newRPL - Updated to build 1510 [official build remains at 1487]

[rprosperi]

(05-06-2022 02:25 PM)Eric Rechlin Wrote:  

(05-06-2022 12:25 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  Thanks for the correction and reliable info.

Who woulda thought of reading the documentation??? From the above disucssion, it was easy to assume this had been reviewed, but assuming is often silly.

Seems to imply all these machines are essentially "the same" on the inside, except of course the smaller screen on the 48gII.

Of course the 39g+, 39gs, and 40gs also share that smaller screen with the 48gII.

I think there are actually quite a few other small differences, aside from the minor difference in CPU clocking between some of the models.

For example, memory and ROM sizes differ too. As I recall, the first generation (with 3 batteries) of the 48gII had substantially less memory, and for some reason I think it did not have flash ROM, so that may not be a newRPL conversion candidate either. And I wonder if the 39g+ fell into the same category, since it was a contemporary of it -- are you sure the 39g+ has a flash ROM? Or might it, like the original 48gII, not allow upgrades?

(Also, I think the 39g+ was sold for a lot more than 18 months before the 39gs replaced it; if I had to guess I'd say it was over 2 years and possibly closer to 3. I believe the 39g+ came out about the same time as the 49g+ and original 48gII in late 2003, and I think the 39gs/40gs came out about the same time as the 50g and second generation 48gII in mid 2006.)

Indeed, my note should have included all those other small screen models; I have read that the ROM detects the LCD size at startup and used what it found, but clearly that's speculation...

The early 48gII had only 128KB RAM, the later version had 256KB. Specs I see online (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_49%2F50_series and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_39%2F40_series) indicate all these models had Flash (vs. true ROM) but I don't recall that there were any ROM updates released or means to do so for the 39g+ and 48gII. The 39gs/40gs definitely did, pretty sure I've done that (and yes, I see them on hpcalc, )

For sales windows, the 39g+ was introduced Jan 2004, disco in Jan 2007, while the 39gs was introduced in Aug 2006, so I presumed sales of the 39g+ pretty much dropped like a rock after those ~30 months, despite it being officially not discontinued for several more months. Your right though, I did some bad math there skipping a year, anyone got a calculator?

It's hard to say what the actual sales window was though as there were essentially no formal end-of-life dates announced for machines this late in the game, they just sorta went away, if you were paying close attention to HP's website, etc.