HP Forum Archive 09

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Inside the HP 9G Message #1 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 6 Dec 2002, 8:32 a.m. The new HP 9G looks like a rebadged... what ? Dismantling the HP 9G reveals a CPU not expected: A Taiwanesian "Sunplus SPLB30A" (http://www.sunplus.com.tw) intended for Data Bank applications. You'll find more data here: http://www.sunplus.com.tw/products/pdf/lcd/datasheet/splb/lb30av03.pdf . It is a complete system with 2.5kByte RAM, 96kByte ROM and the display driver, key scan logic. In the typical Data Bank a huge RAM (128k Byte..) is added with a serial Bus. This is the way we are doing calculators since the Texas Instruments TI-68: Take a cheap microcontroller and add some software... Greetings from [=] key. Joerg

Re: Inside the HP 9G Message #2 Posted by Juergen Rodenkirchen (GER) on 6 Dec 2002, 12:30 p.m., in response to message #1 by Joerg Woerner Joerg, do you have any information where one can purchase an HP9G in Germany? Retailers like Cynox do not yet offer them as far as I know ... Juergen

Re: Inside the HP 9G Message #3 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 6 Dec 2002, 4:59 p.m., in response to message #2 by Juergen Rodenkirchen (GER) Juergen, unfortunately not yet available.... Regards, Joerg

Re: Inside the HP 9G Message #4 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 9 Dec 2002, 11:14 a.m., in response to message #2 by Juergen Rodenkirchen (GER) Juergen, In US-market the HP 9G is already out of stock. But you may get the original product much easier, it is a rebadged CITIZEN calculator. Just go to: http://www.jcbm.co.jp/eng/consumer/calc/cpdf/np2002_vol1.pdf and open the SRP-325G. HP - quo vadis ??? Greetings, Joerg Interested in the HP 9S ? Just view the SRP-280 :-((

Re: Inside the HP 9G Message #5 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 9 Dec 2002, 2:15 p.m., in response to message #4 by Joerg Woerner Hi, Joerg; Good reading your posts here (I'm gonna have the time to finish the manual in December, O.K.?) If you allow me, the SRP-400G is a better choice, with a lot more memory... What am I doing? Suggesting a Citizen Calculator instead of an HP? YES, that's exctly what I am doing! And I'll try to find an SRP-400G. As long as they do not become a collectible, too... Cheers

Re: Inside the HP 9G Message #6 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 9 Dec 2002, 4:30 p.m., in response to message #5 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) Greetings to Brazil ! You are righth with the SRP-400G - what I expected when I read the Datasheet of the microcontroller of the HP 9G - just add a cheap serial RAM and you get memory space... During my last visit in Bangkok I searched some programmable Citizen's for my friend Viktor in Canada and noticed these beasts. To me they seem to be a great alternative to the Texas Instruments calculators you know from the little www.datamath.org Museum. You know that we are all waiting for the TI-68 follower, not everybody needs the TI-89 to add three numbers and the two-liners aren't the best choice... Cheers, Joerg

Re: Look at ALL the alternatives . . . Message #7 Posted by Paul Brogger on 10 Dec 2002, 11:02 a.m., in response to message #5 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, don't rule out the TI-83+ (or maybe TI-89/92/Voyager). My 83+ Silver Edition looks ugly, but that's the ONLY drawback. (Well, O.K., there's no clock, and no sound output of any sort . . . ) The 83+'s "TI-BASIC" is quirky, but acceptable, the speed is decent, the big screen offers plenty of room for a fancy, multi-line display, the key feel is at least as good as my son's HP-30s (which appears to be kin to the Citizen models and new HP-9G's) . . . And it's a general-purpose, programmable, stored-program digital computer. It's OS provides hooks so Z-80 assembly programs can make use of all the mathematical, memory, keyboard and display functions. The development environment and emulator seem to support creation of low-level programs of arbitrary complexity, and the development platform is Windows, with a quick, reliable link to & from the calculator's flash memory and RAM. (And there's lots of documentation that appears quite complete.) I've pushed the BASIC to its limit, and have just begun assembly programming (with an annoying illness lately holding up progress). It all looks (like I say) definitely quirky, but very usable. HP may come out with something RPN-ish. It may be actually what many of us are looking for, in an off-the-shelf package with an acceptable level of quality. But for the would-be "handheld hacker", the flexiblity apparent with the 83+ (and 89, etc.) does seem to provide for a level of customization & configuration that is unlikely to be beaten by anything else.

Re: Inside the HP 9G Message #8 Posted by David Smith on 9 Dec 2002, 7:07 p.m., in response to message #4 by Joerg Woerner Gag, gag... sob, sob... oh, the humanity...

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