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HP Forum Archive 19

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how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #1 Posted by mateo999 on 8 May 2009, 12:33 p.m.

I'm new to the site, having only stumbled upon it when looking to replace my 8 year old 12c whose screen just died. I just bought a new 12c platinum with serial number CNA84102235. Can somebody tell me how to decipher this into a manufacture date? Does this particular run have any problems or quirks (i.e. non-responsive keys)? I miss the rattling, higher-density keys of my old 12c already.

Also, other than only being able to store 30 cash flows (vs. the Anniversary Edition's 80) are their any functional differences between my model and the AE?

Thanks, Matt

      
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #2 Posted by Mike Morrow on 8 May 2009, 6:04 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by mateo999

CNA = Made in China, 8 = 2008, 41 = Week 41, 02235 = 2235th unit serialized that week.

      
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #3 Posted by Katie Wasserman on 8 May 2009, 10:22 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by mateo999

This isn't answering the question, See later in this thread for correction.

--------------------------------------------------------------

You have one of the new 12C's that are also referred to as the 12C+. It's functionally the same as the original 12C but runs 60 times faster! The downside is that it's limited to 20 cash flows since the firmware in the calculator is emulating a calculator from 1981 that only 203 bytes of user RAM.

The Anniversary Edition has a different CPU and different firmware. It has a lot more memory, algebraic mode (in addition to RPN), backspace correction and a few other features. It's faster than the original 12C but nowhere near as fast as the 12C+.

HP has replaced the original 12C with the 12C+ without repackaging it or even announcing this change.

Edited: 9 May 2009, 2:33 a.m. after one or more responses were posted

            
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #4 Posted by Don Shepherd on 8 May 2009, 11:15 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Katie Wasserman

Katie, he said he just bought a platinum....

I assume they are still selling those.

Don

                  
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #5 Posted by Katie Wasserman on 9 May 2009, 2:31 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by Don Shepherd

Pretty dumb of me.

Going back to the original question, the first model 12CP had several bugs, lacked undo and backspace and could only handle 30 cash flows. I thought that later models, like the one you have, are functionally equivalent to the 12CP Anniversary Edition with 80 cash flows. Here's a spec sheet that says that. I think that you might have 80 cash flow registers in your calculator it's just that the manual has not been updated.

                        
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #6 Posted by mateo999 on 10 May 2009, 6:25 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Katie Wasserman

Thanks so much for your help guys (and gals). Although i've always known about the programming capabilities of the calculator, I just used it for the first time to store the black scholes option pricing model. Are there any other good programs out there?

                              
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #7 Posted by Don Shepherd on 10 May 2009, 7:12 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by mateo999

I guess it depends upon what your interests are. The programming model is very simple, but quite a bit can be done in 99 steps, actually. My area is math, and things like prime factors, lcm/gcd, Pythagorean theorem and quadratic equation are relatively simple on the 12c (not all at once, unfortunately, in 99 steps).

                              
Re: how to tell my 12c's manufactured date
Message #8 Posted by Don Shepherd on 10 May 2009, 8:05 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by mateo999

Oh yes, you have a platinum, so you have 399 program steps. So you can have several things stored at once, but the tricky thing is that you have to remember what line number each one starts at in order to execute it.

            
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Message #9 Posted by deleted on 9 May 2009, 6:10 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Katie Wasserman

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