(HP71B) ASM question

[brouhaha]

(07-29-2024 09:25 AM)floppy Wrote:  Then the next question would be: what assembler is similar to the saturn?
Rosetta list few ASM versions https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Assembly
and if an ASM is not so far away from the Saturn, then something could be perhaps overtaken from there.

Do you mean what assembler has similar syntax and pseudo-ops to those used for Saturn? AFAIK, HP's own SASM is the only published assembler that is fully compatible with the 71B IDS listings.

Or do you mean what other processor has a machine language like Saturn? The answer to that is none whatsoever, though the closest would be the Nut processor as used in the 41C/CV/CX, 10C, 11C, 12C, 15C, and 16C, and which is even more painful to program than Saturn. And that, of course, was derived from the Woodstock architecture,(HP-25, HP-67, etc.), which was derived from the classic architecture (HP-35, -45, -46, -55, -67, -70, -80, -81).

If you want to go back even further, the HP classic archtiecture was inspired by the Fairchild PPS 25 architecture, which is even more obscure than any of the HP architectures. Whatever assembler(s) existed for the PPS 25 is lost to the mists of time.

Prior to the HP 49g+, introduced in 2003, HP used custom processor architectures in all of their calculators, with the lone exception of the HP 9815, which used a Motorola MC6800.

For comparison, traditional TI calculators variously used one of two architecture families, "digit" architecture (similar to TMS1000 microcontroller), and "register" architecture, sort of vaguely like the HP classic/Woodstock/Nut archtiectures. However, like the Fairchild PPS 25, they are even more obscure than the HP architectures, and I'm not aware of any assembler for them.

In summary, if you want to program HP's Saturn-based products (or Saturn-emulating products) in assembly, you're basically stuck with dealing with the bizarre architecture. (Some of us weirdos actually like it, challenging though it is.)