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Michael Lopez · 03-07-2015, 06:53 AM

Hi all,

Sad but I guess not unexpected news.

I am an engineering "professional" & use my HP 50G every day so happy I have 4 of them (including 1 still in it's original packaging). This stash should see me through the rest of my career :-).

From my perspective the main benefits of using a HP 50G versus say the Prime (which I also have) are not about the serial port or possibly even the SD card slot, but rather it's much more robust & capable operating system & customisability. IMHO there is still a huge gap between the Prime's applications such as SOLVE versus the equivalent on the HP 50G (including Multiple Equation Solver). The 50G still astonishes me with it's flexible & wide reaching Mathematical capability & remains a testament to the farsightedness of the HP 48 development team.

I tend towards the optimistic side of things & keep hoping the Prime's firmware/applications will improve but at the present rate I just can't see it happening before the HP50G's production ceases :-(.

What would be great, as others have also suggested, is to port the HP 50's software into a revised version of the Prime's hardware - then I would go out & buy a few new calculators.

Cheers,

Michael

Gerald H · 03-07-2015, 07:36 AM

(03-07-2015 06:53 AM)Michael Lopez Wrote: Hi all,

Sad but I guess not unexpected news.

I am an engineering "professional" & use my HP 50G every day so happy I have 4 of them (including 1 still in it's original packaging). This stash should see me through the rest of my career :-).

From my perspective the main benefits of using a HP 50G versus say the Prime (which I also have) are not about the serial port or possibly even the SD card slot, but rather it's much more robust & capable operating system & customisability. IMHO there is still a huge gap between the Prime's applications such as SOLVE versus the equivalent on the HP 50G (including Multiple Equation Solver). The 50G still astonishes me with it's flexible & wide reaching Mathematical capability & remains a testament to the farsightedness of the HP 48 development team.

I tend towards the optimistic side of things & keep hoping the Prime's firmware/applications will improve but at the present rate I just can't see it happening before the HP50G's production ceases :-(.

What would be great, as others have also suggested, is to port the HP 50's software into a revised version of the Prime's hardware - then I would go out & buy a few new calculators.

Cheers,

Michael

Are you perhaps neglecting the battery situation?

robert rozee · (This post was last modified: 03-07-2015 08:09 AM by robert rozee.)

(03-07-2015 07:36 AM)Gerald H Wrote:
(03-07-2015 06:53 AM)Michael Lopez Wrote: What would be great, as others have also suggested, is to port the HP 50's software into a revised version of the Prime's hardware - then I would go out & buy a few new calculators.

Cheers,
Michael

Are you perhaps neglecting the battery situation?

what if HP were to produce a calculator that used an eInk display? good contrast, excellent readability, high resolution, miniscule power requirements. it would be monochrome only, but it does seem to me that the colour display of the prime is in the most part just a response to the competition - not to any market request.

an eInk display would place HP in a unique position. combined with some of the packaging technology of the 39gii (potential for slim design), the company could move back into the position of being a leader rather than a follower.

just my opinion.

cheers,
rob :-)

Michael Lopez · 03-07-2015, 10:47 AM

I don't particularly need a colour display so a more efficient monochrome screen is fine by me. However, I can understand that the colour screen may be seen as modern by some customers & hence may help sell the product.

Regarding the Prime's current battery performance, I can live with it & haven't really encountered any significant issues. Maybe the revision to the hardware I mentioned can also extend the life of the battery though.

Biggest issue for me with the Prime is the "half-baked" back-up that doesn't fully back-up the calculator at all & then requires that all User created variables be re-initialised again. This is far worse than the 25 year old HP 48SX's (since the anniversary was yesterday :-) ) which allows users to fully back-up the calculator including flag settings etc.

Cheers,

Michael

bhtooefr · 03-07-2015, 02:32 PM

It's worth noting that memory-in-pixel LCDs are rather low power, even in color applications, and there are some that don't need backlighting (Japan Display's worked on that, lately).

Thomas Radtke · 03-07-2015, 05:58 PM

(03-07-2015 07:59 AM)robert rozee Wrote: what if HP were to produce a calculator that used an eInk display? good contrast, excellent readability, high resolution, miniscule power requirements. it would be monochrome only, but it does seem to me that the colour display of the prime is in the most part just a response to the competition - not to any market request.

Color eInk displays are coming :-). Yes, even a b/w display would be nice, as has been discussed here years ago for DIY projects. Meanwhile all advantages of those displays can be clearly seen even on inexpensive ebook-readers.

matthiaspaul · 03-07-2015, 06:32 PM

This is really sad news.

One of the possible reasons to discontinue the HP 50g might be down to the fact that the Samsung S3C2410 processor (with ARM920T core of the ARMv4T architecture) appears to be discontinued. This definitely accounts for all versions of the S3C2410X, which was discontinued years ago, but AFAIK the 50g is based on the S3C2410A (does someone know for sure?), for which I have not seen any official announcements of a status change yet. However, Samsung lists the whole S3C2410 family as EOL on their web site:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/s...5&iaId=836

BTW, the 2008+ HP 12C model (F2230A?) as well as the 20b (F2219AA) and 30b (NW238AA) seem to be discontinued or about to be discontinued as well. The 12C utilizes an Atmel AT91SAM7L128-AU processor (with ARM7TDMI core - also of the ARMv4T architecture) in LQFP-128 package, whereas the other two calculators incorporate AT91SAM7L128 dies under the glob. These processors were manufactured in the French wafer fab LFoundry Rousset SAS, which was owned by Atmel before 2011, filed for insolvency in 2013 (after Atmel significantly cut down their order volume), and was declared bankrupt on 2013-12-26.

According to Atmel's part change notifications RE133101, SE133406, SE133406A, and RE150402, the AT91SAM7L128 processor was consequently announced to have reached end-of-life status by 2013-08-13 (some sources say 2013-12), with last shipments ending 2014-09-30 (some sources say 2014-12). Reasons cited were low demand and unability to transfer the special manufacturing process to another fab. Unfortunately, there is no direct replacement in the ARM7TDMI family, so even if Hewlett-Packard or its Chinese manufacturer would have stocked up chips, supply must be limited.

Greetings,

Matthias

Claudio L. · 03-08-2015, 01:14 AM

(03-07-2015 06:32 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote: However, Samsung lists the whole S3C2410 family as EOL on their web site:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/s...5&iaId=836

Well, if that's the case, then the S3C2416 that powers the Prime is also EOL:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/s...6&iaId=836

Dave Frederickson · 03-08-2015, 01:26 AM

(03-07-2015 06:32 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote: One of the possible reasons to discontinue the HP 50g might be down to the fact that the Samsung S3C2410 processor (with ARM920T core of the ARMv4T architecture) appears to be discontinued.

Same reason the 30b has been discontinued.

(03-07-2015 06:32 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote: BTW, the 2008+ HP 12C model (F2230A?) as well as the 20b (F2219AA) and 30b (NW238AA) seem to be discontinued or about to be discontinued as well.

Announced at HHC 2014.

Time to stock up on 30b's. Discontinued calcs usually increase in value.

Marcio · 03-08-2015, 01:46 AM

Time to get a spare of the 50g while they're still on sale.

Tim Wessman · 03-08-2015, 02:08 AM

(03-08-2015 01:14 AM)Claudio L. Wrote: Well, if that's the case, then the S3C2416 that powers the Prime is also EOL:

Note that you are looking at the "Americas" site. Doesn't mean a thing for Asia. :-)

bhtooefr · 03-08-2015, 09:04 AM

You know, that makes me wonder...

Will the 12C Platinum carry the 12C name on, or will the 12C get another update?

Tugdual · 03-09-2015, 07:05 AM

Well, Tim made it clear for a long time, it is all about marketing. If this is a false rumor to promote 50g sales, well done I just upgraded the recently acquired 48g. Eta end of the week.
BTW I see mini Tim is growing up :-) . funny pictures, good years in a life.

Gerald H · 03-09-2015, 07:30 AM

(03-09-2015 07:05 AM)Tugdual Wrote: Well, Tim made it clear for a long time, it is all about marketing. If this is a false rumor to promote 50g sales, well done I just upgraded the recently acquired 48g. Eta end of the week.
BTW I see mini Tim is growing up :-) . funny pictures, good years in a life.

Good decision, the SD card is a godsend. Enormous increase in in-built memory too.