The HP-12c and platinum Kinpo story

[AnnoyedOne]

There are at least two versions of firmware for the 12CP, v1 and v2. The initial (silver) ones had v1 in them. I don't know if v2 fixed any bugs.

Both use the Generalplus (was Sunplus?) GPL31A SoC which is a masked-ROM part. The firmware is therefore not updateble.

The rogue HP-12C likely uses the newer Generalplus GPL833F which is flashable but has no USB controller so it looks like it requires a custom programmer for firmware updates.

https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-22...#pid192959

Whether Kinpo designed the 12CP hardware and firmware I'm not sure. I've seen statements claiming that they did and others saying that it was HP. As for the "rogue" that is also unknown. We may never know for sure.

Interestingly the GPL31A went end-of-life over a year ago so it is quite possible that the GPL833F is being used as a replacement. Both use a 6502 CPU core. The latter is 2x as fast though (if so programmed).

All of this is in contrast to the current HP-12C. That uses a Atmel (now Microchip?) ATSAM4LC2CA SoC. It emulates the original (1981) HP-12C firmware and thus acts the same. The firmware is end-user updateble (via USB) just like the HP-15C CE (which uses the same hardware).

None of this likely matters to most end-users (financial professionals mostly I'd guess) and both the 12C and 12CP have changed hardware and/or firmware over the years. It remains to be seen what the future is for both.

A1

PS Will the current 12C+, "Gold", or whatever you want to call it ever get VoyagerSave functionality like the HP-15C CE? Maybe. Maybe not. HP-15C LE owners never got a final bug fix firmware release so the history isn't promising.