Slashdot Mirror

HP quit the scientific calculator business in 2003. Til then, they were the main competitor with TI for the high-end calculator business. TI has had a free ride since then.

I use an HP48 emulator on my smartphone. But I can understand students being upset about classes requiring a TI calculator because the teachers ban smartphones during tests. I remember when the HP28C was first released, some enterprising students figured out a way to use its IR transmitter/receiver to communicate with each other during tests. In response, subsequent models had a crippled IR receiver with very limited range.

4 grayscale HP-48 SX/GX FTW !

Thanks, I can fap to this!

You would rather have a crappy Casio over a HP or a TI ? That's sick. :-)

4 grayscale HP-48 SX/GX FTW !

in fact, even HP can't do a world class calculator anymore. for that, take a bullshit business grade HP calc and reload opensource firmware on it!

http://commerce.hpcalc.org/34s...

I bought a vinyl overlay, a new hp30b and was able to install new firmware, making it the calc that hp can't seem to do on their own, anymore.

when USERS can create calculator firmware that blows away what the vendor, HP, can do, HP has clearly jumped the shark.

All of the good HP scientific calcs have basic metric-imperial conversion abilities, and none of them live up to the 48. You'd have to browse through manuals to see exactly how much they do provide. My guess is that the scientific calculator with the most unit conversion power is the WP 34S, which is basically an open source 3rd party ROM and keyboard overlay for the HP 30b. I don't know that it would be allowed in many tests.

An HP-48 emulator is better IMHO.

The oldest version I've played was on the HP48 calculators, and I think even that was a port off of some older platform.

What about using one of the key remapping applications for the HP 48 series of calculators? See the stuff at http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/utils/interface/ for example.

Alternatively, usinagaz, being a real TCP/IP stack for a real engineer's calculator. IRC, web server, mail client, etc.

Not sure why you'd need an Arduino board. What simple interface did TI manage to break?

Alternatively, usinagaz, being a real TCP/IP stack for a real engineer's calculator. IRC, web server, mail client, etc.

Not sure why you'd need an Arduino board. What simple interface did TI manage to break?

Forgot a pic of the font ...
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/programming/asm/sshots/jazz68.gif

8 lines are a "waste." I had a 5 pt font on my HP48SX/GX. Someone even hacked in lower case case. (Technically, 6 pts, since you need 1 line for spacing.)

See the editor included with the "Jazz" assembler.
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/programming/asm/

Did HP start making new calculators? I thought they closed down their calculator division.

I remember reading this and being sad:
    http://www.hpcalc.org/goodbyeaco.php

I don't know why they didn't label the arrow keys on the 50G. I went through college on a 48SX, so I knew about some of the arrow key functionality, but I think only veterans of the 48 know such things. Likewise they failed to ship a full manual with the thing - I didn't even know until a couple years ago that there existed an advanced user guide on the 50G (normal guide, advanced guide - also CAS documentation). There is a ridiculous amount of hidden capability in the 50G, but they don't ship manuals for it, so nobody knows about it. And for anyone who has the 50G dropping keys on them, set the KEYTIME, another great documentation failure by HP.

As far as the swap, I'm not certain if what you call true x-y swap exists on the 50G, but if it does exist in the catalog you can probably map a soft or hard key to it. I would have to check the manual on how to do that, but I have done it before. I had to map a soft key to get back the '->Q' function that was a hard key on my 48SX (left-shift EVAL - converts a fractional number to a ratio of two integers, ex. .9225 ->Q gives 369/400).

I don't know why they didn't label the arrow keys on the 50G. I went through college on a 48SX, so I knew about some of the arrow key functionality, but I think only veterans of the 48 know such things. Likewise they failed to ship a full manual with the thing - I didn't even know until a couple years ago that there existed an advanced user guide on the 50G (normal guide, advanced guide - also CAS documentation). There is a ridiculous amount of hidden capability in the 50G, but they don't ship manuals for it, so nobody knows about it. And for anyone who has the 50G dropping keys on them, set the KEYTIME, another great documentation failure by HP.

As far as the swap, I'm not certain if what you call true x-y swap exists on the 50G, but if it does exist in the catalog you can probably map a soft or hard key to it. I would have to check the manual on how to do that, but I have done it before. I had to map a soft key to get back the '->Q' function that was a hard key on my 48SX (left-shift EVAL - converts a fractional number to a ratio of two integers, ex. .9225 ->Q gives 369/400).

I've used x48 on Solaris and HPUX on many occasions, however I've found it to be somewhat unstable on recent linux releases (I suspect it's the GUI code, not the emulator itself). In any event I've found a more portable solution (aside from my actual HP50G). Emu48 skinned and running the roms for a HP50G makes for a very nice Win32 desktop calc (all the necessary bits are here, here, here, and refer to this first).

Simply placed on a USB drive the Emu48 install becomes portable. With a PortableApps install, and with a small bit of config editing on the PA side, the Emu48 directory can be dropped into the PortableApps directory and will integrate into the PA menu. Configured like that, you get portable, nice startup/shutdown, and it retains its memory between machines.

Whatever deficiencies the 48G+ had were more than satisfied by the good folks at http://www.hpcalc.org/

However I distinctly remember using my brand new HP48 as a remote control back when I bought it in 1992. I guess that brackets HP48 remote control programs between 1990 (1st year of HP48 production) and 1995. http://www.hpcalc.org/ probably has some original versions.

I don't see how this terribly revolutionary in a phone either. You could do this with a Palm III(1998)

Well, I can crush that.

The most RECENT release of ONE HP48 calculator remote control program was in very early 1995.

http://www.rhoads.nu/bjorn/hp48/remote/remote.html

However I distinctly remember using my brand new HP48 as a remote control back when I bought it in 1992. I guess that brackets HP48 remote control programs between 1990 (1st year of HP48 production) and 1995. http://www.hpcalc.org/ probably has some original versions.

OK, this is an off-the-wall idea, but hear me out...

The HP48 is a slightly old HP scientific, graphing calculator (more like a small computer). It so happens that you can download an emulator for it, and a ROM for said emulator legally, and for free. I believe its processor was 4MHz, so any computer being built today will have no trouble.

Now, why did I mention this in a question about games? Because there are hundreds of free games available for the calculator. Some of them might even be worth installing the emulator for. Not to mention the fact that the kids get a free scientific/graphing calculator program in the process.

OK, this is an off-the-wall idea, but hear me out...

The HP48 is a slightly old HP scientific, graphing calculator (more like a small computer). It so happens that you can download an emulator for it, and a ROM for said emulator legally, and for free. I believe its processor was 4MHz, so any computer being built today will have no trouble.

Now, why did I mention this in a question about games? Because there are hundreds of free games available for the calculator. Some of them might even be worth installing the emulator for. Not to mention the fact that the kids get a free scientific/graphing calculator program in the process.

OK, this is an off-the-wall idea, but hear me out...

The HP48 is a slightly old HP scientific, graphing calculator (more like a small computer). It so happens that you can download an emulator for it, and a ROM for said emulator legally, and for free. I believe its processor was 4MHz, so any computer being built today will have no trouble.

Now, why did I mention this in a question about games? Because there are hundreds of free games available for the calculator. Some of them might even be worth installing the emulator for. Not to mention the fact that the kids get a free scientific/graphing calculator program in the process.

New openly hackable calculator? A dream come true! ARM is good, HP has the rep, and... a single-chip solution with 6kB RAM and 128kB FLASH? Uh-oh, I guess we slipped into the nightmare section.

Worse yet, it's a business calculator with limited alphanumeric LCD-module.

Oh well, back to waiting for Qonos.

Tm

There are 50 buttons on that remote because the device does SO much stuff. You paid for it, and you'll need a way to control it. Personally, I -use- those buttons, so I don't find them to be annoying.

"(Still looking for the hard leather belt holster for the 45 to go along with the hard leather belt holster for my Pickett slide rule."

You use to be able to get stuff like that through Educalc.

Well as far as I know they've shut down their calculator division. So unless they opened a new one somewhere else I doubt this will happen.

I used to check out http://freshmeat.net/ almost daily, but that was when I was only a few years into Linux and still on an endless search for software that did different things, and at the time it seemed simpler to just wait and see what came up on fm every day (you could easily tell how active things were that way, too). Speaking of fm---does anyone have a copy of that old butchered-meat logo fm used to have, waaaay back, before the beginning of the fm II theme?

About weekly, I'll check out http://amasci.com/ (amateur science and electricity stuff), http://en.wikipedia.org/ (duh), http://www.cray-cyber.org/ (free supercomputer access), http://www.hpcalc.org/ (HP48/49/etc calculator stuff), etc., to check for new stuff. I'll check my http://facebook.com/ and http://myspace.com/orangesquid (shuddup) messages about weekly. From time to time I might browse http://www.amazing1.com/ (catalog which has Tesla coils and stuff, though they're not actually the best place for parts/kits/devices) or search for scientific equipment or old unix systems on http://www.ebay.com/ (see the Used SGI Buying Guide FAQ, etc).

I also check up on some of my friends via http://os.livejournal.com/friends every few days.

Lately I've been choosing a new section on http://scitoys.com/ to read every few days. Every few weeks, I'll usually find a different information-type site to read through gradually, or pick a topic to research on wikipedia.

Claudia Schiffer
http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=1153

hp49g+ - Pros:
SD card reader
RPN AND Algebraic notation
Speaker
MUCH faster than the 89Ti
Powerful CAS library
Built-in assembly

hp49g+ - Cons:
Lower resolution
Older models have worthless keyboards
Harder to use
Smaller userbase

89Ti - Pros:
Much larger screen
A truely gigantic userbase; some INSANE things have been done with this calculator, and this is where the 89 really shines:
F-Zero for the calculator: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/13/13 3/133789.html
Headphone support: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/386/ 38629.html
Gameboy emulation: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/369/ 36950.html
Radium overclocking: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/1/15/ 15975.html (just kidding)
Geometer's Sketchpad: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/p roductDetail/us_sketchpad_89.html
And much more.

89Ti - Cons:
Slow 3D graphing (a program allows a TI-83+ to do this faster than TI's built-in 3D grapher for the 89, even if you take resolution into account)
CAS sometimes behaves oddly (try the cube root of -27)
Much slower than hp49g+
No RPN (third party RPN programs aren't very good)

Well, that's my take on the situation. I've used both calcs and I've tried to be unbiased, and it's really up to you to decide. I personally have an 89 because I love my virtual globe, my tesseract grapher, ELIZA, my star chart, my All Your Base Are Belong To Us screensaver, and such. At the same time, I am envious of the hp49g+'s superior speed and graphing capabilities, and it (the hp49g+) is really fun to use. However, the title of ultimate calculator would have to go to one of the following:

Qonos: http://www.hpcalc.org/qonos.php (it looks so cool!)
TI-Nspire CAS: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/n onProductMulti/nspire_cas.html (even if it is ugly)
Voyage 400: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/8/85/ 85069.html (I wish)

Agreed, it's inferior to the 48s/g series, it's not much worse, unlike the interim HPs and every other graphing calc out there.

As for the documentation, the printed documentation is severely lacking.

That's right! You can get an exceptional emulator for an HP48-GX, free!

The emulator is here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=3644
You also need to get a ROM dump file, which you can get here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=4368

There are several other emulators, including versions for Windows CE and PocketPC, as well as many other programs and resources, on that site. That also means, if your college will allow PDAs in the classroom, you could just get a PDA and forego the physical calculator entirely!

That's right! You can get an exceptional emulator for an HP48-GX, free!

The emulator is here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=3644
You also need to get a ROM dump file, which you can get here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=4368

There are several other emulators, including versions for Windows CE and PocketPC, as well as many other programs and resources, on that site. That also means, if your college will allow PDAs in the classroom, you could just get a PDA and forego the physical calculator entirely!

That's right! You can get an exceptional emulator for an HP48-GX, free!

The emulator is here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=3644
You also need to get a ROM dump file, which you can get here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=4368

There are several other emulators, including versions for Windows CE and PocketPC, as well as many other programs and resources, on that site. That also means, if your college will allow PDAs in the classroom, you could just get a PDA and forego the physical calculator entirely!

That's right! You can get an exceptional emulator for an HP48-GX, free!

The emulator is here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=3644
You also need to get a ROM dump file, which you can get here: http://www.hpcalc.org/details.php?id=4368

There are several other emulators, including versions for Windows CE and PocketPC, as well as many other programs and resources, on that site. That also means, if your college will allow PDAs in the classroom, you could just get a PDA and forego the physical calculator entirely!

Carly axed HP's calculator division. The division now making their calculators is a completely different one. I sort of recall hearing it was one of their consumer laptop divisions, but I could be wrong. It's been a while.

What I can find is at http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49gplus.php, which implies that HP calculator development is now outsourced to a third party.

Uh, 256kB is a decent amount of Flash. I can't imagine that regular customers of these sets will ever reach that limit.

For comparison, the HP49G+ has a very similiar CPU and comes with only twice that amount (the HP48G only comes with 64kB and has nearly the same software), but includes a full-blown advanced symbolic manipulation and solving code library competing with Mathematica in some areas.

from that page, a link to a new calc being developed:
http://www.hpcalc.org/qonos.php

eCos, running in 512KB SRAM and providing one month of battery life
Linux, running in 64MB of SDRAM and providing considerably more than a day of battery life
A day of battery life??

There is some truth to that --- however, a good calculator, that fits in your hand, and has all the calculator functions available as keypresses, can still be more efficient than your laptop+CAS..

Utilities have been coded to overclock HP48/HP49 calculators to a wide range of clock speeds - you can pick and choose what you like, up to 200MHz. This is pretty impressive too - that's more than a doubling of clock speed, IIRC.

I've got a HP48GX, an RPN/LISP graphing calculator from HP before they (mostly) nerfed their calculator research devision. I love it; there is no product out there I would trade it for, except maybe an HP49.

I suggest you download EMU48 : a free emulator for HP48 series calculators. You'll need a ROM image (HP allows free distrobution): HP48GX rev R.
OSX version of EMU48
It's not as good as the physical unit, but it gives you the right idea.

I've got a HP48GX, an RPN/LISP graphing calculator from HP before they (mostly) nerfed their calculator research devision. I love it; there is no product out there I would trade it for, except maybe an HP49.

I suggest you download EMU48 : a free emulator for HP48 series calculators. You'll need a ROM image (HP allows free distrobution): HP48GX rev R.
OSX version of EMU48
It's not as good as the physical unit, but it gives you the right idea.

I've got a HP48GX, an RPN/LISP graphing calculator from HP before they (mostly) nerfed their calculator research devision. I love it; there is no product out there I would trade it for, except maybe an HP49.

I suggest you download EMU48 : a free emulator for HP48 series calculators. You'll need a ROM image (HP allows free distrobution): HP48GX rev R.
OSX version of EMU48
It's not as good as the physical unit, but it gives you the right idea.

They used to have pics of their prototype spread out over the bench, with all the chips in view and the keys on the keyboard all hand-labelled.

Are these the photos you were talking about?
http://www.hpcalc.org/qonos.php

Meta Kernel

Way faster than the stock stuff on my 48gx. Too bad the 128kB memory cards were so goddamn expensive so I didn't get it for a long time.

You are right in both ways. Even the HP48's emulates system RPL, a language they've carried from previous calculators. It's an intermediate language that offers simpler math functios. The bulk of the stuff the calculator does (like the matrix routines) is written in it.

If the 49 has it's own SysRPL emulator, it would be quite fast (not as fast as pure C, though), but if it's emulating the 48's Saturn processor, which is emulating SysRPL, things could get slow.

p.s. Am I the only one here with the Saturn processor on their resume?

Next story - Radio Shack has a new clock radio out.... and you can program the station presets YOURSELF!!!

I don't give a rat's ass about new calculators or compiler for them, but if this story IS worth posting why not include a link to the actual product on the HP website, or a link to the the hpcalc.org web site where people get off on this stuff and provide more background information.

Seriously, this DOES look like a great calculator for a student studying math or science, or someone working in a similar field. I guess for those people who already have the calculator to perform calculations and graph stuff (ie the things calculators are sold to do) the ability to 'customize' it might be 'cool'. But you have got to be one card-carrying, dyed-in-the-wool, geek to think so.

This probably confirms your theory...

Let's hope these same guys can eventually create their full-blown linux-based calc themselves!

for those interested in the the 49g+ in all it's gory technical details.

There's more details and pictures on hpcalc.

Quote:

Operating system:
eCos, running in 512KB SRAM and providing one month of battery life
Linux, running in 64MB of SDRAM and providing considerably more than a day of battery life

Other software:
Emulation of both the HP 49G and the TI-89
Advanced math software: Gnuplot, Giac/Xcas (supposedly better than Maple), MathsExplorer
PDA software: calendar, tasks, notes, time management
Datalogging capabilities

Processor:
Intel PXA 263 XScale processor, running at 400 MHz
32MB of on-chip flash memory
32-bit data bus

Display:
Grayscale 3" 320x240
Full support already exists for a color screen to be offered at a later date

Other hardware:
Mono speaker and microphone
Stereo audio input and ouput ports
Keyboard with tactile feedback designed for fast, accurate data entry
Compact Flash Type II slot
SDIO slot
IrDA port
USB client and host ports, supporting external keyboards, webcams, and other devices

Optional sled:
Vernier probe compatible
8 analog I/O channels
16 digital/sonic I/O channels
Extra high-capacity lithium ion battery
DB-9 serial port

Price:
Over US$350