The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 21

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What exactly is the WP 43S
Message #1 Posted by Harold A Climer on 16 Nov 2013, 10:41 a.m.

Maybe I am kind of dumb,but exactly what is the WP43S,as opposed to the 34S, that I already have. I have seen a possible keyboard layout on the internet,but that is about all I can find out about it. What with all my students,grading and the Prime, this semester has been pretty busy, and I have not had much time for much of anything else. Maybe during Christmas break. Is this calculator going to be built upon an already existing hardware platform, like the 34S, or built from scratch?

      
Re: What exactly is the WP 43S
Message #2 Posted by Walter B on 16 Nov 2013, 2:16 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Harold A Climer

Harold,

No, you're not kind of dumb - at least you're intelligent enough to ask. This calculator will be the first non-HP RPN calculator designed from scratch after quite some decades. It's a hobbyist's project again: Eric S. and Richard O. are designing and building the hardware, Pauli, Marcus and I are dealing with firmware and UI. Please search for '43S' in the forum archives and you'll find out more about it.

d:-)

Edited: 16 Nov 2013, 2:33 p.m.

            
Re: What exactly is the WP 43S
Message #3 Posted by Helge Gabert on 16 Nov 2013, 3:10 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Walter B

Hello Dieter,

Concerning the development of the 43S - - any possibility that complex numbers will be handled "naturally" (like in the 50G) without having to enter a special, complex mode (like what the 34S provides)? The screenshots with the COMPLX menu underneath the "i" key indicate that it probably won't happen. :(

                  
Re: What exactly is the WP 43S
Message #4 Posted by Walter B on 16 Nov 2013, 3:22 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Helge Gabert

Although I'm not Dieter :-?, please allow me to answer quoting a manual which you can't read yet:

Quote:
As long as you work exclusively with real input, you will get only real results with REARES, or you set CPXRES manually to allow for complex results ... With at least one complex input parameter in arithmetic operations or function calls, your WP 43S will set CPXRES automatically.
No idea whether that qualifies for being a "natural" handling - I'm reluctant calling complex calculations natural at all ;-)

d:-)

                        
Re: What exactly is the WP 43S
Message #5 Posted by Helge Gabert on 16 Nov 2013, 3:50 p.m.,
in response to message #4 by Walter B

My apologies, Walter! I mixed up the two names. Probably because I saw a d:-) at the end of your posting - - and somebody with the name of Dieter also posts regarding 34S issues.

Thanks for the explanation. This is great news. I was looking for a behavior similar to the 48/49/50 series, where complex numbers are handled just like reals, in that sqrt(-1) doesn't require setting any flags or calling sqrt with a complex version of sqrt. That was all!

            
Re: What exactly is the WP 43S
Message #6 Posted by Jonathan Cameron on 16 Nov 2013, 3:58 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Walter B

Here are a couple of threads on the 43s and the prototype underlying hardware (DIY543) on the archive:

    http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv021.cgi?read=253355
and
    http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv021.cgi?read=238213

Edited: 16 Nov 2013, 4:03 p.m.


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