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From: grahamf@hparc0.HP.COM (Graham Fraser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Saturn Mnemonics
Message-ID: <2470002@hparc0.HP.COM>
Date: 28 Nov 90 21:54:43 GMT
Organization: HP Australasian Response Centre (Melbourne)
Lines: 54


There has been a lot of talk/notes/messages etc... regarding assemblers /
disassemblers and mnemonics for the HP48's Saturn CPU.

"Dumb question" / "Foot-in-mouth" time:

Why are people re-inventing the wheel,  and developing their own sets of 
Saturn mnemonics ???   There seems to be at least two sets being circulated
at the moment,  and neither follows the HP mnemonics.

Way back in the early HP41 days  -  remember them ?  there were the Jacobs
mnemonics,  and the HP mnemonics,  and it caused all sorts of problems and
difficulties.  So why do the same again with the HP48 ???

When HP released the HP71,  they made the system "open",  and made the 
complete Internal Design Specifications (IDS) available in three volumes.
Volume 1 provided all of the details that you needed,  and listed all the
mnemonics,  how the CPU registers are used,  how the internal stack is 
handled etc ............   Some of this information was also available in
the HP71 Forth Assembler ROM Manual.  So why do it all again from scratch ??

In addition to restoring commonality amongst users,  there is one other 
important benefit to using HP's mnemonics:

	In his talk at the Chicago CHIP Conference in June,  Bill Wickes
	screened a slide which showed Dennis York (HP) sitting behind a 
	partition in the lab.  On the partition were pinned many notices,
	messages etc... from HP calculator users taken from a variety of
	sources  -  including these Notes.  The HP Calc Lab members read
	those notes which occasionally provides the lab with ideas,
	inspiration,  ......  while they work on new projects.  There have
	been many messages here asking "HP,  ARE YOU LISTENING ???"  Well,
	it seems that HP do listen,  but it will do us no good if we speak
	a different language.  We may notconsider HP's mnemonics to be the
	best,  but at least it's a standard,  it's the language they speak
	in the lab,  and surely if it's good enough for HP to use to develop
	the HP71,  HP28,  HP48  and othe Saturn based calculators,  it's
	good enough for us to use.

One final thought.  If we start using the HP mnemonics,  that just may
give them a little more encouragement towards making more development
tools available,  or releasing more information.



Graham Fraser
HP Calculator User & Enthusiast
HP41  =>>  HP71  =>>  HP28  =>>  HP48  =>>  HP??

________________________________________________________________________
                                                          
I am not employed by Hewlett-Packard,  I just get to use their equipment.
My comments are my own,  and do not necessarily reflect those of HP.
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