22/09/98)

This article is dedicated to the indispensable assistants in our lives - microcalculators.

The history of the emergence of Soviet microcalculators, their features and interesting capabilities of individual models is described.

THE FIRST COMPUTERS

The first mechanical device in Russia to automate calculations was the abacus.

This “people's calculator” lasted in the workplaces of cashiers in stores until the mid-nineties. It is interesting to note that in the 1986 textbook "Trading Calculations" an entire chapter is devoted to abacus calculation methods.

Along with abacus, in scientific circles, since pre-revolutionary times, slide rules have been successfully used, which since the 17th century have served “faithfully” with virtually no changes until the advent of calculators.
Trying to somehow automate the calculation process, humanity begins to invent mechanical counting devices. Even the famous mathematician Chebyshev proposed his own model of a computer at the end of the 19th century. Unfortunately, the image has not been preserved.

The most popular mechanical calculator in Soviet times was the Odhner Felix system adding machine. On the left is an image of an adding machine, taken from the 1932 edition of the Small Soviet Encyclopedia.
However, over time, turning the handle began to get boring, and the human mind invented electric calculating machines that performed arithmetic operations automatically or semi-automatically. On the right is an image of the VMM-2 multi-key computer, which was popular in the 50s (Commodity Dictionary, Volume VIII, 1960). This model had nine digits and worked up to the 17th order. It had dimensions of 440x330x240 mm and a weight of 23 kilograms.

Still, science took its toll. In the post-war years, electronics began to develop rapidly and the first computers appeared - electronic computers (computers). By the beginning of the 60s, a huge gap had formed in many respects between computers and the most powerful keyboard-based computers, despite the appearance of Soviet relay computers “Vilnius” and “Vyatka” (1961).
But by that time, one of the world's first desktop keyboard computers, which used small-sized semiconductor elements and ferrite cores, had already been designed at Leningrad University. A working prototype of this computer, an electronic keyboard computer, was also made.
In general, it is believed that the first mass-produced electronic calculator appeared in England in 1963. His scheme was made on printed circuit boards and contained several thousand transistors alone. The dimensions of such a calculator were like that of a typewriter, but it only performed arithmetic operations with multi-digit numbers. On the left is the "Electronics" calculator - a typical representative of calculators of this generation.

The distribution of desktop computers began in 1964, when serial production of the Vega computer was mastered in our country and production of desktop computers began in a number of other countries. In 1967, EDVM-11 (electronic ten-key computer) appeared - the first computer in our country that automatically calculated trigonometric functions.

Further development computer technology is inextricably linked with the achievements of microelectronics. At the end of the 50s, the technology for the production of integrated circuits containing groups of interconnected electronic elements was developed, and already in 1961 the first model of a computer based on integrated circuits appeared, which was 48 times less in weight and 150 times less in volume than semiconductor computers that performed the same functions. In 1965, the first computers based on integrated circuits appeared. Around the same time, the first portable computers on LSIs (just introduced into production) with autonomous power supply from built-in batteries appeared. In 1971, the dimensions of computers became “pocket”; in 1972, electronic computers of a scientific and technical type appeared with subroutines for calculating elementary functions, additional memory registers and with the representation of numbers both in natural form and in floating point form in the widest range numbers.
The development of EKVM production in our country went in parallel with its development in other most industrialized countries of the world. In 1970, the first samples of IC-based computers appeared; in 1971, production of machines of the Iskra series began using these elements. In 1972, the first domestic microcomputers based on LSIs began to be produced.

FIRST SOVIET POCKET CALCULATOR

The first Soviet desktop calculators, which appeared in 1971, quickly gained popularity. LSI-based computers worked quietly, consumed little energy, and calculated quickly and accurately. The cost of microcircuits was rapidly decreasing, and one could think about creating a pocket-sized MK, the price of which would be affordable for the general consumer.
In August 1973, the electronics industry of our country set the task of creating an electronic pocket computer on a microprocessor LSI and with a liquid crystal display in one year. A group of 27 people worked on this difficult task.
There was a huge amount of work ahead: making drawings, diagrams, etc. templates consisting of 144 thousand points, place a microprocessor with 3400 elements in a 5x5 mm crystal.

This microcalculator was the first to use a liquid crystal indicator, with the numbers depicted as white characters on a black background (see figure).
The calculator was turned on by pressing the shutter, after which the lid opened and the calculator began to work.
The microcalculator had a very interesting operating algorithm. In order to calculate (20-8+7) it was necessary to press the keys | C | 20 | += | 8 | -= | 7 | += |.
Result: 5. If the result needs to be multiplied, say, by three, then the calculations can be continued by pressing the keys: | X | 3 | += |.

Key | K | used to calculate with a constant.

This calculator used transparent boards with volumetric mounting. The figure shows part of the microcalculator board.
The microcalculator contains four microcircuits - a 23-bit shift register K145AP1, an indicator control device K145PP1, an operational register K145IP2 and a microprocessor K145IP1. The voltage conversion block uses a level conversion chip.

It is interesting to note that this calculator ran on one AA battery (A316 "Kvant", "Uran").

FIRST SOVIET MICRO CALCULATORS

In the early 70s, the language that is familiar today for working with microcalculators was just emerging. The first models of microcalculators could generally have their own operating language, and you had to learn how to count on a calculator. Let's take, for example, the first calculator of the Leningrad plant "Svetlana" of the "C" series. This is a S3-07 calculator. By the way, it is worth noting that the calculators of the Svetlana plant generally stand apart. A small digression. All microcalculators in those days received the general designation “B3” (the number three at the end, and not the letter “Z”, as many believed). Tabletop

Digital Watch
The answer is no less surprising: to perform, say, multiplication of 2 by 3, you need to press the keys | 2 | X-:- | 3 | += |, and to divide 2 by 3, you need to press the keys: | 2 | X-:- | 3 | -= |. Addition and subtraction occurs similarly to the B3-04 calculator, that is, obtaining the difference 2 - 3 will be calculated as follows: | 2 | += | 3 | -= |. In some models of this calculator you can also find an amazing eight-segment indicator.

Starting with this model of calculators, all simple calculators from the Svetlanov plant operate with numbers with orders up to 10e16-1, even if the display fits eight or twelve digits. If the result exceeds 8 or 12 digits (depending on the model), the comma disappears and the first 8 or 12 digits of the number appear on the display.

Speaking about the language of working with microcalculators of the first releases, we should also mention the B3-02, B3-05 and B3-05M calculators. These are milestones of the old Iskra type calculators. In these calculators, during calculations, all indicator digits are constantly lit. Mostly, of course, zeros.

A year after the development of the first pocket microcalculator B3-04, new, more advanced models of pocket microcalculators appeared. These are models B3-09M, B3-14 and B3-14M. These calculators were made on one K145IK2 processor chip and one phase generator chip. The B3-09M calculator is shown on the left; the B3-14M is made in the same case; on the right is the B3-14. These models already had a “standard” language for working on calculators, including calculations with a constant.
These calculators could already operate either from a power supply or from four (B3-09M, B3-14M) or three (B3-14) AA elements.
Although these calculators are made on the same chip, they have different functionality. And in general, “removing” various functions was inherent in many models of Soviet microcalculators. For example, the B3-09M microcalculator did not have a sign for calculating the square root, and the B3-14M did not know how to calculate percentages.
The peculiarity of these simple calculators was that the comma occupied a separate place. This is very convenient for quickly reading information, but the last sign digit disappears. For these same calculators, before starting work, you must press the "C" key to clear the registers.

FIRST SOVIET ENGINEERING MICRO CALCULATOR

The next huge step in the history of the development of microcalculators was the appearance of the first Soviet engineering microcalculator. At the end of 1975, the first engineering microcalculator B3-18 was created in the Soviet Union. As the magazine “Science and Life” 10, 1976 wrote about this in the article “Fantastic Electronics”: “... this calculator crossed the Rubicon of arithmetic, its mathematical education stepped into trigonometry and algebra. “Electronics B3-18” can instantly raise square and extract the square root, raise it to any power within eight digits in two steps, calculate reciprocals, calculate logarithms and antilogarithms, trigonometric functions...", "...when you see how a machine that has just instantly added huge numbers, spends a few seconds to perform some algebraic or trigonometric operation, you can’t help but think about the big work that goes on inside the small box before the result lights up on its indicator.”
And indeed, a huge amount of work has been done.
It was possible to fit 45,000 transistors, resistors, capacitors and conductors into a single crystal measuring 5 x 5.2 mm, that is, fifty televisions of that time were crammed into one cell of an arithmetic notebook! However, the price of such a calculator was considerable - 220 rubles in 1978. For example, an engineer after graduating from college in those days received 120 rubles a month.
But the purchase was worth it. Now you don’t have to think about how not to knock down the slide rule slider, you don’t have to worry about the error, you can throw logarithm tables on the shelf.

By the way, the prefix function key “F” was used for the first time in this calculator. Still, it was not possible to completely fit everything we wanted into the K145IP7 chip of the B3-18 calculator. For example, when calculating functions that used Taylor series expansion, the working register was cleared, resulting in the previous result of the operation being erased. In this regard, it was impossible to perform chain calculations, such as 5 + sin 2. To do this, you first had to get the sine of two, and then only add 5 to the result.

So, a lot of work has been done, a lot of effort has been spent, and the result is a good, but very expensive calculator. To make the calculator accessible to the masses, it was decided to make a cheaper model based on the B3-18A calculator. In order not to reinvent the wheel, our engineers went on their own

the easy way

In 1977, another very powerful engineering calculator appeared - S3-15. This calculator had increased calculation accuracy (up to 12 digits), worked with orders up to 9, (9) to the 99th power, had three memory registers, but most importantly, it worked with algebraic logic. That is, in order to calculate 2 + 3 * 5 using the formula, there was no need to first calculate 3 * 5 and then add 2 to the result. This formula could be written in a “natural” form: | 2 | + | 3 | * | 5 | = |. In addition, the calculator used brackets of up to eight levels. This calculator is also the only calculator that, together with its desktop brother MK-41, has a /p/ key.

This key was used to calculate the formula sqrt (x^2 + y^2).

In 1977, the K145IP11 microcircuit was developed, which spawned a whole series of calculators. The very first of them was the very famous B3-26 calculator (in the picture on the right).

As with the B3-09M, B3-14 and B3-14M calculators, as well as the B3-18A and B3-25A, they did the same with it - some functions were removed.

Based on the B3-26 calculator, the B3-23 calculators with percentages, B3-23A with square roots, and B3-24G with memory were made. By the way, the B3-23A calculator subsequently became the cheapest Soviet calculator with a price of only 18 rubles. The B3-26 soon became known as the MK-26 and its half-brother MK-57 and MK-57A appeared with similar functions. The Svetlanovsky plant also pleased with its model C3-27, which, however, did not catch on, and it was soon replaced by the very popular and cheap model C3-33 (MK-33).
Another direction in the development of microcalculators was the engineering B3-35 (MK-35) and B3-36 (MK-36). The B3-35 differed from the B3-36 in its simpler design and cost five rubles less.
These microcalculators were able to convert degrees to radians and vice versa, multiply and divide numbers in memory.

It was very interesting that these calculators calculated the factorial - by simple search. It took more than five seconds to calculate the maximum factorial value of 69 on the B3-35 microcalculator.

By the way, many pocket engineering calculators have their desktop brothers. These are calculators MK-41 (S3-15), MKSh-2 (B3-30), MK-45 (B3-35, B3-36).

The MKSh-2 calculator is the only “school” calculator produced by our industry, with the exception of large demonstration ones, which will be discussed below.
This calculator, like the B3-32 calculator (in the figure on the left), was able to calculate the roots of a quadratic equation and find the roots of a system of equations with two unknowns. The design of this calculator is completely identical to the B3-14 calculator.
A special feature of the calculator, in addition to those described above, is that all the inscriptions on the keys are made according to foreign standards. For example, the key for writing a number into memory was designated not “P” or “x->P”, but “STO”. Recalling a number from memory - "RCL".

Despite the ability to work with numbers with large orders of magnitude, this calculator used an eight-digit display, the same as in the B3-14. It turned out that if you display a number with a mantissa and an order, then only five significant digits will fit on the indicator. To solve this problem, the "CN" key was used in the microcalculator. If, for example, the result of the calculation was the number 1.2345678e-12, then it was displayed on the indicator as 1.2345-12.

Clicking | F | CN |, we see 12345678 on the indicator. The comma goes out.

Development of a new industry at the peak of the television boom

We are accustomed to using electronic calculators for both personal and business purposes. In 1964, as Japan prepared for the Tokyo Olympics, Sharp again introduced a fundamentally new product - the world's first all-transistor diode electronic calculator.

Proposal from young engineers

A few years earlier, in 1960, sales of televisions and other products had skyrocketed to levels 18 times higher than in 1950—an astonishing achievement over a ten-year period. Some young engineers who have been working in the company for about four or five years, after analyzing advanced technologies, intensively began researching computer and semiconductor technologies. Management accepted their proposals and a new research laboratory was established.

Computers are like an abacus

As in the situation with radio engineering, the development of computers seemed to the development team an almost insurmountable task. But already in 1964, Sharp introduced the world's first all-transistor-diode electronic desktop calculator, the CS-10A. The cost of the calculator was 535,000 yen.

A new sensation unleashes a “war of electronic calculators”

The first all-transistor diode electronic calculator was a high-quality product that could not be confused with an abacus. The speed of calculations and silent operation were sensational. Manufacturers flocked to the industry, where there were soon 33 manufacturing companies offering 210 different models of such devices. This fierce competition has led to what is known as the "electronic calculator war."

Service as the starting point of reorganization

The successful development of an all-transistor diode electronic calculator marked the beginning of Sharp's developments in the field of semiconductors, LCD screens, information systems and communication systems. As a result, the company has become a comprehensive enterprise for the production of electronic equipment. Fierce competition stimulated the development of more inexpensive, compact, and lightweight electronic calculators and ensured intensive development of electronic technology.

In 1965, after the excitement of the Olympic Games, the Japanese economy experienced crisis and recession. The market for the "three sacred treasures" and other products that stimulate the development of the household electrical and electronic devices industry has become saturated. For the subsequent development of sales volume and the market for electronic devices, the company quickly adopted a strategy to overcome this situation.

"Strategy 70" to strengthen the sales network

Sharp's new "Strategy 70" was aimed at strengthening and expanding existing network sales Its goal was to strengthen the network by 1970 through sales in subsidiaries (their sales volume should have been up to 70% of total sales). Individual operations were also carried out, including the opening of new stores (Operation A) and increased transactions with large retailers (Operation B), thereby achieving the goal of Strategy 70 by 1971.

Comprehensive growth in color television needs

In 1966 something unexpected happened fast recovery economy, dispelling the gloomy mood in Japanese business circles. Automotive manufacturing, air conditioning and color televisions have become the "three pillars of the economy", resulting in Sharp's revenues increasing due to the continued growth in sales of color televisions and the creation of industry firsts microwave ovens with turntable.

The world's first electronic calculator based on integrated circuits

Research into miniaturizing calculators by replacing transistors with integrated circuits led to the world's first electronic calculator using integrated circuits (CS-31A). The weight, number of parts and cost of the new product were almost half of the characteristics of the first Sharp calculator introduced to the market.

The exact time of the invention of computers is very difficult to determine. Their predecessors - mechanical computing machines, such as abacus, were invented by man long before our era. However, the term “computer” itself is much younger and appeared only in the 20th century.

Along with the IBM 601 punch card machines (1935), the first inventions of the German scientist Konrad Zuse played an important role in the history of the development of computer technology. Today, many people believe that there are several first computers that were invented around the same time.

1936: Konrad Zuse and Z1

In 1936, Konrad Zuse began developing the first programmable calculator, which was completed in 1938. The Z1 was the first binary code computer and worked with punched paper tape. But unfortunately, the mechanical parts of the calculator were very unreliable. A replica of the Z1 is in the Museum of Technology in Berlin.

1941: Konrad Zuse and Z3

The Z3 is the successor to the Z1 and the first freely programmable computer that could be used in a variety of fields, not just for computing. Many historians believe that the Z3 is the world's first functioning general purpose computer.

1946: First generation data processing systems

ENIAC

In 1946, researchers Eckert and Mauchly invented the first fully electronic computer, ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. It was used by the US Army to calculate ballistic tables. ENIAC had basic math skills and could calculate square roots.

1956-1980: data processing systems 2-5 generations

During these years, more programming languages ​​were developed high level, as well as the principles of virtual memory, the first compatible computers, databases and multiprocessor systems appeared. The world's first freely programmable desktop computer was created by Olivetti. In 1965, the Programma 101 electronic machine became available for purchase at a cost of $3,200.

1970-1974: Computer revolution

Microprocessors became cheaper, and during this period of time quite a lot of computer equipment was released onto the market. The leading role here was played primarily by Intel and Fairchild. During these years, Intel created the first microcomputer: on November 15, 1971, a 4-bit Intel processor 4004. In 1973, Xerox Alto was released - the first computer with a graphical user interface (monitor), mouse and built-in Ethernet card.

1976-1979: microcomputers

Microcomputers became popular, new operating systems appeared, as well as floppy drives. Microsoft has established itself in the market. The first computer games and standard program names appeared. In 1978, the first 32-bit computer from DEC entered the market.

IBM developed the IBM 5100 - the first "portable" weighing 25 kilograms. It had 16 kilobytes random access memory, 16x64 display and cost over $9,000. It was precisely such a high price that did not allow the computer to establish itself in the market.

1980-1984: the first "real" PC

In the 80s, the time of “home computers” came, such as the Commodore VC20, Atari XL or Amiga computers. IBM had a major influence on future generations of PCs with the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981. IBM's designated hardware class is still valid today: x86 processors are based on subsequent developments of the original IBM design.

In the late 1970s there were many technical devices and manufacturers, but IBM became the dominant supplier of computer equipment. In 1980, the company released the first “real” computer - it set the direction for development computer technology Until now. In 1982, IBM also introduced Word, NetWare, and other applications we are still familiar with today.

The first Apple Macintosh appeared in 1983, focusing on user convenience. In 1984, serial production of PCs began in the USSR. The first domestic computer to go into production was called “AGAT”.

1985/1986: further development of computer technology

In 1985 the 520ST was released. It was an extremely powerful Atari computer for its time. During these same years, the first minicomputer MicroVAX II was released. In 1986, IBM introduced a new operating system (OS/2) to the market.

1990: Windows is born

On May 22, 1990, Windows 3.0 appeared, which was a big breakthrough for Microsoft in those years. About three million copies were sold in the first six months alone operating system. began to be seen as a global way of communication.

1991-1995: Windows and Linux

As a result of progress, initially very expensive computers have become more affordable. Word, Excel and PowerPoint have finally been combined into the Office suite. In 1991, Finnish developer Linus Torvalds began working on Linux.

In many companies, Ethernet has become the data transmission standard. Thanks to the ability to connect computers to each other, the client-server model, which made it possible to work on the network, became increasingly popular.

1996-2000: The Internet becomes increasingly important

During these years, computer scientist Tim Berners Lee developed the HTML markup language, the HTTP transfer protocol, and the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to give each site a name and transfer content from the web server to the browser. Since 1995, many web editors have been available, allowing many people to create their own websites.

21st century: further development

In 2003, Apple released the PowerMac G5. It was the first computer with a 64-bit processor. In 2005, Intel created the first dual-core processors.

In subsequent years, the main course of development was aimed at the development of multi-core processors, calculations on graphics chips, and also tablet computers. Since 2005, environmental aspects began to be taken into account in the further development of computer equipment.

Latest technology: quantum computer

Today scientists are working on quantum computers. These machines are based on qubits. We described exactly how quantum computers work in our magazine and in.

Briefly about the article: The history of calculators from the baboon bone to a man who could add 100 single-digit numbers in 19 seconds.

Evolution

Calculators

Can you calculate the square root of 932561 in your head? The modern world is ruled by numbers. Everything - even this magazine you hold in your hands - is created using multi-valued calculations. Teachers are still trying to teach children how to count quickly in their heads and in columns, frightening them with the fact that residents of prosperous Western countries are supposedly no longer able to count change in the supermarket. Mathematics is mental gymnastics, but life often hands us calculations that would take two lifetimes to solve by hand. Laziness is the engine of progress, therefore, immediately after ancient people no longer had enough fingers to count the benefits they had conquered from nature, they invented devices that eased the computational pains of the brain. We know something interesting about such devices, and now we will tell it to you.

Strictly speaking, calculators were invented immediately after man learned to count. The oldest artifact of this kind is the “Ishango bone”, found in the Congo (about twenty thousand years old). This is a baboon shin bone covered with serifs. It is assumed that the first mathematical calculations in human history were made by women who calculated the menstrual cycle according to the lunar calendar.

The simplest counting was done on the fingers, and when they were not enough, any natural objects were used to replace the number 10. About five thousand years ago, a counting board, now known as the abacus, appeared in Babylon. There were dozens of pebbles moving across the field with depressions. It was probably a merchant's tool. The invention turned out to be very tenacious and lasted until the Middle Ages. It is interesting that the Babylonians did not use a decimal, but a sexagesimal (also known as duodecimal - according to the number of phalanges on the fingers, not counting the thumb) number system. This is where the usual division of time into segments of 60 seconds and minutes, as well as 360 degrees into which the circle is divided, came from.

Floating point, differential equations, pi - all this was known several thousand years ago. But the great mathematicians of antiquity calculated their discoveries in their heads. Calculators were the tools of engineers, merchants, and tax collectors. For their needs, the world's first hand-made abacus was created in Rome - a tablet with movable counters.

Yupana, Mayan calculator. Scientists for a long time could not understand the purpose of this small “fortress model” until the Italian engineer Nicolino de Pasquale determined that the so-called “savages” created the matrix of this calculator using the Fibonacci sequence and a base 40 number system (not 10, as in the Old World).

The slide rule, the engineer's main tool until the 1980s, was invented in 1622. Its operation is based on the fact that multiplication and division of numbers can be performed by adding and subtracting their logarithms. Using such a ruler, you can perform very complex calculations with an accuracy of 3-4 decimal places. The first manned flight into space was calculated precisely on such rulers. Nowadays, expensive models of mechanical watches are sometimes equipped with slide rules (Breitling Navitimer in the photo).

No less famous is the “difference engine” of Charles Babbage, which appeared in the novel of the same name by Sterling and Gibson. It was designed in 1822 and, once built, could calculate polynomials to eighteen decimal places.

The most compact mechanical calculator in history was the Kurta (1938). It was produced until the 1970s.

In the center is Alberto Coto Garcia (Spain), the fastest counting person in the world. The calculation speed of his brain is five operations per second. He can mentally multiply two eight-digit numbers in 56 seconds, add ten ten-digit numbers ten times in 4 minutes and 26 seconds, and add one hundred single-digit numbers in 19 seconds. Brain scans of such “living calculators” conducted in 2005 showed that during calculations, the blood supply to the brain was six to seven times higher than that of a normal person.

The first prototype of calculators known today is the Antikythera Mechanism, discovered in 1902 near the Greek island of Antikythera, on a sunken Roman ship. This mechanism was supposedly created in the second century BC and was used to calculate the movement of celestial bodies and could perform addition, subtraction and division operations.

The simpler ancestors of modern calculators include the abacus from Ancient Babylon, as well as its improved version - the abacus, used in Rus' since the 15th century.

In 1643, the French scientist Blaise Pascal created a summing machine, which was a box with interconnected gears that were turned by special wheels, each of which corresponded to one decimal place. When one of the wheels made the tenth revolution, the next gear shifted by one position, increasing the digit of the number. The answer after performing mathematical operations was displayed in the windows above the wheels.

The wheels on Pascal's adding machine rotated only in one direction, which made it possible to perform summation operations, although other operations were possible, but they required rather complex and inconvenient calculation procedures.

20 years later, in 1673, the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz created his own version of a calculator, the operating principle of which was the same as that of Pascal’s adding machine - gears and wheels. However, a moving part was added to Leibniz's calculator, which became the prototype of the moving carriages of future desktop calculators, and a handle that turned a stepped wheel, which was later replaced by a cylinder. These additions made it possible to significantly speed up repetitive operations - multiplication and division. The use of Leibniz's calculator, although it slightly simplified the calculation process, gave impetus to other inventors - the moving part and cylinder of the Leibniz calculator were used in computers until the middle of the 20th century.

The 60s of the 20th century were rich in events related not only to the development of calculators, but also to their movement into mass use:

• in 1961 in England they began producing the first mass calculator ANITA MK VIII, working on gas-discharge lamps and having a numeric keyboard and keys for entering a multiplier,
• in 1964, the US launched the production of the FRIDEN 130 calculator, the first mass-produced transistor calculator,
• also in 1964, the USSR began producing the VEGA calculator,
• in 1965, the Wang LOCI-2 calculator with a function for calculating logarithms, developed by Wang Laboratories, was released,
• in 1967, the USSR developed a calculator capable of calculating transcendental functions - EDVM-P,
• In 1969, the HP 9100A programmable desktop calculator was released in the United States.

In 1970, calculators weighing about 800 grams, produced by Canon and Sharp, went on sale. These calculators could already be held in hands. And in the USSR in the same year they developed a calculator using integrated circuits - Iskra 111.

The first “pocket” calculator can be called the 901B calculator from Bomwar, which was released a year later - in 1971. Its dimensions were already quite consistent with our ideas about pocket calculators, at least in length and width - 13.1 cm and 7.7 cm, respectively, and its thickness was 3.7 cm.

Also in the 70s, engineering and programmable calculators, calculators with alphanumeric indicators, and in 1985 a Casio calculator with a graphic display appeared.

Now we have access to a huge variety of calculators - simple, engineering, accounting and financial, as well as programmable. There are also specialized calculators - medical, statistical and others.