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BCD calculators
11-04-2020, 12:41 AM
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BCD calculators
Hello all, first post here. By the way they handle arithmetic, physical calculators can (maybe?) be classified in broadly three groups:

  1. Hardware based BCD
  2. Software based BCD* (emulation)
  3. All binary arithmetic (converting only to decimal for display)

* although I'm not even sure if this is actually implemented, but is a possibility.

Having an ASIC is not something a manufacturer usually conveys in its marketing, but I do appreciate a chip specifically designed to handle math operations in the way *most* humans do math. Some calculator models are known to have a BCD compliant microprocessor. Information on HP models is the easiest to find. Some modern calculators are based on ARM (or similar) processors (which I think excludes them from BCD, as they are basically tiny, power efficient "32bit or 64bit computers"- as in PCs with processors with binary arithmetic). Although they might be fast on benchmarks, they lack the soul of a calculator: as a device specifically engineered to do math fast and with as little resources as possible.

For my tastes, a "real" calculator* should have hardware based BCD. What are your thoughts on this? Does anyone know of any source that gives information on calculators falling in one of these groups? (there is at least one page with information on processors used for models but you would have to then investigate this chip and even if you find information about it, non technical users like me would most likely won't find anything useful in layman's terms.)
* by real I mean a device that is specifically designed to handle and give us answers in the language we are most familiar with: decimal.

I would love to know if modern calculators are still being made with ASICs instead of the ever present 32-bit or 64-bit general purpose processors.
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Messages In This Thread
BCD calculators - neyuru - 11-04-2020 12:41 AM
RE: BCD calculators - Claudio L. - 11-04-2020, 04:01 PM
RE: BCD calculators - Wes Loewer - 11-04-2020, 04:22 PM
RE: BCD calculators - firai - 11-05-2020, 03:34 PM
RE: BCD calculators - Claudio L. - 11-18-2020, 09:08 PM
RE: BCD calculators - jte - 08-19-2021, 12:04 AM
RE: BCD calculators - jte - 08-19-2021, 12:36 AM
RE: BCD calculators - Paul Dale - 08-19-2021, 02:05 AM
RE: BCD calculators - jte - 08-25-2021, 12:26 AM
RE: BCD calculators - Paul Dale - 08-25-2021, 05:03 AM



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