A vacuum fluorescent display ( VFD ) is a display device once commonly used on consumer electronics equipment such as video cassette recorders , car radios , and microwave ovens .
81-572: TI-15 Explorer is a calculator designed by Texas Instruments , intended for use in classes from grades 3-5. It is the successor to the TI-12 Math Explorer . For younger students, TI recommends the use of the TI-108 . For older students, TI recommends the use of the TI-73 Explorer . Features include a 2-line pixel display (as opposed to the 7-segment display of several other calculators), and
162-522: A hot cathode ( filaments ), grids and anodes ( phosphor ) encased in a glass envelope under a high vacuum condition. The cathode is made up of fine tungsten wires , coated by alkaline earth metal oxides (barium, strontium and calcium oxides ), which emit electrons when heated to 650 °C by an electric current. These electrons are controlled and diffused by the grids (made using photochemical machining ), which are made up of thin (50 micron thick) stainless steel. If electrons impinge on
243-462: A CRT. The insulating layer in a VFD is normally black, however it can be removed or made transparent to allow the display to be transparent. AMVFD displays that incorporate a driver IC are available for applications that require high image brightness and an increased number of pixels. Phosphors of different colors can be stacked on top of each other for achieving gradations and various color combinations. Hybrid VFDs include both fixed display segments and
324-407: 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
405-399: 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
486-669: 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
567-588: 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
648-451: A graphic VFD in the same unit. VFDs may have display segments, grids and related circuitry on their front and rear glass panels, using a central cathode for both panels, allowing for increased segment density. The segments can also be placed exclusively on the front instead of on the back, improving viewing angles and brightness. Besides brightness, VFDs have the advantages of being rugged, inexpensive, and easily configured to display
729-421: A marked advantage over fixed-color, fixed-character VFDs. This is one of the main reasons for the decline in popularity of VFDs, although they continue to be made. Many low-cost DVD players still feature VFDs. From the mid-1980s onwards, VFDs were used for applications requiring smaller displays with high brightness specifications, though now the adoption of high-brightness organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)
810-401: A matrix of alkaline earth and very small amounts of group III metals, doped with very small amounts of rare earth metals. VFDs can display seven-segment numerals, multi-segment alpha-numeric characters or can be made in a dot-matrix to display different alphanumeric characters and symbols. In practice, there is little limit to the shape of the image that can be displayed: it depends solely on
891-485: 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
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#1733084893505972-428: 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
1053-402: A positive potential. The microprocessor cycles through illuminating the digits in this way at a rate high enough to create the illusion of all digits glowing at once via persistence of vision . The extra indicators (in our example, "VCR", "Hi-Fi", "STEREO", "SAP", etc.) are arranged as if they were segments of an additional digit or two or extra segments of existing digits and are scanned using
1134-528: A quiz-like " problem-solving " mode. It also supports limited scientific capabilities , such as parentheses, fixed decimal, fractions, pi , and exponents. It is recommended by Everyday Mathematics. This electronics-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations , ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics . The first solid-state electronic calculator
1215-437: 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
1296-420: 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
1377-407: A significant drawback for battery-operated equipment like calculators, so VFDs ended up being used mainly in equipment powered by an AC supply or heavy-duty rechargeable batteries. During the 1980s, this display began to be used in automobiles, especially where car makers were experimenting with digital displays for vehicle instruments such as speedometers and odometers. A good example of these were
1458-489: A vacuum tube triode . Electrons can only reach (and "illuminate") a given plate element if both the grid and the plate are at a positive potential with respect to the cathode. This allows the displays to be organized as multiplexed displays where the multiple grids and plates form a matrix, minimizing the number of signal pins required. In the example of the VCR display shown to the right, the grids are arranged so that only one digit
1539-405: A wide variety of customized messages, and unlike LCDs, VFDs are not limited by the response time of rearranging liquid crystals and are thus able to function normally in cold, even sub-zero, temperatures, making them ideal for outdoor devices in cold climates. Early on, the main disadvantage of such displays was their use of significantly more power (0.2 watts ) than a simple LCD. This was considered
1620-488: Is bombarded by electrons emitted from the cathode filament . In fact, each tube in a VFD is a triode vacuum tube because it also has a mesh control grid. Unlike liquid crystal displays (LCDs), a VFD emits very bright light with high contrast and can support display elements of various colors. Standard illumination figures for VFDs are around 640 cd/m with high-brightness VFDs operating at 4,000 cd/m , and experimental units as high as 35,000 cd/m depending on
1701-419: 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
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#17330848935051782-424: Is illuminated at a time. All of the similar plates in all of the digits (for example, all of the lower-left plates in all of the digits) are connected in parallel. One by one, the microprocessor driving the display enables a digit by placing a positive voltage on that digit's grid and then placing a positive voltage on the appropriate plates. Electrons flow through that digit's grid and strike those plates that are at
1863-467: 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
1944-405: 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
2025-511: Is pushing VFDs out of these markets. Vacuum fluorescent displays were once commonly used as floor indicators for elevators by Otis Elevator Company worldwide and Montgomery Elevator Company in North America (the former from the early 1980s to the late-2000s in the form of (usually two) green 16-segment displays , and the latter from the mid 1980s to the early 2000s in the form of (usually 3) green or blue 10x14 dot-matrix displays , one for
2106-496: Is sometimes a problem with VFDs. Light output drops over time due to falling emission and reduction of phosphor efficiency. How quickly and how far this falls depends on the construction and operation of the VFD. In some equipment, loss of VFD output can render the equipment inoperable. Fading can be slowed by using a display driver chip to lower the voltages necessary to drive a VFD. Fading can also occur due to evaporation and contamination of
2187-598: 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
2268-425: Is then partially etched to create holes which are then filled with a conductor like graphite , which in turn is coated with phosphor. This transfers energy from the trace to the segment. The shape of the phosphor will determine the shape of the VFD's segments. The most widely used phosphor is Zinc-doped copper-activated Zinc oxide , which generates light at a peak wavelength of 505 nm. The cathode wire to which
2349-507: 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
2430-590: 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
2511-687: 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
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2592-577: The VFD was the first to be developed. VFD and LED displays were used in early handheld calculators. LED displays were an alternative to VFDs in this use as they had simpler power requirements, not requiring the high voltages. Choice of display technology varied through commercial decisions by the manufacturer, with companies such as Casio, Canon & Sharp dropping LED displays in preference to VFDs and early LCDs, whereas Texas Instruments and Hewlett Packard, both manufacturers of LED displays, continued with LED technology for much longer. Later, once LCD technology
2673-493: 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
2754-413: 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
2835-552: 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
2916-480: The arrow and the other two for the digits). In addition to the widely used fixed character VFD, a graphic type made of an array of individually addressable pixels is also available. These more sophisticated displays offer the flexibility of displaying arbitrary images, and may still be a useful choice for some types of consumer equipment. Multiplexing may be used in VFDs to reduce the number of connections necessary to drive
2997-569: The case using Nixie tubes or Panaplex neon digits or for LED displays on pocket calculators. In the UK the Philips designs were made and marketed by Mullard (almost wholly owned by Philips even before WWII). The Russian IV-15 VFD tube is very similar to the DM160. The DM160, DM70/DM71 and Russian IV-15 can (like a VFD panel) be used as triodes . The DM160 is thus the smallest VFD and smallest triode valve. The IV-15
3078-441: The cathode. Phosphors that contain sulfur are more susceptible to fading. Emission may usually be restored by raising filament voltage. Thirty-three percent voltage boost can rectify moderate fade, and 66% boost severe fade. This can make the filaments visible in use, though the usual green-blue VFD filter helps reduce any such red or orange light from the filament. Of the three prevalent display technologies – VFD, LCD, and LED –
3159-466: The color of the (usually light blue) light emitted by the phosphors. High power consumption and high manufacturing cost contributed to the demise of the VFD as a videogame display. LCD games could be manufactured for a fraction of the price, did not require frequent changes of batteries (or AC adapters) and were much more portable. Since the late 1990s, backlit color active-matrix LCD displays have been able to cheaply reproduce arbitrary images in any color,
3240-415: 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
3321-524: 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
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3402-508: The display. Several radio amateurs have experimented with the possibilities of using VFDs as triode amplifiers . In 2015, Korg released the Nutube , an analogue audio amplifier component based on VFD technology. The Nutube is used in applications such as guitar amplifiers from Vox and the Apex Sangaku headphone amplifier. The Nutube is sold by Korg but made by Noritake Itron. Fading
3483-477: The drive voltage and its timing. The choice of color (which determines the nature of the phosphor) and display brightness significantly affect the lifetime of the tubes, which can range from as low as 1,500 hours for a vivid red VFD to 30,000 hours for the more common green ones. Cadmium was commonly used in the phosphors of VFDs in the past, but the current RoHS -compliant VFDs have eliminated this metal from their construction, using instead phosphors consisting of
3564-428: 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
3645-472: 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 the ability to do computer algebra . Graphing calculators can be used to graph functions defined on
3726-493: 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,
3807-463: 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
3888-483: 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
3969-552: 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
4050-444: The high-end Subaru cars made in the early 1980s (referred to by Subaru enthusiasts as a digi-dash , or digital dashboard ). The brightness of VFDs makes them well suited for use in cars. The Renault Espace Mk4 and Scenic Mk2 used VFD panels to show all functions on the dashboard including the radio and multi message panel. They are bright enough to read in full sunlight as well as dimmable for use at night. This panel uses four colors;
4131-603: 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,
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#17330848935054212-547: 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
4293-619: 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
4374-695: 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
4455-403: The oxides are applied is made of tungsten or ruthenium-tungsten alloy. The oxides in the cathodes are not stable in air, so they are applied to the cathode as carbonates, the cathodes are assembled into the VFD, and the cathodes are heated by passing a current through them while inside the vacuum of the VFD to convert the carbonates into oxides. The principle of operation is identical to that of
4536-407: The phosphor-coated anode plates, they fluoresce , emitting light. Unlike the orange-glowing cathodes of traditional vacuum tubes, VFD cathodes are efficient emitters at much lower temperatures, and are therefore essentially invisible. The anode consists of a glass plate with electrically conductive traces (each trace is connected to a single indicator segment), which is coated with an insulator, which
4617-422: 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
4698-421: 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
4779-631: 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
4860-508: 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
4941-562: The same multiplexed strategy as the real digits. Some of these extra indicators may use a phosphor that emits a different color of light, for example, orange. The light emitted by most VFDs contains many colors and can often be filtered to enhance the color saturation providing a deep green or deep blue, depending on the whims of the product's designers. Phosphors used in VFDs are different from those in cathode-ray displays since they must emit acceptable brightness with only around 50 volts of electron energy, compared to several thousand volts in
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#17330848935055022-603: 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
5103-404: The shape of phosphor on the anode(s). The first VFD was the single indication DM160 by Philips in 1959. The first multi-segment VFD was a 1967 Japanese single-digit, seven-segment device made by Ise Electronics Corporation. The displays became common on calculators and other consumer electronics devices. In the late 1980s hundreds of millions of units were made yearly. The device consists of
5184-403: 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
5265-735: 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
5346-517: The usual blue/green as well as deep blue, red and yellow/orange. This technology was also used from 1979 to the mid-1980s in portable electronic game units. These games featured bright, clear displays but the size of the largest vacuum tubes that could be manufactured inexpensively kept the size of the displays quite small, often requiring the use of magnifying Fresnel lenses . While later games had sophisticated multi-color displays, early games achieved color effects using transparent filters to change
5427-643: 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,
5508-616: 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,
5589-571: 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
5670-568: 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
5751-541: 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
5832-419: 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
5913-436: 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
5994-565: 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 the mid-1970s as the incorporation of integrated circuits reduced their size and cost. By
6075-470: 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
6156-504: 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. Vacuum fluorescent display A VFD operates on the principle of cathodoluminescence , roughly similar to a cathode-ray tube , but operating at much lower voltages. Each tube in a VFD has a phosphor -coated carbon anode that
6237-581: 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
6318-608: 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,
6399-547: Was the single indication DM160 by Philips in 1959. It could easily be driven by transistors, so was aimed at computer applications as it was easier to drive than a neon and had longer life than a light bulb. The 1967 Japanese single digit seven segment display in terms of anode was more like the Philips DM70 / DM71 Magic Eye as the DM160 has a spiral wire anode. The Japanese seven segment VFD meant that no patent royalties needed to be paid on desk calculator displays as would have been
6480-744: 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
6561-412: Was well established, it displaced LED displays and VFDs in handheld calculators, offering lower power requirements at lower cost. More recently, outside the education sector, calculator applications on mobile phones have for many replaced the pocket calculator, and there is progression from LED backlit LCDs back to full LED displays in the form of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays. The first VFD
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