L. Dalton in the United States . In 1921, Edith Clarke invented the "Clarke calculator", a simple graph-based calculator for solving line equations involving hyperbolic functions. This allowed electrical engineers to simplify calculations for inductance and capacitance in power transmission lines . The Curta calculator
2400-422: The power grid, was released at the start of the 1970s. 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
2460-421: The process his leibniz wheel , but who couldn't design a fully operational machine. There were also five unsuccessful attempts to design a calculating clock in the 17th century. The 18th century saw the arrival of some notable improvements, first by Poleni with the first fully functional calculating clock and four-operation machine, but these machines were almost always one of a kind . Luigi Torchi invented
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2520-631: The processor's speed, and is measured in clock cycles per second or hertz (Hz) . For basic calculators, the speed can vary from a few hundred hertz to the kilohertz range. A basic explanation as to how calculations are performed in a simple four-function calculator: To perform the calculation 25 + 9 , one presses keys in the following sequence on most calculators: 2 5 + 9 = . Other functions are usually performed using repeated additions or subtractions. Most pocket calculators do all their calculations in binary-coded decimal (BCD) rather than binary. BCD
2580-603: The same time). The Victor 3900 was the first to use integrated circuits in place of individual transistors , but production problems delayed sales until 1966. 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 , which were cheaper than silicon transistors , on multiple circuit boards. Display types used were CRT, cold-cathode Nixie tubes , and filament lamps . Memory technology
2640-458: The slang term scram , "get out of here"). Generally, such buttons are connected to large scale functions, beyond a regular fire alarm, such as automated shutdown procedures, complete facility power cut, fire suppression like halon release, etc. A variant of this is the scramble switch which triggers an alarm to activate emergent personnel to proactively attend to and go to such disasters. An air raid siren at an air base initiates such action, where
2700-424: The stopping of a machine. These pushbuttons are called emergency stop buttons and for increased safety are mandated by the electrical code in many jurisdictions. This large mushroom shape can also be found in buttons for use with operators who need to wear gloves for their work and could not actuate a regular flush-mounted push button. As an aid for operators and users in industrial or commercial applications,
2760-403: The time" astronomical device), development of computing tools arrived near the start of the 17th century: the geometric-military compass (by Galileo ), logarithms and Napier bones (by Napier ), and the slide rule (by Edmund Gunter ). The Renaissance saw the invention of the mechanical calculator by Wilhelm Schickard in 1623, and later by Blaise Pascal in 1642. A device that
2820-735: The track number in BCD, limiting them to 99 tracks.) The same argument applies when hardware of this type uses an embedded microcontroller or other small processor. Often, smaller code results when representing numbers internally in BCD format, since a conversion from or to binary representation can be expensive on such limited processors. For these applications, some small processors feature BCD arithmetic modes, which assist when writing routines that manipulate BCD quantities. Where calculators have added functions (such as square root, or trigonometric functions ), software algorithms are required to produce high precision results. Sometimes significant design effort
2880-643: The very wide availability of smartphones and the like, dedicated hardware calculators, while still widely used, are less common than they once were. In 1986, calculators still represented an estimated 41% of the world's general-purpose hardware capacity to compute information. By 2007, this had diminished to less than 0.05%. Electronic calculators contain a keyboard with buttons for digits and arithmetical operations; some even contain "00" and "000" buttons to make larger or smaller numbers easier to enter. Most basic calculators assign only one digit or operation on each button; however, in more specific calculators,
2940-616: Was IBM's first all-transistor product, released in 1957; this was a console type system, with input and output on punched cards, and replaced the earlier, larger, vacuum-tube IBM 603 . In October 1961, the world's first all-electronic desktop calculator, the British Bell Punch /Sumlock Comptometer ANITA ( A N ew I nspiration T o A rithmetic/ A ccounting) was announced. This machine used vacuum tubes , cold-cathode tubes and Dekatrons in its circuits, with 12 cold-cathode "Nixie" tubes for its display. Two models were displayed,
3000-571: Was a manufacturer of mechanical calculators that had decided that the future lay in electronics. In 1964 more all-transistor electronic calculators were introduced: Sharp introduced the CS-10A , which weighed 25 kilograms (55 lb) and cost 500,000 yen ($ 4555.81), 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
3060-568: Was a paper tape. As a result of the "Cal-Tech" project, Texas Instruments was granted master patents on portable calculators. The first commercially produced 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
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#17328758108693120-541: 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 4.9 by 2.8 by 0.9 inches (124 mm × 71 mm × 23 mm). The first European-made pocket-sized calculator, DB 800
3180-419: 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 first Soviet programmable desktop calculator ISKRA 123 , powered by
3240-436: Was at times somewhat over-promoted as being able to perform all four arithmetic operations with minimal human intervention. Pascal's calculator could add and subtract two numbers directly and thus, if the tedium could be borne, multiply and divide by repetition. Schickard's machine, constructed several decades earlier, used a clever set of mechanised multiplication tables to ease the process of multiplication and division with
3300-470: Was developed in 1948 and, although costly, became popular for its portability. This purely mechanical hand-held device could do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. By the early 1970s electronic pocket calculators ended manufacture of mechanical calculators, although the Curta remains a popular collectable item. The first mainframe computers, initially using vacuum tubes and later transistors in
3360-674: Was followed the next year by the SR-50 which added log and trig functions to compete with the HP-35, and in 1977 the mass-marketed TI-30 line which is still produced. Push-button Terms for the "pushing" of a button include pressing , depressing , mashing , slapping , hitting , and punching . The "push-button" has been utilized in calculators , push-button telephones , kitchen appliances , and various other mechanical and electronic devices, home and commercial. In industrial and commercial applications, push buttons can be connected together by
3420-581: Was made in May 1971 by Digitron in Buje , Croatia (former Yugoslavia ) with four functions and an eight-digit display and special characters for a negative number and a warning that the calculation has too many digits to display. The first American-made pocket-sized calculator, the Bowmar 901B (popularly termed The Bowmar Brain ), measuring 5.2 by 3.0 by 1.5 inches (132 mm × 76 mm × 38 mm), came out in
3480-492: Was normal at the time, memory was not preserved on power-down. Its principal functions were (1) time value of money (TVM) calculations, where the user could enter any three of the variables and the fourth would be calculated, and (2) statistics calculations, including linear regression . Basic logarithmic and exponential functions were also provided. For TVM calculations, a physical slider switch labelled "begin" and "end" could be used to specify whether payments would be applied at
3540-608: 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 renamed Sharp Corporation ) with North-American Rockwell Microelectronics (later renamed Rockwell International ), Busicom with Mostek and Intel , and General Instrument with Sanyo . By 1970,
3600-744: Was usually based on the delay-line memory or the magnetic-core memory , though the Toshiba "Toscal" BC-1411 appears to have used an early form of dynamic RAM built from discrete components. Already there was a desire for smaller and less power-hungry machines. Bulgaria's ELKA 6521 , introduced in 1965, was developed by the Central Institute for Calculation Technologies and built at the Elektronika factory in Sofia . The name derives from EL ektronen KA lkulator , and it weighed around 8 kg (18 lb). It
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