The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 19

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"First Light"
Message #1 Posted by Monte Dalrymple on 24 June 2010, 4:29 p.m.

Many thought that this couldn't be done...

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #2 Posted by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) on 24 June 2010, 4:36 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

Well done Monte!!!
Eagerly awaiting for samples on sale...

Greetings,
Massimo

            
My name in the list, please!!!
Message #3 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 24 June 2010, 10:00 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy)

I want two!

Luiz

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #4 Posted by PeterP on 24 June 2010, 5:07 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

Nice!!!!

            
Re: "First Light"
Message #5 Posted by gene wright on 24 June 2010, 5:28 p.m.,
in response to message #4 by PeterP

Yes, eagerly awaiting samples OR sales... ha!

Congrats!

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #6 Posted by Martin Pinckney on 24 June 2010, 5:51 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

Quote:
Many thought that this couldn't be done...
OTOH, some have no idea what was done.
            
Re: "First Light"
Message #7 Posted by Reth on 24 June 2010, 5:59 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by Martin Pinckney

:) Yea, I could have done "that" too - to take a picture of my HP41 with weak batteries and after reset, sitting on top of some wires next to some electronics

                  
Re: "First Light"
Message #8 Posted by Don Shepherd on 24 June 2010, 6:14 p.m.,
in response to message #7 by Reth

Yeah, what exactly are people lining up here to buy? Please enlighten us.

                        
Re: "First Light"
Message #9 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 24 June 2010, 6:55 p.m.,
in response to message #8 by Don Shepherd

Hi,

it's a 3rd party reimplementation of the HP-41 CPU pcb, using modern electronics.

HTH

                        
Re: "First Light"
Message #10 Posted by Monte Dalrymple on 24 June 2010, 7:58 p.m.,
in response to message #8 by Don Shepherd

The electronics is a form-fit-function (plus enhancements)
replacement for a fullnut HP41 CPU board. The board contains
a 2MByte Flash memory containing images of every HP plug-in
ROM, plus a number of others. The RAM on board is 512KBytes
that holds registers and full X-mem. The remainder of the RAM
can be used as program or data memory, RAM disk, etc. The CPU
contains a "turbo" mode that allows it to run at up to 50x
normal speed. Code is present that allows one to "virtually"
plug a ROM image or block of RAM into a port from the keyboard
or under program control. The board will work with HPIL, the
82143 printer, a wand or card reader.

There are still some bugs to iron out. For example, CAT 2
doesn't seem to work, I can't enter PRGM mode or XEQ a named
function. But it powers up and does keyboard functions, which
(at least to me) is no small feat.

More information is available at The NEWT status page

BTW, the BAT annunciator is on in the photot because I have
an error on the PCB that requires that I limit the power supply
to less than 4V. The rev of the PCB will correct that error.

Monte

                              
Re: "First Light"
Message #11 Posted by John Robinson on 24 June 2010, 8:06 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by Monte Dalrymple

Great work !! - I'd like to see the HP65 board done the same :-)

Cheers, John

                              
Re: "First Light"
Message #12 Posted by gene wright on 24 June 2010, 8:22 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by Monte Dalrymple

As I said, Monte, where do I line up to buy one?

I'm really thankful you kept working on this project after you talked about it at HHC in San Jose (?) several years ago now.

If you have a version working by this year's HHC, any chance you could bring it and show?

Keep going! :-)

                                    
Re: "First Light"
Message #13 Posted by Monte Dalrymple on 25 June 2010, 10:48 a.m.,
in response to message #12 by gene wright

My objective is to be done before September, but debugging is
_very_ slow. The speed difference between the native 41 bus
(155uS cycle time) and the memory bus (220nS cycle time) is a
real pain. Plus I didn't have a logic analyzer until yesterday.
It doesn't help that I didn't include a lot of test points on
the board because of space constraints.

But it's probably only one or two CPU instructions that aren't
quite working right that are the root cause of what doesn't
work, so the task is at least finite.

As far as HHC, we'll have to wait and see...

Thanks, Monte

                              
Re: "First Light"
Message #14 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 24 June 2010, 10:05 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by Monte Dalrymple

Quote:
But it powers up and does keyboard functions, which (at least to me) is no small feat.
Be sure, Monte, to most of us who have been following your developments (and cheering...), this is no small feat at all!

THANK YOU!

BTW, I really want to sign for buying two boards.

Luiz (Brazil)

Edited: 24 June 2010, 10:07 p.m.

                              
Re: "First Light"
Message #15 Posted by megarat on 24 June 2010, 10:56 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by Monte Dalrymple

Wow, if this is half as cool as it sounds, I might want to get one as well. And I don't even own a fullnut. (Yet?)

                              
Re: "First Light"
Message #16 Posted by Ángel Martin on 26 June 2010, 2:50 a.m.,
in response to message #10 by Monte Dalrymple

The waiting list just got one more (two perhaps?). Pls. add my name as well, can't stop dreaming about this happening in the non-virtual realm!

'AM

Edited: 26 June 2010, 2:50 a.m.

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #17 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 24 June 2010, 9:16 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

Hey Monte;
We sat next to each other at the 2004 HHC. I told you i'd be first in line for one but it looks like i'm about fifth. Anyway; sign me up. I've even got a brain-dead full nut to turn into a full NEWT. - db

            
Re: "First Light"
Message #18 Posted by Diego Diaz on 24 June 2010, 10:40 p.m.,
in response to message #17 by db (martinez, ca.)

Hi there,

First of all, congrats on an impressive job!

... and of course, I'm also in the waiting list... :-))

Cheers.

Diego.

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #19 Posted by Paul Dale on 25 June 2010, 3:03 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

I'm down for one too.

- Pauli

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #20 Posted by Geir Isene on 25 June 2010, 7:05 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

Count me in for at least one unit. And quickly before I completely dehydrate from all the drooling.

            
Re: "First Light"
Message #21 Posted by Bill Zimmerly on 25 June 2010, 2:45 p.m.,
in response to message #20 by Geir Isene

Quote:
Count me in for at least one unit. And quickly before I completely dehydrate from all the drooling.
(Laughing!) Me too! ;) I have an HP-41CV that I would love to upgrade to something like this. ;)

By the way, Monte, what city do you call home?

                  
Re: "First Light"
Message #22 Posted by Monte Dalrymple on 25 June 2010, 6:28 p.m.,
in response to message #21 by Bill Zimmerly

Livermore, California - home of the world's largest laser and
a couple of the world's fastest computers...

      
Re: "First Light"
Message #23 Posted by Meindert Kuipers on 25 June 2010, 2:52 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Monte Dalrymple

Congrats Monte,

I know how difficult it is to get a project like this done!

Meindert

            
Re: "First Light"
Message #24 Posted by Monte Dalrymple on 29 June 2010, 5:02 p.m.,
in response to message #23 by Meindert Kuipers

First, thank you everyone for the congratulations. After all
this time I was afraid that people might have lost interest.

I will start posting status on NEWT status page shortly, but
I am now able to do CAT 2, with the new functions showing up,
and XEQ functions.

Something still isn't right, because Gene's benchmark won't
run properly. And when I try to enter Turbo mode it somehow
messes up the program space available and sets PRIVATE mode.

Now I _really_ have to hook up the logic analyzer.

Monte


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