High-end math capabilities such as symbolic calculus and Euclidean geometry are migrating from PCs to $200 calculators. Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) says it will release a new calculator called the TI-92 later this year. This calculator delivers interactive geometry, symbolic manipulation, statistics, and even 3-D graphing with an easy-to-use graphical interface.
TI collaborated with the creators of the Cabri Geometry II software at the Université of Joseph Fourier as well as the authors of the Derive algebra that's published by Soft Warehouse in adding the interactive-geometry and symbolic-manipulation features. Thanks to those joint efforts, you can not only determine the integral (that's the area under a curve for those of you who haven't been to calculus
class lately) of a curve, you can also get the formula that's used for finding the integral (e.g., the TI-92 will tell you that the formula for determining the integral of
x(2)+2x+2
is
x(3)/3+x(2)+2x
).
TI says that the new calculator (
see the photo
) lets teachers equip a math lab much less expensively. The reaction from BYTE's college interns to the new calculator was universal: "I want one."
The TI-92 has a 240- by 128-pixel display. You can split the display to view two applications simultaneously. It includes a QWERTY keyboard and
an I/O port for data transfer. It's about the size of a videocassette tape. TI ((800) 842-2737; fax (817) 774-6074; ti-cares@ti.com) says the TI-92 will sell for about $200.
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
BYTE Digest editors every month analyze and evaluate the best articles from Information Week, EE Times, Dr. Dobb's Journal, Network Computing, Sys Admin,
and dozens of other CMP publications—bringing
you critical news and information about wireless communication,
computer security, software development, embedded systems,
and more!
PC Power Comes to the Calculator
