BCD calculators

[jte]

(11-04-2020 12:41 AM)neyuru Wrote:  Hello all, …

Hello neyuru!

Quote:…first post here. By the way they handle arithmetic, physical calculators can (maybe?) be classified in broadly three groups:

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

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

Myself, I’d place a bunch of BCD calculators in the “software-based” class.

Quote:Having an ASIC is not something a manufacturer usually conveys in its marketing, but I do appreciate a chip specifically designed to handle math operations in the way *most* humans do math. Some calculator models are known to have a BCD compliant microprocessor. Information on HP models is the easiest to find. Some modern calculators are based on ARM…

Where do FPGAs handling the floating-point calculations fit into this classification scheme? I’d generally place them more into a “hardware-based” class (depending, somewhat, on how much of the floating-point calculations are being handled directly by FPGA elements). Note that ARM / FPGA hybrids are currently available.