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I really wish someone would make a modern scientific calculator - Imagine what would be possible on a modern ARM processor. Even the new HP calculators use old

I really wish someone would make a modern scientific calculator - Imagine what would be possible on a modern ARM processor. Even the new HP calculators use old ~70mhz ARM processors emulating the even older saturn HP48 code... You could build it on top of Android, and have the software be open-source while making money from selling the hardware (so you could run it on a touchscreen, but if you wanted a keyboard you'd buy the calculator).

wtallis 13y ago
Processing power hasn't been a bottleneck for a long time. Even the 4MHz Saturn processors were able to do reasonably fast 3d wireframe graphing. The only reason graphing calculators and scientific calculators still exist outside of schools is because they can provide a specialized user interface: a physical keyboard with a layout designed around calculation tasks, and a software environment that is similarly optimized for that narrow range of use cases. Neither of those aspects benefits significantly from Moore's Law. Instead, they can only benefit from the complementary products that other gadgets have made commodity components: high-resolution displays, lithium-ion batteries, SoCs that replace ASICs and make features like USB and SD support free.
goblinfoblin 13y ago
There are modern calculators: Mathematica, Matlab, and the most used: Excel For tasks that need to be done away from a computer sure a calculator is handy but that has rather dwindled down to basic calculations. Schoolwork sure calculators are great but I never needed more than my HP-48 and when I did it was usually an assignment meant more for MATLAB/Mathematica. Now for your point of building it on top of android, what I want is not another device but I want a new calculator built for android. Everyone has a smartphone these days why should I have to buy a calculator when I have a strong computer in my pocket. We just need an interface for smartphones and the appropriately strong (Programmable) back end. This looks nice but I don't have an iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nd1/id368497993?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nd1/id368497993?mt=8
- ghshephard 13y ago
  Calca is also a nice take on the "modern calculator" http://calca.io/ http://calca.io/

wtallis 13y ago

Processing power hasn't been a bottleneck for a long time. Even the 4MHz Saturn processors were able to do reasonably fast 3d wireframe graphing. The only reason graphing calculators and scientific calculators still exist outside of schools is because they can provide a specialized user interface: a physical keyboard with a layout designed around calculation tasks, and a software environment that is similarly optimized for that narrow range of use cases. Neither of those aspects benefits significantly from Moore's Law. Instead, they can only benefit from the complementary products that other gadgets have made commodity components: high-resolution displays, lithium-ion batteries, SoCs that replace ASICs and make features like USB and SD support free.

goblinfoblin 13y ago

There are modern calculators: Mathematica, Matlab, and the most used: Excel For tasks that need to be done away from a computer sure a calculator is handy but that has rather dwindled down to basic calculations. Schoolwork sure calculators are great but I never needed more than my HP-48 and when I did it was usually an assignment meant more for MATLAB/Mathematica. Now for your point of building it on top of android, what I want is not another device but I want a new calculator built for android. Everyone has a smartphone these days why should I have to buy a calculator when I have a strong computer in my pocket. We just need an interface for smartphones and the appropriately strong (Programmable) back end. This looks nice but I don't have an iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nd1/id368497993?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nd1/id368497993?mt=8

ghshephard 13y ago
Calca is also a nice take on the "modern calculator" http://calca.io/ http://calca.io/