Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!cynic!ireta!rob
From: rob@ireta.cynic.wimsey.bc.ca (Rob Prior)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: HP Announces New Calculator!
Message-ID: <64RqZ1w163w@ireta.cynic.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 91 12:29:40 PST
Organization: Federation of Sentient Planets, Burnaby BC

Well, the subject line isn't _quite_ accurate.  They haven't announced
it yet (officially), but there is a new calculator to replace the 48sx.
This is not the new 95lx (Jaguar), which is to be dos compatible, have
a lotus spreadsheet, etc., but rather a _new_ handheld.

I received all of this info from a friend of mine at HP Corvallis who
came to town recently.  He had a prototype version of the new calculator,
which is scheduled for release sometime this summer.  There is no
'numbered' name for it yet, but the codename is Stealth.

Externals:

It physically resembles the 48sx when it's open (yes, they have returned
to the 'clamshell' case!).  The left-hand keyboard contains a grid of 30
(5 cols, 6 rows) user-definable menu keys.  Above each key there is a
small two-line LCD screen, which can display 6 characters horizontally
(and 2 vertically) in the user-menu size font (small).  I would think that
you could program a GROB to fit these spaces too, but I don't know for
sure.  These keys can be programmed with anything, so you could define
your left hand side to be an alphabet, if you liked.  The main side is
thinner, as one of the expansion ports has been moved to the left hand
keyboard.  There is still a serial port and the IR ports, but there is
a PARALLEL (!) port on the bottom end of the left hand keyboard.  Yet
again, HP has opted for a non-standard connector, though.  I think it is
25-pin, but it is much smaller than a regular DB-25 (about 1/2 as long
and thick).  The calculator (when closed) is about 1.125 inches thick,
and just as long and wide as the 48sx.  The right hand side is visually
no different than the 48sx.

Internals:

The calculator's base memory has been upped to 128K from 32(30?)K  There
will be 512K expansion cards released at the same time as the calculator
(that will work in your 48sx if they are partitioned into 128K segments)
that will work directly in the new Stealth.  There is an improved
integrating function, which can integrate simple trigonometric equations.
There is also a lookup table (which can be added to) for storing your
favorite integrals.  The time functions have been improved, and the clock
and calendar are self-adjusting for leap years and daylight savings time
(the daylight savings time can be turned off).  I was told that the STAT
functions have been expanded, but I don't use them so I didn't ask what
had changed.  UNITS now has a MONEY sub-section, containing things like
the british currency system.  It is not designed to convert between
countries, as the rates change too often, but is designed to help convert
between units within a country.  The SOLVER now solves up to second
degree differential equations (!).  PLOT contains a 3-D section (that
leaves something to be desired, IMHO) that will do surface plots, and a
few other neat things.  The EquationWriter is _much_ faster now.  It moves
as quickly as I can type the equation in.  The MatrixWriter has a box
marked EQN and can be toggled to turn on(and off) a little box beside it.
This gives the ability to put VARIABLES into MATRIXES!  I didn't play
with them too much, but seeing
                               [[ A  B ]
                                [ 'X^2-4' D ]]
                                              on the stack was quite
interesting!  Now for the interesting bits:  The calculator has been
speeded up.  It is approximately running at 6 mhz now.  This has been
accomplished by re-designing the Saturn microprocessor.  They have
changed the layout and architechture significantly, I guess!  The
functionality is supposedly the same but for the speed increase.  Plots
and large calculations now go _quite_ fast!  (Just think of all of the
levels that TETRIS could have now! :)

Well, that's all I can recall right now, but hopefully someone who
knows more (read as 'is working on it and knows more') could fill in
more details!  I gathered all of this in an afternoon of playing with
the prototype (which should be _almost_ identical to the release
version, i'm told).  Happy computing!

^L

Oh, and by the way, Happy April Fools Day... :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)


+------------
| rob@ireta.cynic.wimsey.bc.ca
| Rob Prior, President, Still Animation Logo Design
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