HP-42S "reinterpretation"

[jch]

(05-05-2015 01:09 PM)robert rozee Wrote:  the "teensy" seems to provide no advantage over the PIC32MX170. both have identical quantities of RAM and flash, with comparable speed. but the PIC will run on two AA cells directly and has low-power modes, while the teensy needs 3v3. and the teensy cost 4x as much (us$20 versus <us$5).

the big winner with the PIC32MX170 is the ability to supply it as part of a kitset that almost anyone can assemble. and then there is MMbasic, which means the hardware can be tested before any calculator firmware is available.

Sorry for my bad english, it is not my mother tongue.

Robert, it was not my intention to challenge PIC vs ARM vs Teensy,
but rather to suggest an alternative to the difficulties raised by the SMT chip spotted by Emece67.

Argue about which processor is the best seems pointless.
Wouldn't it be more meaningful to have on one hand a calculator core,
as far a possible unrelated to the underlying hardware, with limited Keyboard / Display / I/O interfaces,
and on the other hand some shell dedicated to the real hardware ?

Thomas Okken's Free42 seems builds on this scheme.
Now the last versions of Free42 are too large to get into 256k or even 512k flash and 64k ram, but you get the idea ?

That could lead 43S firmware to run on differents layouts and override the actual hardware sticking point.
It is not about vaporware, only to allow everyone to work on the shell to try to get it run on his favorite layout.
At last, maybe some 'winner' may emerge from this challenge, who knows ?


Regards.
Jean-Christophe.