HP-12C Platinum Version 02 calculator from 2010 week 21?

[matthiaspaul]

(07-09-2015 11:39 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  Also the most recent 12C and 12CP models used the same CPU as other models recently discontinued (e.g. 20b/30b) due to lack of parts from CPU supplier, from which we can infer that another "version" is coming. And while HP's intent is to keep differences invisible to customers, as you've seen with the benchmarks, careful scrutiny by communities like MoHPC will eventually find minor differences.

While recent revisions of the 12C series (including the 12c 30th Anniversary Edition) since ca. 2008 are based on an Atmel AT91SAM7L128 processor with ARM7TDMI core running the original HP Nut firmware in an emulator, to the best of my information, this does not hold true for the 12C Platinum series (including the 12c Prestige and the HP 12c Platinum 25th Anniversary Edition). AFAIK, recent versions of this calculator are based on a Generalplus GPLB31A processor with 8502 core, a completely different design.

The Atmel AT91SAM7L128 is no longer in production and if HP will continue to offer a HP 12C in the future, they are forced to move the emulator to yet another platform (if they haven't already).

AFAIK, the Generalplus GPLB31A appears to be still in production, therefore the 12c Platinum series is not affected by this. But since the 12c Platinum firmware, which appears to be a functional reimplementation rather than an old firmware running in an emulator, is buggy and apparently it is not under HP's control to fix it, it might be undesirable to continue this series for other reasons.

Some months ago, I tried to compile the information into the corresponding article at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-12C

If you find omissions or mistakes, I would like to encourage you to fix them in the article.

Greetings,

Matthias