integral competition HP50g vs. DM42

[John Keith]

For numerical integration they are most likely the same algorithm, probably even the same code except for minor OS differences. The math routines on HP calculators have been mostly unchanged from the HP-71 Math ROM through the Home mode of the Prime.

If all 12 digits of the results on both calculators are the same, that would tend to confirm that the algorithms are the same.

The main reason that the DM42 is faster than the HP 50 is that the DM42 is running Free42, which is a simulator of the HP42 written in C. A more appropriate comparison would be the original HP42 vs the HP-48g as both calculators were of the same era and use the same processor and (internally) a similar OS.

Another valid comparison would be the DM42 vs the Home mode of the Prime, as the Prime Home mode uses the HP math routines rewritten in C for the ARM processor. The HP 50 is a Saturn emulator running on an ARM processor which is clearly slower than native code.