The Little Professor is a backwards-functioning calculator designed for children ages 5 to 9. Instead of providing the answer to a mathematical expression entered by the user, it generates unsolved expressions and prompts the user for the answer. [1]
When the user turns the Little Professor on and selects a difficulty level, an incomplete equation such as "3 x 6 =" appears on the LED display. The user has three chances to enter the correct number. If the answer is incorrect, the display shows "EEE". After the third wrong answer, the correct answer is shown. If the answer supplied is correct, the Little Professor goes to the next equation. [2] The Little Professor shows the number of correct first answers after each set of 10 problems. [3] The device is powered by a 9-volt battery. [4] The type of problems can be selected with the +-*÷ keys.
The Little Professor was first released by Texas Instruments on June 13, 1976. [5] As the first electronic educational toy, [6] [7] the Little Professor is a common item on calculator collectors' lists. [8]
In 1976, the Little Professor cost less than $20. More than 1 million units sold in 1977. [9]
The second generation Little Professor was designed by Mark Bailey whilst working for Raffo and Pape. In a brief interview in 2013 Bailey stated 'I've designed everything from private jets to pregnancy tests but Little Professor remains the highlight of my career.' [10]
A solar version of Little Professor was introduced during the 2000s.
An emulator of the Little Professor for Android was published in 2012. [11]
In 2015, the MESS emulator also included the original Little Professor as a sort of pack-in.
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics.
The TI-89 and the TI-89 Titanium are graphing calculators developed by Texas Instruments (TI). They are differentiated from most other TI graphing calculators by their computer algebra system, which allows symbolic manipulation of algebraic expressions—equations can be solved in terms of variables, whereas the TI-83/84 series can only give a numeric result.
The TI-83 series is a series of graphing calculators manufactured by Texas Instruments.
The Speak & Spell line is a series of electronic hand-held child computers by Texas Instruments that consisted of a TMC0280 linear predictive coding speech synthesizer, a keyboard, and a receptor slot to receive one of a collection of ROM game library modules. The first Speak & Spell was introduced at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978, making it one of the earliest handheld electronic devices with a visual display to use interchangeable game cartridges. The company Basic Fun brought back the classic Speak & Spell in 2019 with some minor changes.
The TI-81 was the first graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments. It was designed in 1990 for use in algebra and precalculus courses. Since its release, it has been superseded by a series of newer calculators: the TI-85, TI-82, TI-83, TI-86, TI-83 Plus, TI-83 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, TI-Nspire, TI-Nspire CAS, TI-84 Plus CE, and most recently, the TI-84 Plus CE Python. Most of them share the original feature set and 96×64-pixel display that began with this calculator, with the exceptions of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition and the TI-84 Plus CE family.
TI-BASIC is the official name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments (TI)'s graphing calculators. TI-BASIC is a language family of three different and incompatible versions, released on different products:
The TI-68 was a scientific pocket/desktop calculator produced by Texas Instruments. It was introduced in 1989 and was modified in 1991 to produce a less expensive and possibly more durable version. The adjacent picture is the later version. It was discontinued in 1997.
The TI-30 is a scientific calculator manufactured by Texas Instruments, the first model of which was introduced in 1976. While the original TI-30 was discontinued in 1983 after several design revisions, TI maintains the TI-30 designation as a branding for its low and mid-range scientific calculators.
The Texas Instruments LPC Speech Chips are a series of speech synthesizer digital signal processor integrated circuits created by Texas Instruments beginning in 1978. They continued to be developed and marketed for many years, though the speech department moved around several times within TI until finally dissolving in late 2001. The rights to the speech-specific subset of the MSP line, the last remaining line of TI speech products as of 2001, were sold to Sensory, Inc. in October 2001.
There are various ways in which calculators interpret keystrokes. These can be categorized into two main types:
The HP-16C Computer Scientist is a programmable pocket calculator that was produced by Hewlett-Packard between 1982 and 1989. It was specifically designed for use by computer programmers, to assist in debugging. It is a member of the HP Voyager series of programmable calculators. It was the only programmer's calculator ever produced by HP, though many later HP calculators have incorporated most of the 16C's functions.
Texas Instruments TI-36 is a series of scientific calculators distributed by Texas Instruments. It currently represents the high-end model for the TI-30 product lines.
The TI-Nspire is a graphing calculator line made by Texas Instruments, with the first version released on 25 September 2007. The calculators feature a non-QWERTY keyboard and a different key-by-key layout than Texas Instruments's previous flagship calculators such as the TI-89 series.
The TI-95, also called the TI-95 PROCALC, is a keystroke programmable calculator and was introduced in 1987 by Texas Instruments. It was rather large, measuring 3.7" by 8" by 1" and had a 16-character alphanumeric display for the main display, and a set of 5 3-character displays for use as menu items. It had 8kB of onboard RAM, capable of being partitioned by the user between program steps for the built-in program editor, numerically-labelled registers, and file memory. It could also be connected to PC-324 compatible printers. The calculator came with a hard carrying case which closes around it. Compatible ROM and extra RAM could be placed in the expansion slot in the upper right corner of the device, which came from the factory with a dummy protector cartridge labelled "ROM/RAM". Texas Instruments would release three compatible ROM cartridges, one containing advanced mathematics functions such as the Gamma function and Newton's method labeled Mathematics, a second containing statistics features such as the Normal and Student's t distributions and various statistical tests labeled Statistics, and a third containing functions and data on common industrial chemicals labelled as Chemical Engineering. An 8kb RAM expansion cartridge could also be placed into the cartridge slot, and RAM cartridges could be given names to allow a user to have multiple cartridges, each with its own library of custom-made functions. The calculator also supported the use of a cassette tape drive to store programs. Programs are entered into the calculator's memory as a keystroke program, in which the user effectively records a macro which is played back when the program is run.
The Texas Instruments Business Analyst series is a product line of financial calculators introduced in 1976. BA calculators provide time value of money functions and are widely used in accounting and other financial applications. Though originally designed specifically for financial use, current models also include basic scientific calculator and statistics functions. The BA series competes directly with other mid- to high-end financial calculators, particularly the HP-12C and other models from TI competitor Hewlett-Packard. There are two models in the product line: the BA II Plus and the BA II Plus Professional.
The TI-34 name is a branding used by Texas Instruments for its mid-range scientific calculators aimed at the educational market. The first TI-34 model was introduced in 1987 as a midpoint between the TI-30 series and the TI-35/TI-36 series. Earlier models included Boolean algebra features, though these were removed with the introduction of the TI-34II in 1999, which focuses more on fractional calculations and other subjects common in middle and high school math and science curricula.
Solar-powered calculators are hand-held electronic calculators powered by solar cells mounted on the device. They were introduced at the end of the 1970s.
The TI-55 is a programmable calculator first manufactured by Texas Instruments in 1977. It has an LED display, and weighs 6.4 ounces. It is programmable to hold up to 32 key-codes that allow the user to repeat simple calculations with different values.
The TMS1000 is a family of microcontrollers introduced by Texas Instruments in 1974.
The TI-54 was a scientific calculator produced by Texas Instruments, primarily marketed towards engineers and science professionals. It was introduced in 1981, and at the time was the only calculator that could deal with complex numbers. It was discontinued in 1983.