WORKING PRINCIPLES WITH BLOCK DIAGRAM

The calculator depends on integrated circuits, commonly known as chips. These circuits use
transistors to add and subtract, as well as to perform computations on logarithms in order to
accomplish multiplication, division and more complicated operations such as using exponents
and finding square roots. Basically, the more transistors an integrated circuit has, the more
advanced its functions may be. There are input, processor, output and the power source. The
input which is the keyboard has about 40 tiny plastic keys with a rubber membrane underneath
and a touch-sensitive circuit underneath that. The Processor has a microchip that does all the
hard work. While the output which is a liquid crystal display (LCD) for showing you the
numbers you type in and the results of your calculations. The power source has a long-life
battery which has a thin lithium "button" cell that lasts several years. When the button is pressed
down on one of the number keys on your calculator and a series of things will happen in quick
succession. Whereas the button is pressed on the hard plastic, it compressed the rubber
membrane underneath it. The rubber button pushes down making an electrical contact between
two layers in the keyboard sensor underneath and the keyboard circuit detects this. The processor
chip will figures out which key you have pressed. The circuit in the processor chip activates the
appropriate segments on the display corresponding to the number you've pressed. If you press
more numbers, the processor chip will show them up on the display as well and it will keep
doing this until you press one of the operations keys such as +, −, × and ÷ to make it do
something different. Suppose you press the “+” key. The calculator will store the number entered
in a small memory called a register. Then, it will wipe the display and wait for another number.
As you enter this second number, the processor chip will display it digit-by-digit as before and
store it in another register. Finally, when hit the “=” key, the calculator will add the contents of
the two registers together and display the result.

The digits on a calculator are made from a different pattern of seven bars or segments. The
processor chip knows it can display any of the numbers 0-9 by activating a different combination
of these seven segments. The chips inside a calculator work by reducing any information you
give it to its binary equivalent. Binary numbers translate the numbers in a base-two system, in
which we represent each digit by a 1 or a 0, doubling each time we move up a digit. By "turning
on" each of the positions, in other words, by putting a 1 in it can say that that digit is included in
our overall number. Microchips use binary logic by turning transistors on and off literally, with
electricity. For example, if you wanted to add 2 + 2, the calculator would convert each "2" to
binary (which looks like this: 10) and then add them together. Adding the "ones" column (the
two 0s), gives you 0. The chip can see that there is nothing in the first position. When it adds the
digits in the "tens" column, the chip gets 1+1. It sees that both are positive, and since there are no
2's in binary notation moves the positive reply one digit to the left, getting a sum of 100 which in
binary terms, equals 4. This sum is routed through the input/output chip in our integrated circuit,
which applies the same logic to the display itself. So, the processor takes that "100" and
translates it by lighting up or turning on certain segments of the lines in the display to create the
numeral 4. If want to do the sum 3 + 2 = 5. A calculator tackles a problem like this by turning the
two numbers into binary, giving 11 (which is 3 in binary = 1 × 2 + 1 × 1) plus 10 (2 in binary = 1
× 2 + 0 × 1) makes 101 (5 in binary = 1 × 4 + 0 × 2 + 1 × 1).

It uses logic gates to compare the pattern of switches that are active and come up with a new
pattern of switches instead. A logic gate is really just a simple electrical circuit that compares
two numbers (inputs) and produces a third number (an output) depending on the values of the
original numbers. Types of logic gates called OR, AND, and NOT. An OR gate has two inputs
(each of which can be either 0 or 1) and it produces an output of 1 if either of the inputs is 1, it
will produces a zero otherwise. An AND gate also has two inputs, but it produces an output of 1
only if both inputs are 1. Finally, a NOT gate has a single input and reverses it to make an
output. So if you feed it a zero, it produces a 1 (and vice-versa).