Graphic calculators made by Casio

Casio

is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...

 include the touchscreen Classpad 300 as well as the models with traditional buttons which can be divided into two main generations listed below.
Casio produced the world's first graphing calculator

Graphing calculator

A graphing calculator typically refers to a class of handheld calculators that are capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing numerous other tasks with variables...

, the fx-7000G

Casio fx-7000G

The Casio fx-7000G is notable for being the world's first graphing calculator.It came with 422 bytes of memory and it was possible to store up to ten programs in 10 program slots. 422 bytes is not much by today's standards, but with its heavily tokenised programming language, programs performing...

.

Prizm fx-CG series

Announced for January 2011, these models have a high-resolution color display (384×216 pixels with 2¹⁶ colors), a USB 2.0 port, 16 MB of flash memory and a feature called Picture Plot. The Prizm is permitted on all major standardized tests including ACT, SAT, and AP.

Although no official SDK has been released yet, several community SDKs exist using either some of the fx-9860G SDK tools or parts of the GNU toolchain

GNU toolchain

The GNU toolchain is a blanket term for a collection of programming tools produced by the GNU Project. These tools form a toolchain used for developing applications and operating systems....

.

Models: fx-CG10 (North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

), fx-CG20 (other regions)

9860 G/GII series

First made in the year 2005, the 9860 models are much faster than previous models and can be programmed in C/C++ using the official software development kit.

In 2009 the GII models were produced along with a corresponding OS update for the original 9860G, with new functions gcd/lcm/mod, random integer, units conversion, string functions, and new probability and inverse probability distributions available within programs. The 9860G OS update was not absolutely identical to an actual 9860GII model.

The fx-9860G Slim and fx-9860GII have a backlight display.

The fx-9750GII and fx-7400GII are low-budget versions with restricted OS functionality. Also, the fx-7400GII does not have a USB 1.1 port.

Models: fx-9860G, fx-9860G SD, fx-9860G Slim, fx-9860GII, fx-9860GII SD, fx-9750GII, fx-7400GII (French versions: Graph 85, Graph 85 SD, Graph 85 Slim, Graph 75, Graph 95, Graph 35+ USB, Graph 25+ Pro)

Australia only: fx-9860G AU, fx-9860G AU Plus

Algebra FX series

First made in the year 1999, these have flash memory which provides larger capacity than previous models, however due to the short lifespan of the original flash memory used, these calculators stop working after a few years. Casio has stated that this problem has been fixed. The Algebra FX 2.0 versions have symbolic algebra, while the FX 1.0 versions do not. There are community written tools for accessing the ROM-DOS operating system thus allowing C and Pascal compilers to be used.

Models: Algebra FX 2.0, FX 1.0, Algebra FX 2.0 Plus, FX 1.0 Plus (French versions: Graph 100, Graph 100+)

9850 series (9750/9850/9950/9970)

First made in the year 1996, there have been numerous variations of the CFX-9850G. The 9850 series models have 3-colour screens apart from the fx-9750G which is black and white. The 9950G has 64k memory compared to the 32k of the original 9850G. The 9970G has symbolic algebra. Later versions such as Ga, GB and GC models fixed some bugs from the original G model and added some stats and finance features. The GB models have a built-in software library.

(French versions: 9750=Graph 30,35,fx-8930GT; 9850,9950=Graph 60,65,CFX-9930GT,9940,9960; 9970=Graph 80)

7400 Series

First made in the year 1996, this series is like a cut-down version of the 9850 series. For instance it does not have the commands Getkey,Locate,Text or matrices or complex numbers, and the screen is smaller.

Models: fx-7400G, fx-7400G Plus, fx-7450G, fx-7400G Plus GY (French versions: fx-6910G, Graph 20, Graph 25)

Icon Menu Power Graphic series (1993)

Around 1993, the Icon Menu Power Graphic series introduced: An icon-driven menu interface, further increasing ease of use, numerical differentiation; matrices in programs; and an equation solver. Models: fx-7700GE, later renamed fx-7700GH.
(French version: fx-7900GC)

Additionally there were models with 24K memory which introduced: dynamic graphing; complex numbers; table mode; more advanced equation solver; larger matrices (255x255); sigma calculations; graph solver for roots, intercepts, max and mins. These include the fx-9700GE, later renamed fx-9700GH (wider screen) and the CFX-9800G (3-color screen).
(French versions: fx-9900GC, CFX-9900GC)

Also made with an icon menu but none of the above features was the fx-7300G (french: fx-6900G).

Power Graphic Series (1990)

Around 1990, the Power Graphic series introduced: F1 through F6 shortcut keys which enabled significantly greater ease of use, polar, parametric and inequality graphs; box and factor zoom; multiple graph scrolling; range initialization; integration; matrix mode; fractions; permutations; combinations; normal probabilities; SI unit symbols;
Models: fx-7700G, fx-7700GB, fx-8700G, fx-8700GB. The GB models have a communications port.
(French versions: fx-7800G, fx-7800GC, fx-8800G, fx-8800GC).

Also made was the low-end fx-6300G (french: fx-6800G) with a smaller screen and less features, and the fx-6200G which didn't have any programming facility.

Original series

First produced in 1985, these include the fx-7000G

Casio fx-7000G

The Casio fx-7000G is notable for being the world's first graphing calculator.It came with 422 bytes of memory and it was possible to store up to ten programs in 10 program slots. 422 bytes is not much by today's standards, but with its heavily tokenised programming language, programs performing...

, fx-6000G, fx-6500G, fx-7200G, fx-7500G, fx-8000G, fx-8500G.

Programming

Casio graphic calculators use a BASIC

BASIC

BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....

-like programming language but variable

Variable (programming)

In computer programming, a variable is a symbolic name given to some known or unknown quantity or information, for the purpose of allowing the name to be used independently of the information it represents...

 names are restricted to single letters A-Z which are shared by all programs including subroutines which are stored as separate programs. This means there are no local variable

Local variable

In computer science, a local variable is a variable that is given local scope. Such a variable is accessible only from the function or block in which it is declared. In programming languages with only two levels of visibility, local variables are contrasted with global variables...

s, they are all global. These variables are also shared by other functions of the calculator. For example, drawing a graph will overwrite the X and Y values.

1st Generation Programming Language

Loops are constructed by incrementing or decrementing the value of a variable with the Isz and Dsz commands in conjunction with the Lbl and Goto commands, rather than using simpler For or While commands. Arrays are achieved by overwriting other letters, for example A[0]=A, A[1]=B, A[2]=C. The available space for arrays can be extended with the Defm command so that Z[1], Z[2] etc can be used depending on how much unused memory capacity is available.

2nd Generation Programming Language

Compared to the first generation models these have many more commands including: For and While Loops, If.. Then structures and the ability for real-time user interaction with the Getkey command and the ability to place characters anywhere on the screen with the Locate and Text commands. Also the method for using array variables was changed to using lists and matrices.

External links

• Manuals at support.casio.com