Calculator USSR 2410. Our calculators. Counting machine by Leonardo da Vinci
Sergey Frolov
Collecting domestic computers, I was always interested to know whether domestic calculators and other calculating machines have foreign counterparts.
I had to spend a lot of time to learn about these analogs. It turned out to be quite difficult: I had to spend a long time on the Internet in the evenings, thoroughly browse the sites where other collectors show their exhibits, write down the names of models, save images of equipment and compare them with domestic equipment.
In addition to collectors' sites, the well-known online auction Ebay, where all kinds of gizmos are sold, and, of course, calculators and other calculating equipment, helped a lot in finding analogues. Ebay is especially time-consuming to navigate because sellers don't bother themselves too much detailed description the product being sold, often limited to a general description such as "Vintage calculator", etc. But the most difficult thing among all this was not only the search for analogs, but also getting such an analogue into the collection. Pay attention to the photographs presented: there are both photographs of analogues from other sites, the owners of which have kindly allowed to use the photographs, and my own photographs for analogues of domestic cars, which I still managed to acquire. The mass copying of computer technology most likely began with our Odner adding machine. Here with this model:
This is the first mass adding Odner system, released in 1890. Before that, a trial version of a slightly different form was released in a batch of 50 copies, but it was this model that became a truly massive and role model all over the world.
To get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe clones of the Odhner system, take a look at the very famous brand adding machines featured on the wonderful Rechenmaschinen-Illustrated website: Brunsviga, Facit, Hamann-Manus, Swedish manufacturer of adding machines under the brand name "Original-Odhner", Thales and Triumphator.
At first, foreign firms received the rights to manufacture adding machines from Odner and his descendants, but after the revolution hardly anyone began to pay royalties to the Soviet government. Accordingly, the Soviet Union also began to copy its Western counterparts.
In general, there is a very big plus in copying: a lot of time is saved on the development and debugging of new technologies, and the savings can be spent on something more necessary. Below you can look at the photos of domestic calculating machines and their foreign counterparts. By and large, the photos speak for themselves, without requiring comments, but for some cars I will make a few remarks.
For each model of calculators, I also provided links to sites where you can see more photos of analogues (the topmost link leads to my site with photos of the domestic version).
Bystrica and Bystrica 2 - Bohn Contex Model 20
Thanks Prof. Dr. C.-M. Hamann
A very original palm-operated calculator.
Thanks to Freddy Haeghens for the photo submitted
The closest analogue of Odner's adding machine and, probably, the last of the sold adding machines in the USSR (late 70s). We had two options: mechanical BK-1 (Facit TK) and electromechanical BK-2 (Facit EK).
In addition, BK-3 and BK-4 were also produced, but it was not yet possible to find out what kind of calculators they were.
Sharp Compet CS-30A - DD Electronics
Thanks to Tony Epton for submitting a photo.
By the way, this calculator has one feature: it lacks negative numbers... If we subtract three from two, but all nines will appear on the indicator - the representation of the number in the complementary code.
T3-16 - HP 9100B The first desktop calculator with engineering features and programmability from Hewlett Packard was called the HP 9100A. It appeared in 1968. Our copy was called "Electronics 70" and, as the name suggests, appeared in 1970. It was a very complex calculator. For its release, the production of special transistors was mastered, the analogues of which were used in the HP 9100A. I spoke to a man who exploited Electronics 70 a little. He said it was a unique calculator that had all the tracks on the circuit board gilded. Unfortunately, I could not get hold of "Electronics 70", and I can not show its photographs.
But I managed to get hold of "Electronics T3-16", which was made on the basis of the HP 9100B. In fact, the HP 9100B was an improved version of the HP 9100A.
If you go to the site where I took photos of T3-16 (http://www.leningrad.su/museum/show_calc.php?n\u003d211), you can see how complex this calculator is: a large number of microcircuits, memory on magnetic cores , a magnetic card reader where user programs were stored, a cathode ray tube where information was displayed, and so on. Of course, this small computer proved to be very difficult to manufacture and operate, and could not be produced in large quantities.
Electronics 24-71 - Sharp QT-8D
Calculators were generally pioneers in electronics. New technologies were mastered for their microcircuits, new types of indicators were produced. For example, in this model, for the first time in the USSR, a vacuum luminescent indicator of the type IV-1 (number sign and overflow) and IV-2 (numbers) was used. Pay attention to the silhouette of the signs. It is unique to this calculator and has not been used anywhere else. All products with indicators on luminous green numbers started with this calculator model.
Electronics B3-04 - Sharp EL-805
The first domestic pocket calculator. Gold glass plate. 1974th year. In half a year, we managed to completely copy its analogue - Sharp EL-805: develop microcircuits from scratch, master the technology of liquid crystals, and so on. There is only a slight difference in the two models - in the form of a cover that covers the indicator (seen in the photo).
The calculator has proven to be very unreliable and practically unrepairable. The machines of the first issues were called "Micro computers", and later the term "Micro calculator" was used for the first time.
Electronics B3-18 - Anita 202SR
Electronics B3-18A - Rockwell 61R
At about the same time as with the B3-04, the question arose about creating an engineering calculator. Our industry took two paths and almost simultaneously released the first two domestic engineering calculators: Electronics C3-15 and B3-18. The two ways were as follows: we made the first calculator ourselves, involving leading mathematicians to compose algorithms for calculating functions, and the second became a copy of the Anita 202SR calculator.
A year later, a modification of the B3-18 was released under the name B3-18A (Rockwell 61R)
A copy was made, but problems arose: the calculator chip required precise adjustment of the supply voltage. On each chip, they wrote (mostly with a pencil) the operating voltage of the microcircuit with an accuracy of hundredths of a volt!
Electronics B3-23 - EZ2000
In addition to complete copying of calculators (including control microcircuits), design copying was also used. This can be seen on the example of the Electronics B3-23 (EZ2000), B3-02 (Sharp EL-8001), B3-11 (ICC-82D) and MK-85 (Casio fx-700P) calculators, but more on the latter below.
As I already wrote, for the first domestic microcalculator Elektronika B3-04, the prototype was taken by the Sharp EL-805 as the first calculator on liquid crystals... And the Electronics B3-30 microcalculator is also taken from the first liquid crystal calculator, but a slightly different technology - black symbols on a light background - the same that is now installed in almost all models. The same model was called Sharp EL-8020.
For a long time, we, together with another well-known collector of domestic calculators - Australian Andrew Davie, believed that Electronics B3-36 was one of the most beautiful calculators in terms of design. But recently I was able to get hold of its prototype - a rather rare Rockwell THE 74K calculator.
As you can see, the design is almost completely repeated, and the functions of the calculator are 100 percent.
B3-35 - Hanimex ESR Master
The same can be said about the Electronics B3-35 (Hanimex ESR Master) calculators. This model differs from B3-36 practically only in design.
B3-38 - Casio fx-48
To date, I have not been able to get my hands on the Casio fx-48 calculator. Shown here is a photograph taken many years ago from an Ebay auction. This is the smallest domestic calculator. It was taken from Casio fx-48.
MK-51 - Casio fx-2500
Around the same time, one of the most popular microcalculators was made - Electronics MK 51 (Casio fx-2500). What is most interesting is that the same chip is used for Electronics B3-38 and MK-51. The fact is that Casio very widely uses technology, when the same processor chip is used for the production of calculators and a large the lineup calculators. If you have an MK-51 calculator, you can check interesting factthat if you press the F key and a number key, then the function that is drawn for the F1 key of the B3-38 calculator will be executed.
MK-71 - Casio fx-950
The same can be said about the Electronics MK-71 (Casio fx-950) calculators. Casio has similar model with an 8-digit indicator instead of a 10-digit one. It's called Casio fx-900. That model does not have a compute mode switch trigonometric functions and the choice of degrees-degrees-radians is done with the buttons. And the most interesting thing is that you can go from fx-950 to fx-900 by setting this lever to an intermediate position - between degrees and radians or between radians and grades. I checked it works on both MK-71 and Casio fx-950.
MK-53 - Monroe M112
There are some confusion with this calculator. Although Monroe made calculators, I'm not sure if this calculator was developed by Monroe. The fact is that many calculator companies either used ready-made calculator chips, or used OEM versions of other companies and put only their own logos. Most likely this model was made from some Sharp calculator. It is unlikely that this is Casio, because Casio calculators have a minus sign to the left of the number, while Sharp calculators have a separate dot (in this model - on the left side of the display). And this calculator is the only calculator in the USSR with a clock and a stopwatch. MK-87 does not count, because there is a separate calculator and a clock - also separately.
And now the fun part - personal computers... The most famous calculator with BASIC - Electronics MK-85 also has its own prototype. This is the Casio FX-700P. However, the task is to make full copy The FX-700P was not installed. One of the reasons was the lack of Cyrillic on the keyboard. But the task was nevertheless set - to make a complete copy as in appearanceand built-in functions.
In the same way, an exact copy of the Wang 2000 computer (Iskra 226) was made in due time in order to be able to run the programs developed for Wang, which were in large numbers.
MK-85M - Casio fx-700P
The development was hard, I had to tinker a lot with the indicator to achieve an acceptable level and contrast uniformity. Nevertheless, we managed to make the MK-85, and this machine was a success.
Of course, there were some drawbacks. One of them was terrible performance. As I was told by one person who took part in the development of this model, the difficulty was that the functions were calculated by expansion in a series, while in the fx-700P it was done digit by digit. And one more factor that affected the speed is the storage of numbers: in hexadecimal form in MK-85 and in decimal form in FX-700P.
The MK-85 uses a 16-bit microprocessor, command system compatible with DEC PDP-11. Casio has a 4-bit processor focused on processing one digit of a number. Maybe this also influenced the speed of calculations.
MK-87 - Casio PF-3000
This is a very rare calculator. They were released only about 6000-8000 thousand copies. A production line was purchased in Japan touch buttonspressed from a light touch. The result is a very complex and very expensive notebook calculator with a 16-bit microprocessor. Its cost turned out to be more than a hundred rubles, and things did not go beyond the experimental batch.
Its prototype - the first calculator-notebook from Casio - PF-3000 is slightly different, but in general they are the same typewriter in function.
And finally, I want to say about the MK-90 / MK-92. Although this calculator and the MK-90 are our own domestic design, some design details are borrowed from the Casio PB-410, especially external cartridges for storing programs on batteries. Very similar MK-92 with its color plotter to Casio FA-10. It is a pity that we were unable to connect the MK-92 to the TV.
That's all, actually. But you shouldn't think that we were only copying Western counterparts. We also produced calculators of our own production. Take at least MK-61, MK-52. It would seem an unpretentious design, but the programming capabilities turned out to be high leveland these calculators have become the most popular.
Do not think that only we copied from others. Industrial espionage, using each other advanced technologies - standard practice among competing powers. A very clear example of the use of our technologies is the American F-15 aircraft. It is very similar to our MiG-25. But that's a completely different story.
Thank you for attention.
Text, photos - Sergey Frolov
Iron Ghosts of the Past - 2008
Sergey Frolov
Collecting domestic computers, I was always interested to know whether domestic calculators and other calculating machines have foreign counterparts.
I had to spend a lot of time to learn about these analogs. It turned out to be quite difficult: I had to spend a long time on the Internet in the evenings, thoroughly browse the sites where other collectors show their exhibits, write down the names of models, save images of equipment and compare them with domestic equipment.
In addition to collectors' sites, the well-known online auction Ebay, where all kinds of gizmos are sold, and, of course, calculators and other calculating equipment, helped a lot in finding analogues. Navigating on Ebay takes a particularly long time, because sellers do not bother themselves with a detailed description of the goods being sold, often limiting themselves to a general description such as "Vintage calculator", etc. But the most difficult among all this was not only finding analogs, but also obtaining such analogue to the collection. Pay attention to the photographs presented: there are both photographs of analogues from other sites, the owners of which have kindly allowed to use the photographs, and my own photographs for analogues of domestic cars, which I still managed to acquire. The mass copying of computer technology most likely began with our Odner adding machine. Here with this model:
This is the first mass adding Odner system, released in 1890. Before that, a trial version of a slightly different form was released in a batch of 50 copies, but it was this model that became a truly massive and role model all over the world.
To get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe clones of the Odhner system, take a look at the very famous brand adding machines featured on the wonderful Rechenmaschinen-Illustrated website: Brunsviga, Facit, Hamann-Manus, Swedish manufacturer of adding machines under the brand name "Original-Odhner", Thales and Triumphator.
At first, foreign firms received the rights to manufacture adding machines from Odner and his descendants, but after the revolution hardly anyone began to pay royalties to the Soviet government. Accordingly, the Soviet Union also began to copy its Western counterparts.
In general, there is a very big plus in copying: a lot of time is saved on the development and debugging of new technologies, and the savings can be spent on something more necessary. Below you can look at the photos of domestic calculating machines and their foreign counterparts. By and large, the photos speak for themselves, without requiring comments, but for some cars I will make a few remarks.
For each model of calculators, I also provided links to sites where you can see more photos of analogues (the topmost link leads to my site with photos of the domestic version).
Bystrica and Bystrica 2 - Bohn Contex Model 20
Thanks Prof. Dr. C.-M. Hamann
A very original palm-operated calculator.
Thanks to Freddy Haeghens for the photo submitted
The closest analogue of Odner's adding machine and, probably, the last of the sold adding machines in the USSR (late 70s). We had two options: mechanical BK-1 (Facit TK) and electromechanical BK-2 (Facit EK).
In addition, BK-3 and BK-4 were also produced, but it was not yet possible to find out what kind of calculators they were.
Sharp Compet CS-30A - DD Electronics
Thanks to Tony Epton for submitting a photo.
By the way, this calculator has one special feature: it does not contain negative numbers. If we subtract three from two, but all nines will appear on the indicator - the representation of the number in the complementary code.
T3-16 - HP 9100B The first desktop calculator with engineering features and programmability from Hewlett Packard was called the HP 9100A. It appeared in 1968. Our copy was called "Electronics 70" and, as the name suggests, appeared in 1970. It was a very complex calculator. For its release, the production of special transistors was mastered, the analogues of which were used in the HP 9100A. I spoke to a man who exploited Electronics 70 a little. He said it was a unique calculator that had all the tracks on the circuit board gilded. Unfortunately, I could not get hold of "Electronics 70", and I can not show its photographs.
But I managed to get hold of "Electronics T3-16", which was made on the basis of the HP 9100B. In fact, the HP 9100B was an improved version of the HP 9100A.
If you go to the site where I took photos of T3-16 (http://www.leningrad.su/museum/show_calc.php?n\u003d211), you can see how complex this calculator is: a large number of microcircuits, memory on magnetic cores , a magnetic card reader where user programs were stored, a cathode ray tube where information was displayed, and so on. Of course, this small computer proved to be very difficult to manufacture and operate, and could not be produced in large quantities.
Electronics 24-71 - Sharp QT-8D
Calculators were generally pioneers in electronics. New technologies were mastered for their microcircuits, new types of indicators were produced. For example, in this model, for the first time in the USSR, a vacuum luminescent indicator of the type IV-1 (number sign and overflow) and IV-2 (numbers) was used. Pay attention to the silhouette of the signs. It is unique to this calculator and has not been used anywhere else. All products with indicators on luminous green numbers started with this calculator model.
Electronics B3-04 - Sharp EL-805
The first domestic pocket calculator. Gold glass plate. 1974th year. In half a year, we managed to completely copy its analogue - Sharp EL-805: develop microcircuits from scratch, master the technology of liquid crystals, and so on. There is only a slight difference in the two models - in the form of a cover that covers the indicator (seen in the photo).
The calculator has proven to be very unreliable and practically unrepairable. The machines of the first issues were called "Micro computers", and later the term "Micro calculator" was used for the first time.
Electronics B3-18 - Anita 202SR
Electronics B3-18A - Rockwell 61R
At about the same time as with the B3-04, the question arose about creating an engineering calculator. Our industry took two paths and almost simultaneously released the first two domestic engineering calculators: Electronics C3-15 and B3-18. The two ways were as follows: we made the first calculator ourselves, involving leading mathematicians to compose algorithms for calculating functions, and the second became a copy of the Anita 202SR calculator.
A year later, a modification of the B3-18 was released under the name B3-18A (Rockwell 61R)
A copy was made, but problems arose: the calculator chip required precise adjustment of the supply voltage. On each chip, they wrote (mostly with a pencil) the operating voltage of the microcircuit with an accuracy of hundredths of a volt!
Electronics B3-23 - EZ2000
In addition to complete copying of calculators (including control microcircuits), design copying was also used. This can be seen on the example of the Electronics B3-23 (EZ2000), B3-02 (Sharp EL-8001), B3-11 (ICC-82D) and MK-85 (Casio fx-700P) calculators, but more on the latter below.
As I already wrote, for the first domestic microcalculator Elektronika B3-04, the prototype was taken by the Sharp EL-805 as the first calculator on liquid crystals. And the Electronics B3-30 microcalculator is also taken from the first liquid crystal calculator, but a slightly different technology - black symbols on a light background - the same that is now installed in almost all models. The same model was called Sharp EL-8020.
For a long time, we, together with another well-known collector of domestic calculators - Australian Andrew Davie, believed that Electronics B3-36 was one of the most beautiful calculators in terms of design. But recently I was able to get hold of its prototype - a rather rare Rockwell THE 74K calculator.
As you can see, the design is almost completely repeated, and the functions of the calculator are 100 percent.
B3-35 - Hanimex ESR Master
The same can be said about the Electronics B3-35 (Hanimex ESR Master) calculators. This model differs from B3-36 practically only in design.
B3-38 - Casio fx-48
To date, I have not been able to get my hands on the Casio fx-48 calculator. Shown here is a photograph taken many years ago from an Ebay auction. This is the smallest domestic calculator. It was taken from Casio fx-48.
MK-51 - Casio fx-2500
Around the same time, one of the most popular microcalculators was made - Electronics MK 51 (Casio fx-2500). What is most interesting is that the same chip is used for Electronics B3-38 and MK-51. The fact is that Casio widely uses technology, when the same processor chip is used for the production of calculators, and a large range of calculators is produced for it. If you have an MK-51 calculator, then you can check an interesting fact that if you press the F key and a number key, the function that is drawn for the F1 key of the B3-38 calculator will be executed.
MK-71 - Casio fx-950
The same can be said about the Electronics MK-71 (Casio fx-950) calculators. Casio has a similar model with an 8-digit indicator instead of a 10-digit one. It's called Casio fx-900. This model does not have a lever for switching the calculation mode of trigonometric functions and the choice of degrees-degrees-radians is performed by buttons. And the most interesting thing is that you can go from fx-950 to fx-900 by setting this lever to an intermediate position - between degrees and radians or between radians and grades. I checked it works on both MK-71 and Casio fx-950.
MK-53 - Monroe M112
There are some confusion with this calculator. Although Monroe made calculators, I'm not sure if this calculator was developed by Monroe. The fact is that many calculator companies either used ready-made calculator chips, or used OEM versions of other companies and put only their own logos. Most likely this model was made from some Sharp calculator. It is unlikely that this is Casio, because Casio calculators have a minus sign to the left of the number, while Sharp calculators have a separate dot (in this model - on the left side of the display). And this calculator is the only calculator in the USSR with a clock and a stopwatch. MK-87 does not count, because there is a separate calculator and a clock - also separately.
And now the fun part is personal computers. The most famous calculator with BASIC - Electronics MK-85 also has its own prototype. This is the Casio FX-700P. However, the task was not to make a complete copy of the FX-700P. One of the reasons was the lack of Cyrillic on the keyboard. But the task was still set - to make a complete copy both in appearance and in built-in functions.
In the same way, an exact copy of the Wang 2000 computer (Iskra 226) was made in due time in order to be able to run the programs developed for Wang, which were in large numbers.
MK-85M - Casio fx-700P
The development was hard, I had to tinker a lot with the indicator to achieve an acceptable level and contrast uniformity. Nevertheless, we managed to make the MK-85, and this machine was a success.
Of course, there were some drawbacks. One of them was terrible performance. As I was told by one person who took part in the development of this model, the difficulty was that the functions were calculated by expansion in a series, while in the fx-700P it was done digit by digit. And one more factor that affected the speed is the storage of numbers: in hexadecimal form in MK-85 and in decimal form in FX-700P.
The MK-85 uses a 16-bit microprocessor, command system compatible with DEC PDP-11. Casio has a 4-bit processor focused on processing one digit of a number. Maybe this also influenced the speed of calculations.
MK-87 - Casio PF-3000
This is a very rare calculator. They were released only about 6000-8000 thousand copies. In Japan, a line was purchased for the production of touch buttons that were pressed from a light touch. The result is a very complex and very expensive notebook calculator with a 16-bit microprocessor. Its cost turned out to be more than a hundred rubles, and things did not go beyond the experimental batch.
Its prototype - the first calculator-notebook from Casio - PF-3000 is slightly different, but in general they are the same typewriter in function.
And finally, I want to say about the MK-90 / MK-92. Although this calculator and the MK-90 are our own domestic calculators, some design details are borrowed from the Casio PB-410, especially external cartridges for storing programs on batteries. Very similar MK-92 with its color plotter to Casio FA-10. It is a pity that we were unable to connect the MK-92 to the TV.
That's all, actually. But you shouldn't think that we were only copying Western counterparts. We also produced calculators of our own production. Take at least MK-61, MK-52. It would seem a simple design, but the programming capabilities turned out to be at a high level, and these calculators became the most popular.
Do not think that only we copied from others. Industrial espionage and the use of each other's advanced technologies are standard practice among competing powers. A very clear example of the use of our technologies is the American F-15 aircraft. It is very similar to our MiG-25. But that's a completely different story.
Thank you for attention.
Text, photos - Sergey Frolov
Iron Ghosts of the Past - 2008
Additions or amendments to
The history of the development of such a computing mechanism as a calculator dates back to the 17th century, and the first prototypes of this apparatus existed in the 6th century BC. The word "calculator" itself comes from the Latin "calculo", which means "I count", "I count". But a more detailed study of the etymology of this concept shows that initially one should talk about the word "calculus", which translates as "pebble". After all, pebbles were originally used as an attribute for counting.
The calculator is one of the simplest and most commonly used mechanisms in everyday lifeHowever, this invention has a long history and valuable experience for the development of science.
Antikythera mechanism
The first prototype of the calculator is considered to be the Antikythera Mechanism, which was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century near the Antikythera Island on a sunken ship belonging to Italy. Scientists believe that the mechanism can be dated to the second century BC.
The device was designed to calculate the movement of planets and satellites. Also the Antikythera Mechanism could add, subtract and divide.
Abacus
While trade relations between Asia and Europe began to improve, the need for various accounting transactions became more and more. That is why in the 6th century the first prototype of a calculating machine, the Abacus, was invented.
An abacus is a small wooden board on which special grooves have been made. In these small depressions, most often pebbles or tokens denoting numbers lay.
The mechanism worked according to the Babylonian counting principle, which was based on the sixagesimal system. Any digit of the number consisted of 60 units and, based on where the number was located, each groove corresponded to the number of units, tens, etc. Due to the fact that it was rather inconvenient to hold 60 pebbles in each recess, the recesses were divided into 2 parts: in one - pebbles denoting tens (no more than 5), in the second - pebbles denoting units (no more than 9) ... At the same time, in the first compartment, the pebbles corresponded to units, in the second compartment - to tens, etc. If in one of the grooves the number required for the operation exceeded 59, then one of the pebbles was transferred to the next row.
The abacus was popular until the 18th century and had many modifications.
Counting machine by Leonardo da Vinci
In the diaries of Leonardo da Vinci one could see the drawings of the first calculating machine, which received the name - "Madrid Code".
The apparatus consisted of several rods with wheels of different sizes. Each wheel had teeth at its base, thanks to which the mechanism could work. Ten rotations of the first axis resulted in one rotation of the second, and ten rotations of the second axis resulted in one full rotation of the third.
Most likely, during his lifetime, Leonardo was never able to transfer his ideas to the material world, so it is generally accepted that in the second half of the 19th century the first model of a calculating machine, created by Dr. Roberto Guatelli, appeared.
Napier's sticks
The Scottish explorer John Napier, in one of his books published in 1617, outlined the principle of multiplication with wooden sticks. Soon, this method became known as Napier's sticks. This mechanism was based on the then popular lattice multiplication method.
"Napier's sticks" were a set of wooden sticks, most of which had a multiplication table, as well as one stick with numbers from one to nine.
In order to carry out the operation of multiplication, it was necessary to lay out the sticks that would correspond to the value of the digit of the multiplier, and the top row of each board had to form the multiplier. In each line, the numbers were summed up, and then the result after the operation was added.
Schickard's calculating clock
More than 150 years have passed since Leonardo da Vinci invented his calculating machine when the German professor Wilhelm Schickard wrote about his invention in one of his letters to Johannes Kepler in 1623. According to Schickard, the machine could perform addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division.
This invention went down in history as one of the prototypes of the calculator, and it got the name "mechanical watch" because of the principle of the mechanism, which was based on the use of stars and gears.
Schickard's calculating clock is the first mechanical device that could perform 4 arithmetic operations.
Two copies of the device burned down during a fire, and the drawings of their creator were found only in 1935.
Blaise Pascal's Counting Machine
In 1642, Blaise Pascal began developing a new calculating machine at the age of 19. Pascal's father, collecting taxes, was forced to deal with constant calculations, so his son decided to create an apparatus that could facilitate such work.
Blaise Pascal's Counting Machine is a small box containing many gears connected to each other. The numbers required to perform any of the four arithmetic operations were entered using the wheel revolutions that corresponded to the decimal place of the number.
Within 10 years, Pascal was able to design about 50 copies of machines, 10 of which he sold.
Squid Adding Machine
In the first half of the 19th century, Thomas de Calmar created the first commercial device that could perform four arithmetic operations. The adding machine was created on the basis of the mechanism of the predecessor of Kalmar - Wilhelm Leibniz. Having managed to improve the existing apparatus, Kalmar called his invention an "adding machine".
The Squid Adding Machine is a small iron or wooden mechanism with an automated counter inside which you can perform four arithmetic operations. It was a device that surpassed a number of existing models, as it could handle thirty-digit numbers.
19-20 century calculators
After humanity realized that computing greatly simplifies the work with numbers, in the 19-20 centuries many inventions related to calculating mechanisms appeared. The most popular device during this period was the adding machine.
Squid adding machine: invented in 1820, the first commercial mechanism to perform 4 arithmetic operations.
Chernyshev's adding machine: the first adding machine that appeared in Russia, invented in the 50s of the 19th century.
Odner's adding machine - one of the most popular adding machines of the twentieth century, appeared in 1877.
Adding machine Mercedes-Euklid VI: The first adding machine capable of performing four arithmetic operations without human assistance, invented in 1919.
Calculators in the XXI century
Nowadays, calculators play a significant role in all spheres of life: from professional to household. These computing devices have replaced the abacus and abacus that were popular in their time.
Based on the target audience and characteristics, calculators are divided into simple, engineering, accounting and financial. There are also programmable calculators that can be placed in a separate class. They can work with complex programspre-embedded in the mechanism itself. To work with charts, you can use a graphing calculator.
Also, classifying calculators by performance, they distinguish between compact and desktop types.
The history of calculating technology is a process of acquiring experience and knowledge by mankind, as a result of which calculating mechanisms were able to harmoniously fit into human life.
22/09/98)
This article is dedicated to the indispensable helpers in our life - microcalculators. The history of the emergence of Soviet microcalculators, their features and interesting capabilities of individual models are described.
FIRST COMPUTERS
The first mechanical device in Russia to automate settlements was abacus. This "folk calculator" held out in the workplaces of cashiers in stores until the mid-nineties. It is interesting to note that in the textbook "Trading Computing" in 1986, an entire chapter is devoted to methods of calculating accounts.
Simultaneously with the abacus, in scientific circles, since pre-revolutionary times, slide rules have been successfully used, which since the 17th century practically unchanged served "faithfully" until the advent of calculators.
Trying to somehow automate the computation process, humanity begins to invent mechanical reading devices. Even the famous mathematician Chebyshev at the end of the 19th century proposed his own model of a calculator. Unfortunately, the image has not survived.
The most popular mechanical calculator in Soviet times was the Odner "Felix" adding machine. Left - an image of an adding machine, taken from the "Small Soviet Encyclopedia" published in 1932.
On this adding machine, four arithmetic operations could be performed - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In later models, for example, "Felix-M", you can see sliders for indicating the position of the comma and a lever for shifting the carriage. To perform calculations, it was necessary to turn the knob - once for addition or subtraction, and several times for multiplication and division.
Of course, you can twist the handle once, and it's even interesting, but what if you work as an accountant and you need to perform hundreds of simple operations per day? And the noise from the spinning counter gears is decent, especially if several people are working in a room with adding machines at the same time.
However, over time, turning the knob began to get bored, and the human mind was invented by electric calculating machines, which 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. She had dimensions of 440x330x240 mm and a weight of 23 kilograms.
Yet science has taken its toll. In the postwar years, electronics began to develop rapidly and the first computers appeared - electronic computers (ECM). By the beginning of the 60s, a huge gap had formed between computers and the most powerful calculating-keyboard computers in many parameters, despite the appearance of the Soviet relay computers "Vilnius" and "Vyatka" (1961). 
But by that time, Leningrad University had already designed one of the world's first desktop keyboard computers, which used small-sized semiconductor elements and ferrite cores. A working model of this EKVM, an electronic keyboard computer, was also made.
In general, it is believed that the first mass electronic calculator appeared in England in 1963. His circuit was made on printed circuit boards and contained several thousand transistors alone. The size of such a calculator was like that of a typewriter, and it only performed arithmetic operations with multi-digit numbers. On the left is the Electronics calculator - a typical representative of this generation of calculators.
The spread of desktop electronic computers began in 1964, when the serial production of the Vega electronic computer was mastered in our country and the production of desktop electronic computers began in a number of other countries. In 1967, EDVM-11 (an electronic ten-key computer) appeared - the first EKVM in our country that automatically calculated trigonometric functions.
The further development of computer technology is inextricably linked with the achievements of microelectronics. At the end of the 50s, a technology for the production of integrated circuits was developed, containing groups of interconnected electronic elements, 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 electronic computers on integrated circuits appeared. At about the same time, the first portable EKVM on LSIs (just introduced into production) with autonomous power supply from built-in batteries appeared. In 1971, the dimensions of the ECVM became "pocket", in 1972, the EMC 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 the production of electronic computers in our country proceeded in parallel with its development in other most industrialized countries of the world. In 1970, the first samples of EKVM on ICs appeared, since 1971, the production of machines of the Iskra series began on these elements. In 1972, the first domestic micro-computers based on LSIs began to be produced.
FIRST SOVIET POCKET CALCULATOR
The first Soviet desk calculators, which appeared in 1971, quickly gained popularity. EKVM based on LSI worked quietly, consumed little energy, and calculated quickly and accurately. The cost of microcircuits was rapidly declining, and one could think of creating a pocket-sized MC, the price of which would be affordable to the general consumer. 
In August 1973, the electronic industry of our country set the task of creating an electronic pocket computer based on a microprocessor LSI and with a liquid crystal display in one year. A group of 27 people worked on this most difficult task. A huge work lay ahead: to make drawings, diagrams, etc. templates, consisting of 144 thousand points, place a microprocessor with 3400 elements in a 5x5 mm crystal.
After five months of work, the first samples of MK were ready, and nine months later, three months before the deadline, an electronic pocket calculator called "Electronics B3-04" was handed over to the state commission. Already in early 1974, the electronic gnome went on sale. It was a great labor victory that showed the capabilities of our electronics industry.
This microcalculator was the first to use a liquid crystal indicator, with numbers depicted as white characters on a black background (see Fig.).
The calculator was turned on by pressing the shutter, after which the lid was opened and the calculator started to work.
The calculator had a very interesting algorithm of work. In order to calculate (20-8 + 7) it was necessary to press the keys | C | 20 | + \u003d | 8 | - \u003d | 7 | + \u003d |. Result: 5. If the result needs to be multiplied, say, by three, then the calculations can be continued by pressing the keys: | X | 3 | + \u003d |.
Key | K | used to compute with a constant.
This calculator uses 3D printed transparent boards. The figure shows part of the calculator board.
The calculator contains four microcircuits - a 23-bit shift register K145AP1, an indicator control unit K145PP1, an operational register K145IP2 and a K145IP1 microprocessor. A level conversion microcircuit is used in the voltage conversion unit.
It is interesting to note that this calculator was powered by one AA battery (A316 "Quantum", "Uranus").
FIRST SOVIET MICROCALCULATORS
At the beginning of the 70s, the language of working with microcalculators familiar today was just emerging. The first models of microcalculators in general could have their own language of work, and one had to learn to count on the calculator. Let's take, for example, the first calculator of the Leningrad plant "Svetlana" of the "C" series. This is the C3-07 calculator. By the way, it is worth noting that the calculators of the "Svetlana" plant generally stand apart.
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). Desktop electronic clocks received the letters B2, electronic wrist clocks - B5 (for example, B5-207), desktop electronic with a vacuum indicator - B6, large wall clocks - B7, and so on. Letter "B" - " appliances". Only the microcalculators of the Svetlanovsk plant received the letter" C "- Svetlana (LIGHT of the Incandescent Bulb - for those who do not know).
So, let's take, for example, the C3-07 calculator. A very amazing calculator, especially its keyboard and display. As you can see from the picture, not only the keys are combined on the calculator | + \u003d | and | - \u003d |, but also multiply / divide | X -: - |. Try to guess for yourself how to multiply and divide on this calculator. Hint: the calculator does not accept two keystrokes, only one is possible.
The answer is no less surprising: to perform, say, multiplication 2 by 3, you must press the | 2 | X -: - | 3 | + \u003d |, and to divide 2 by 3, you must press the keys: | 2 | X -: - | 3 | - \u003d |. Addition and subtraction is similar to the B3-04 calculator, that is, the difference 2 - 3 will be calculated as follows: | 2 | + \u003d | 3 | - \u003d |. In some models of this calculator, you can find an amazing eight-segment indicator.
Starting with this model of calculators, all simple calculators of 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 display shows the first 8 or 12 digits of the number.
Speaking about the language of work with microcalculators of the first issues, mention should be made of the calculators B3-02, B3-05 and B3-05M. These are the milestones of the old Iskra-type calculators. In these calculators, all the digits of the indicator are constantly lit during calculations. Mostly, of course, zeros. It is very inconvenient to find the first (and even the last) significant digit on such calculators. By the way, in the C3-07 model, which was mentioned earlier, there was already an attempt to solve this problem, albeit in a somewhat unusual way - on this calculator, zero is half the height. So, these three calculators had a very inconvenient, but quite understandable for early calculators feature: the required accuracy of calculations is set when you enter the first number. That is, if it is necessary, say, to calculate the quotient of dividing 23 by 32 accurate to three decimal places, then the number 23 must be entered with three decimal places: | 23,000 | -: - | 32 | \u003d | (0.718). Until the operator presses the reset button, all subsequent calculations will be performed with three decimal places, and the comma does not move anywhere else. This, by the way, is called "fixed point", and later calculators, in which the comma is already moving along the diple, were then called "floating point". Now, in terminology there have been changes, as a result of which the "floating point" is now called the display of numbers with the mantissa on the left and order on the right.
A year after the development of the first pocket calculator B3-04, new, more advanced models of pocket MCs appeared. These are the B3-09M, B3-14 and B3-14M models. These calculators were made on one K145IK2 processor microcircuit and one phase generator microcircuit. The calculator B3-09M 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 with calculators, including calculations with a constant.
These calculators could already work both from a power supply unit and from four (B3-09M, B3-14M) or three (B3-14) AA elements.
Although these calculators are built on the same chip, they have different functionality. In general, the "removal" of various functions was inherent in many models of Soviet calculators. For example, the calculator B3-09M 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 fluent reading of information, but the last sign bit disappears. For these calculators, before starting work, you must press the "C" key to clear the registers.
THE FIRST SOVIET ENGINEERING MICROCALCULATOR
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 journal "Science and Life" 10, 1976 wrote about this in the article "Fantastic Electronics": "... this calculator has passed the Rubicon of arithmetic, its mathematical education has stepped into trigonometry and algebra." Electronics B3-18 "can instantly build in square and extract the square root, in two steps to raise to any power within eight digits, calculate reciprocals, calculate logarithms and antilogarithms, trigonometric functions ... "," ... when you see how a machine that has just instantly added huge number, spends a few seconds to perform any algebraic or trigonometric operation, involuntarily thinking about the big work that goes on inside a small box before the result lights up on its indicator. "
Indeed, a tremendous amount of work has been done. It was possible to fit 45,000 transistors, resistors, capacitors and conductors into a single crystal 5 x 5.2 mm in size, that is, fifty TVs 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 the institute 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 slider of the slide rule, you don’t have to worry about the error, you can throw the table of logarithms on the shelf.
By the way, this calculator was the first to use the "F" prefix function key.
Nevertheless, the K145IP7 microcircuit of the B3-18 calculator could not fully accommodate everything that was wanted. For example, when evaluating functions that used the Taylor series expansion, the working register was cleared, as a result of which the previous result of the operation was erased. In this regard, it was impossible to make 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 mass strata of the population, it was decided to make a cheaper model on the basis of the B3-18A calculator. In order not to reinvent the wheel, our engineers took the easiest path. They took and removed the "F" prefix function key from the calculator. The calculator turned into a common one, was named "B3-25A" and became available to the general population. And only the developers and repairmen of calculators knew the secret of the B3-25A alteration.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF MICROCALCULATORS
Immediately after the B3-18 calculator, together with engineers from the GDR, the B3-19M microcalculator was released. In this calculator the so-called "reverse Polish notation" was used. First, the first number is typed, then the key to enter the number into the stack is pressed, then the second number, and only after that the required operation is performed. The stack in the calculator consists of three registers - X, Y and Z. In the same calculator, for the first time, the input of the order of a number and the display of a number in floating point format (with mantissa and order) were used. The calculator used a 12-digit red LED indicator.
In 1977, another very powerful engineering calculator appeared - the C3-15. This calculator had an increased accuracy of calculations (up to 12 bits), worked with orders up to 9, (9) to 99 degrees, had three memory registers, but the most remarkable thing was that it worked with algebraic logic. That is, in order to calculate by the formula 2 + 3 * 5, it was not necessary to first calculate 3 * 5, and then add 2. This formula could be written in the "natural" form: | 2 | + | 3 | * | 5 | \u003d |. In addition, the calculator used parentheses up to eight levels. This calculator is also the only calculator that, together with its desktop brother MK-41, has the / p / key. This key was used for calculations using the formula sqrt (x ^ 2 + y ^ 2).
In 1977, the K145IP11 microcircuit was developed, which gave rise to a whole series of calculators. The very first of these was the very famous calculator B3-26 (in the picture on the right). As with the calculators B3-09M, B3-14 and B3-14M, as well as B3-18A and B3-25A, they did the same with him - they removed some functions.
On the basis of the calculator B3-26, calculators B3-23 with percentages, B3-23A with a square root, B3-24G with memory were made. By the way, the B3-23A calculator later became the cheapest Soviet calculator with a price of only 18 rubles. B3-26 soon became known as MK-26 and its half-brother MK-57 and MK-57A appeared with similar functions.
The Svetlanovsk plant also pleased with its model С3-27, which, however, did not take root, and it was soon replaced by the very popular and cheap model С3-33 (MK-33).
Another direction in the development of microcalculators was the engineering B3-35 (MK-35) and B3-36 (MK-36). B3-35 differed from B3-36 in a simpler design and cost five rubles less. 
These calculators were able to convert degrees to radians and vice versa, multiply and divide numbers in memory.
Very interestingly, these calculators calculated the factorial - a simple search. It took more than five seconds to calculate the maximum factorial value of 69 on the B3-35 calculator.
These calculators were very popular with us, although, in my opinion, they had some drawback: they showed exactly as many significant digits on the indicator as stated in the instructions. Usually there are five to six of them for transcendental functions.
On the basis of these calculators, a desktop version of the MK-45 was made.
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 the large demo 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. By design, this calculator is completely identical to the B3-14 calculator.
The peculiarity of the calculator, except for those described above, is that all the inscriptions on the keys are made according to foreign standards. For example, the key for storing a number in memory was not designated "P" and not "x-\u003e P", but "STO". Recalling a number from memory - "RCL".
Despite the ability to work with numbers with large orders, this calculator used an eight-digit display, the same as in B3-14. It turned out that if you display a number with a mantissa and an order, then only five significant digits fit on the indicator. To solve this problem, the "CN" key was used in the calculator. If, for example, the result of calculations was the number 1.2345678e-12, then on the indicator it was displayed as 1.2345-12. By clicking | F | CN |, we see on the indicator 12345678. The comma goes out.
