From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 10/02/2026 10:52 am, Christopher Howard wrote:   
   > Hi, I was wondering what is the cheapest (and hopefully, simple to wire   
   > up) way to get an analog square function. I.e., input a voltage x, and   
   > get voltage x^2 out. Or x^2/10. Or some reasonable approximation of   
   > either of those.   
   >   
   > The standard trick is to feed the voltage into both inputs of a   
   > multiplier chip. But even those AD633 chips are tough to afford on my   
   > budget (around 20 USD each).   
      
   The late Jim Thompson's MC1496 is a lot cheaper - if a lot nastier - and   
   Digikey has it for $0.35 on cut tape.   
      
   You'd probably need to trim out offsets to get any kind of accuracy for   
   low level inputs. The MC1495, which was closer to a proper multiplier,   
   is now obsolete.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)