Intel Edison generic calculator shield photo journal

[BarryMead]

(03-25-2015 01:59 AM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:  

(03-23-2015 08:29 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote:  The Edison is a nice little module . . . [but] I don't think it is particularly well suited for a calculator, even a high-tech one.

I'm sorry Matthias, but you have GOT to be kidding?

(03-23-2015 08:29 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote:  While multi-threading is nice and some algorithms can profit from it, it is hardly essential in a calculator to require hardware support for it.

Nope, you're not kidding. OK, well, what is wrong with normal calculators?

Answer... they don't collaborate well, its difficult to print from them (in normal ways, to normal devices) and they almost never interface well with the outside world, generally speaking.

This Intel Edison will provide the platform for a full featured fully collaborative hand-held calculation platform which is also a mobile print server, mobile web server, mobile database, mobile universal plotter (science lab, you fill in the blank). Not to mention that it is fully multiuser, multitasking, modern operating kernel which is open free and universally standard!

(03-23-2015 08:29 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote:  The Edison provides a compound processor with three cores . . . There are applications, where speed is necessary, but in a calculator?

Of course, in a calculator! What was it that the BORG said to Data, "you think so three dimensionally..."

Picture a scientific calculator that not only does arbitrary precision mathematics, but is also collaborative. As you calculate it is assembling a spread sheet and putting it on the web so that your collaborative team can see it as soon as you calculate it... or picture a calculator that can print to *any* of the office printers, or picture a scientific calculator that has full (science lab) connectivity to *any* sensors you want to throw at it, or can easily be connected to a 2D motorized plotter? Not to mention, you can logon to your new calculator from your PC, or notebook, or phone, or tablet, and talk to it from across the room... I can think of a zillion ways to use this device from presentations to industrial control... all from a scientific calculator!

Here another point... people are going to want this thing, just to play with it! Its gonna be more fun, and more productive, you wait and see...

... or, keep telling me why its a dumb idea and will never work. :-p

Cheers,
marcus

Mark: Matthias wasn't trying to discourage you from using the Intel Edison, merely suggesting that it is significantly more powerful than typical calculator processors. I agree that having more power gives you greater capability to grow the feature set of the device, but with growth in features comes growth in software development and if the calculator were to do all of the things you described including interfacing with spreadsheets, printers, plotters, other collaborating scientists or students, etc, this would require a whole team of software developers and the budget of a large corporation to pull it off. From my reading of his posting he was attempting to match the REQUIRED FEATURES of the WP-43S with the CAPABILITIES of a suitable microcontroller. Everyone knows that more processing power can always be UNUSED, but the cost of keeping it around when you don't need it is power consumption. The way I understood his feedback, he was trying to be helpful in matching the OPTIMUM power consumption (MINIMUM REQUIRED CPU FEATURES) with the workload that would be required of the WP-43S. I know and I think Matthias knows that you can make the calculator work with a faster more capable CPU, but the batteries will not last as long as if you selected a less powerful CPU. There is a "Sweet Spot" with maximum battery life and just enough processor features. I don't think he intended to suggest that it was a "DUMB IDEA" or that it "WON'T WORK". I am only saying how I read his feedback, he may have a different opinion.
Respectfully, Barry