SR-52/56 Merged Keystrokes

[toml_12953]

(07-03-2021 07:23 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Hi all.

By the time the SR-52 & 56, HP had already implemented fully merged keystrokes. So, if the concept was a complete set, why didn’t TI develop their own variation? Besides, by that time TI was a well established and quite varied tech company. So, I would think TI would’ve come up with something similar.

On another note, both register operations and label & line number branching took two or three program steps. Given this inefficiency, I’m sure TI must’ve noticed this bulk of program memory and register operations steps. So, why didn’t TI consider another keystroke merging approach?

It was cheaper to add more memory (program steps) to compensate for unmerged codes. The SR-52 had more capability than the HP 65/67 and ROM was tight. Decoding merged steps increases code needed. The TI-58/59 had more merged steps but had so much memory, that RAM didn't feel too limited for most applications.