Calculators with base conversions but no bitwise logic

[ijabbott]

Back in 1990 or so, my lovely "wallet style" Casio fx-450 (which along with the slightly updated fx-451 was a favourite amongst computer programmers at the time) was starting to come apart at the hinge (but only the vinyl covering on the inside). I went to the local WHSmith (a chain of high street newsagents in the UK) looking for something a bit more sturdy and noticed the Casio fx-3800P which seemed to fit the bill as it had a BASE-n mode, and as a bonus was programmable (although my beloved FX-502P that I bought myself for high school was still working at the time). Only after I bought it did I discover the lack of support for bitwise logical operations. I couldn't believe that Casio would go to the trouble of adding BASE-n calculations, but miss out such basic operations as AND, OR, XOR and NOT that my fx-450 had.

Recently, I was looking at TAS and noticed an auction for a HP-27S in good condition. It also has base conversions, and it looked like a nice calculator, so I found a scan of the users manual online and began to read it. Lo and behold, it is also missing the bitwise logical operations. What were HP thinking?

So here is a likely incomplete hall of shame for calculators that have programmer-friendly base conversions, but spoil it by omitting the bitwise logical operations:

• Casio fx-3800P
• HP-20S
• HP-22S
• HP-27S
• HP-32S
• HP-32SII
• Sharp EL-512
  

[Dave Britten]

I was able to add bitwise operations to the 27S without too much trouble by way of the solver:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-8492.html

Works well enough if it's something you need only occasionally.

Also, I think the 22S fits in this category of lacking logic operations.

[striegel]

The Sharp EL-512 was the machine I bought to finish my engineering degree and it served me well. It does hex to decimal and reverse conversions but has no bitwise operations.

Alan

[ijabbott]

(06-04-2018 01:02 AM)striegel Wrote:  The Sharp EL-512 was the machine I bought to finish my engineering degree and it served me well. It does hex to decimal and reverse conversions but has no bitwise operations.

Alan

Thanks! I'll add it to the list.