FPGA Based Open Calculator Platform

[John Keith]

(10-24-2023 02:10 PM)David Hayden Wrote:  I think we should move away from emulating or re-implementing the HP processors. The problem is that they're just too limited by today's standards. The Saturn has a 20-bit address space addressing ~1 million nibbles, or 512Kbytes. You just can't do much in that space and the HP calculators themselves jump through hoops to get around the limitation.

I think we're better off writing calculator software with modern languages for modern processors, like free-42, DM32, and newRPL. These are all smoking fast.

I strongly agree, with one caveat. I believe that any "modern" HP-48 or 50 should also include a true emulator such as EMU48. This would allow the running of the existing RPL code base, including libraries and programs written in System RPL or assembly. Also, I don't think that the current Swiss Micros platforms are adequate for a modern RPL calculator. I would consider the equivalent of the prime G2 to be a minimum level of acceptable CPU/Ram/Flash, otherwise it would be a toy, suitable for collectors but not for serious users.