The HP-12c and platinum Kinpo story

[dm319]

(12-02-2024 09:10 PM)Eric Rechlin Wrote:  The Saturn-based financial calculators (10B, 14B, 17B/17BII, 18C/19B/19BII) were not coded in C. They were written in a mix of Saturn assembly and RPL.

Ah yes, good point, was thinking of a post which I probably can't lay my hand on now that the Saturn code was written in C for the later calculators, probably up to the Prime (for TVM at least).

(12-02-2024 09:10 PM)Eric Rechlin Wrote:  Perhaps some similarities between the 12c Platinum and the Saturn machines were more due to the greater number of internal digits compared to the 12C rather than shared code.

Maybe.. The HP-12c platinum is reported to have 15 digit internal precision and displays up to 12, which is quite a specific set up and suggests it uses the same underlying calculator platform as the Saturns. Could it use different algorithms? Maybe, but arguably odd to use the same code for the calculator platform but not use the TVM code.

I'll have a dig around in my results and come back with my most convincing argument. Maybe after I've done that exercise I might have changed my mind...!