Solar-powered calculatorSolar-powered calculators are hand-held electronic calculators powered by solar cells mounted on the device. They were introduced at the end of the 1970s. Amorphous silicon has been used as a photovoltaic solar cell material for devices which require very little power, such as pocket calculators, because their lower performance compared to conventional crystalline silicon solar cells is more than offset by their lower cost and simplified deposition onto a substrate.
Sector (instrument)The sector, also known as a proportional compass or military compass, was a major calculating instrument in use from the end of the sixteenth century until the nineteenth century. It is an instrument consisting of two rulers of equal length joined by a hinge. A number of scales are inscribed upon the instrument which facilitate various mathematical calculations. It was used for solving problems in proportion, multiplication and division, geometry, and trigonometry, and for computing various mathematical functions, such as square roots and cube roots.
TI-89 seriesThe TI-89 and the TI-89 Titanium are graphing calculators developed by Texas Instruments (TI). They are differentiated from most other TI graphing calculators by their computer algebra system, which allows symbolic manipulation of algebraic expressions—equations can be solved in terms of variables, whereas the TI-83/84 series can only give a numeric result. The TI-89 is a graphing calculator developed by Texas Instruments in 1998. The unit features a 160×100 pixel resolution LCD and a large amount of flash memory, and includes TI's Advanced Mathematics Software.
Adding machineAn adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. In the United States, the earliest adding machines were usually built to read in dollars and cents. Adding machines were ubiquitous office equipment until they were phased out in favor of calculators in the 1970s and by personal computers beginning in about 1985. The older adding machines were rarely seen in American office settings by the year 2000. Blaise Pascal and Wilhelm Schickard were the two original inventors of the mechanical calculator in 1642.
Stepped reckonerThe stepped reckoner or Leibniz calculator was a mechanical calculator invented by the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694. The name comes from the translation of the German term for its operating mechanism, Staffelwalze, meaning "stepped drum". It was the first calculator that could perform all four basic arithmetic operations. Its intricate precision gearwork, however, was somewhat beyond the fabrication technology of the time; mechanical problems, in addition to a design flaw in the carry mechanism, prevented the machines from working reliably.
SuanpanThe suanpan (), also spelled suan pan or souanpan) is an abacus of Chinese origin first described in a 190 CE book of the Eastern Han Dynasty, namely Supplementary Notes on the Art of Figures written by Xu Yue. However, the exact design of this suanpan is not known. Usually, a suanpan is about 20 cm (8 in) tall and it comes in various widths depending on the application. It usually has more than seven rods. There are two beads on each rod in the upper deck and five beads on each rod in the bottom deck.
MostekMostek Corporation was a semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturer, founded in 1969 by L. J. Sevin, Louay E. Sharif, Richard L. Petritz and other ex-employees of Texas Instruments. At its peak in the late 1970s, Mostek held an 85% market share of the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) memory chip market worldwide, until being eclipsed by lower-priced Japanese DRAM manufacturers who were accused of dumping memory on the market. In 1979, soon after its market peak, Mostek was purchased by United Technologies Corporation for .
Mental calculationMental calculation consists of arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from any supplies (such as pencil and paper) or devices such as a calculator. People may use mental calculation when computing tools are not available, when it is faster than other means of calculation (such as conventional educational institution methods), or even in a competitive context. Mental calculation often involves the use of specific techniques devised for specific types of problems.
TI-BASICTI-BASIC is the official name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments (TI)'s graphing calculators. TI-BASIC is a language family of three different and incompatible versions, released on different products: TI-BASIC 83 (on Z80 processor) for TI-83 series, TI-84 Plus series TI-BASIC 89 (on 68k processor) for TI-89 series, TI-92 series, Voyage 200 TI-BASIC Nspire (on ARM processor) for TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire CAS TI rarely refers to the language by name, but the name TI-BASIC has been used in some developer documentation.
CORDICCORDIC (for "coordinate rotation digital computer"), also known as Volder's algorithm, or: Digit-by-digit method Circular CORDIC (Jack E. Volder), Linear CORDIC, Hyperbolic CORDIC (John Stephen Walther), and Generalized Hyperbolic CORDIC (GH CORDIC) (Yuanyong Luo et al.), is a simple and efficient algorithm to calculate trigonometric functions, hyperbolic functions, square roots, multiplications, divisions, and exponentials and logarithms with arbitrary base, typically converging with one digit (or bit) per iteration.
