![]() Microchips use binary logic by turning transistors on and off literally, with electricity. In the next section, we'll look more closely into binary code and how the calculator actually does its job. More powerful scientific and graphing calculators, however, still use battery power. (Something like an LCD calculator would only need a low-level current, which explains why their solar cells are so small.) By the 1980s, most manufacturers of simple calculators were taking advantage of solar cell technology. This knocks loose electrons, and the electric field of the solar cell keeps them all traveling in the same direction, thus creating an electric current. A solar cell creates electricity when the photons of sunlight are absorbed by semiconductors, such as silicon, in the cell. But by the late 1970s, solar cell technology had become cheap and efficient enough to use in consumer electronics. Rather than producing light, LCDs rearrange light molecules to create a pattern on the display and ultimately don't require as much electricity.Įarly calculators also had to be plugged in or used bulky battery power. Newer models that use less power incorporate the liquid crystal display, or LCD. The displays of most early electronic calculators were made up of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes. Many scientific and graphing calculators may be capable of some of these functions: In fact, when Texas Instruments introduced its TI-92 model in 1995, they called it "a calculator with the power of a computer lab". Many use well-known computer languages and are programmable according to the user's needs. Today, in addition to modern versions of the basic pocket calculator, complex scientific and graphing calculators are available and used by both students and professionals such as engineers. Not only did calculators become smaller over the years, they became capable of increasingly advanced applications. This theory is known as " Moore's Law," and so far it still holds true. However, Intel's co-founder, Gordon Moore, predicted that the capacity of a single chip would double about every two years. It was capable of performing basic arithmetic, 4 bits of information at time. created the first commercially available single-chip microprocessor - the Intel 4004 - in 1971. (To learn more about this technology, check out How Microprocessors Work.) Basically, a single-chip microprocessor allows an entire central processing unit (CPU) to exist on one silicon microchip. Before this time, engineers built the computing "brains" of calculators (and computers) with multiple chips or other components. ![]() These continued advancements in calculator technology were largely made possible by the development of the single-chip microprocessor in the late 1960s. Its thickness was that of a pack of cigarettes. In 1972, British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair introduced the Sinclair Executive, which is considered by many to be the world's first affordable pocket calculator. The next few years became something of a race between manufacturers to make calculators smaller, more accessible and less expensive. ![]() Using "Cal Tech" technology, Canon developed the first handheld calculator for commercial use, which debuted in 1970 with a price tag of $400. In 1967, Texas Instruments developed what is known as the first portable, handheld calculator - a device that could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - in a project that the company nicknamed "Cal Tech". This model resembled a cash register and cost about as much as mid-sized car. Japanese company Sharp is said to have created the first desktop calculator, the CS-10A, in 1964. Several electronics companies and inventors may claim a first when it comes to the development of the electronic calculator. However, the modern abacus - which some people still use today in China, Japan and the Middle East - works by moving beads along wires that are strung on a frame. Probably of Babylonian origin, early abaci are believed to have been boards on which the position of counters stood for numerical values. The abacus, for example, is one ancestor of the calculator. In fact, electronic calculators are so widespread now that it's hard to believe they didn't become commonplace until the late 20 th century.īefore the invention of the modern calculator, people used some other tools for computation. ![]() ![]() But these days, it's all but impossible for many people to imagine doing anything involving numbers - from math homework to tax returns to tipping servers in restaurants - without the help of at least a basic pocket calculator. There may have been a time when the most complicated computations people needed to do could be performed on their fingers and toes. ![]()
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