HP-41C IL Module Question

[Sylvain Cote]

(01-12-2021 08:12 PM)Craig Bladow Wrote:  

(01-12-2021 06:54 PM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  Sorry, I do not understand the question and which module you are talking about. XFM ?

The specific module is the HP-82160A HP-IL module for the HP-41C. I'm wondering if it is generally possible for functions residing in a plug-in module to take an alpha string as an argument following a command.

Sorry, I am still not quite sure I understand your question, probably the language barrier here.

The ALPHA data is located in the status chip located at addressed 0 to 15, more specifically in registers M, N, O and P[nibbles:5..0].
In a FOCAL program or sub-routine, ALPHA can be accessed through:

• 41C/CV/CX functions: ARCL/ASTO/ASHF/AVIEW/APPEND/CLA/AON/AOFF
• 41CX/XFM functions: ALENG/ANUM/AROT/ATOX/POSA/XTOA
• any modules that offers ALPHA access functions like: Extended I/O, HP-IL Dev, ALPHA ROM, PANAME, etc
  

In an MCODE function, the assembly program first select the chip, then select the register then load/save the register (whole or part) to/from the CPU.
Since the status registers and the storage registers are global, they are accessible from any FOCAL program or from any MCODE function.