The HP 49/50 series are

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

(HP) manufactured

graphing calculator A graphing calculator (also graphics calculator or graphic display calculator) is a handheld computer that is capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing other tasks with variables. Most popular graphing calculat ...

s. They are the successors of the popular

HP 48 series The HP 48 is a series of graphing calculators designed and produced by Hewlett-Packard from 1990 until 2003. The series includes the HP 48S, HP 48SX, HP 48G, HP 48GX, and HP 48G+, the G models being expanded and i ...

. There are five calculators in the 49/50 series of HP graphing calculators. These calculators have both algebraic and RPN entry modes, and can perform numeric and symbolic calculations using the built-in Computer Algebra System (CAS), which is an improved ALG48 and

Erable Erable is a computer algebra system (CAS) for a family of Hewlett-Packard graphing scientific calculators of the HP 40, 48 and HP 49/50 series. History Originally named ''ALGB'' in 1993, it was developed by the French mathematician fo ...

combination from the

HP 49G

Released in August 1999, the HP 49G (F1633A, F1896A) calculator was the first HP unit to break from the more traditional subdued coloration. In addition to having a metallic blue color, the keyboard material was rubber and did not have the traditional HP calculator hinged keyboard feel. In addition, it lacked a large key which was seen by many as the defining characteristic of an HP calculator. These changes were disliked by many traditional HP calculator users. The 49G incorporated many of the most powerful interface and mathematics tools available on the

into the

firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...

of the new 49G, including the ability to easily decompile and compile both

SysRPL RPL is a handheld calculator operating system and application programming language used on Hewlett-Packard's scientific graphing RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) calculators of the HP 28, 48, 49 and 50 series, but it is also usable on non-RPN ...

and

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

assembly code on the unit. The 49G was the first HP calculator to use

flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...

and have an upgradable

. In addition, it had a hard sliding case as opposed to the soft pouches supplied with the HP 48 series. Almost the same hardware is also used by the

HP 39G HP 39/40 series are graphing calculators from Hewlett-Packard, the successors of HP 38G. The series consists of six calculators, which all have algebraic entry modes, and can perform numeric analysis together with varying degrees of symbolic ...

and

HP 40G HP 39/40 series are graphing calculators from Hewlett-Packard, the successors of HP 38G. The series consists of six calculators, which all have algebraic entry modes, and can perform numeric analysis together with varying degrees of symbolic ...

. The last officially supported firmware update for the 49G calculator was 1.18, but several unofficial firmware versions were released by the developers. The final firmware version was 1.19-6. Several firmware versions for the successor hp 49g+ and HP 50g calculators have also been released in builds intended for PC emulation software that lacked full utilization of the successors'

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...

CPU. Until at least firmware version 2.09, those emulator builds could be installed on the original HP 49G. In 2003, the CAS

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

of the 49G firmware was released under the

LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

. In addition, this release included an interactive geometry program and some commands to allow compatibility with certain programs written for the newer 49g+ calculator. Due to licensing restrictions, the recompiled

cannot be redistributed.

hp 49g+

In August 2003, Hewlett-Packard released the hp 49g+ (F2228A). This unit had metallic gold coloration and was backward compatible with the HP 49G. Instead of the rubber keyboard found on the HP 49G, this calculator's keyboard had plastic hinges intended to return the feel of older HP calculators, and also included a pouch to protect the unit, similar to those included with older HP models. It was designed and manufactured by

Kinpo Electronics Barry Lam (; born 24 April 1949) is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman, and the founder and chairman of Quanta Computer.

for HP. This calculator featured an entirely new processor architecture,

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

( Mini-B) and

IrDA The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...

(

IrCOMM The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...

)

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

communication, memory expansion via an SD (

SDSC SDSC may refer to: * San Diego Supercomputer Center * Satish Dhawan Space Centre * Strategic and Defence Studies Centre The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) is a university-based institute that is situated in the Coral Bell School of ...

/ MMC) card, and a slightly larger screen, as well as other improvements over the previous model. The calculator system did not run directly on the new

processor, but rather on an

emulation Emulation may refer to: *Emulation (computing), imitation of behavior of a computer or other electronic system with the help of another type of system :*Video game console emulator, software which emulates video game consoles *Gaussian process em ...

layer for the older

processors found in previous HP calculators. This allowed the 49g+ to maintain binary-level compatibility with most of the programs written for the HP 49G calculator, as well as source code-level compatibility with many written for the HP 48 series. Despite the emulation, the 49g+ was still much faster than any older model of HP calculator. The speed increase over the HP 49G is around 3-7 times depending on the task. It is even possible to run programs written for the ARM processor thus bypassing the emulation layer completely. A port of the

GNU C compiler The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free software ...

is also available (see

HPGCC The HP 49/50 series are Hewlett-Packard (HP) manufactured graphing calculators. They are the successors of the popular HP 48 series. There are five calculators in the 49/50 series of HP graphing calculators. These calculators have both ...

below).

hp 48gII

The hp 48gII (F2226A), which was announced on 20 October 2003, was not a replacement for the

as its name suggested. Rather it was a 49g+, also with an ARM processor (unlike the HP 48G), but with reduced memory, no expansion via an SD memory card, lower clock speed, a smaller screen, and a non-flashable firmware. This calculator seems to target users that desire mathematical capability, but have no desire to install many programs. The original 2003 version had 128 KB RAM and ran on 3 AAA batteries, whereas the second 2007 version (based on the Apple V2 platform) needs four AAA batteries and comes with 256 KB RAM, added a USB ( Mini-B) port and features a better keyboard.

HP 50g

The HP 50g (F2229A) is the latest calculator in the 49/50 series. The most apparent change is a revised color scheme, returning the unit to a more traditional HP calculator appearance. Using black plastic for the entire body, white, orange and yellow are used for function shift keys. The back shell is textured more deeply than the 49g+ to provide a more secure grip. A blue and white color scheme variant specifically tailored for high-contrast is available as well (NW240AA). HP 50G azul

The form and size of the calculator shell is identical to the 49g+ series, but four

AAA batteries The AAA battery (or triple-A battery) is a standard size of dry cell battery. One or more AAA batteries are commonly used in low-drain portable electronic devices. A zinc–carbon battery in this size is designated by IEC as R03, by ANSI C18. ...

are used as opposed to three in previous models. In addition to all the features of the 49g+, the 50g also includes the full equation library found in the HP 48G series (also available for the 49g+ with firmware 2.06 and above), as well as the periodic table library originally available as a plug-in card for the 48S series, as of firmware 2.15/ 2.16 (the latest, as of 2015), and has a 3.3V TTL-level asynchronous serial port in addition to

and

USB Mini-B The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of ...

ports of the 49g+. Like the 49g+, the range of the infrared port has been limited to about 10 cm (4 inches). The asynchronous serial port is not a true

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such a ...

port as it uses different voltage levels and a non-standard connector. An external converter/adapter is required to interface with RS-232 equipment. The keyboard, the most often criticized feature of the 49g+ calculators, uses the new design introduced on the very last 49g+ calculators (hinged keys) to eliminate previous problems. A worldwide announcement regarding the availability of this calculator was made by HP in September 2006, and official details were available on the

HP calculators HP calculators are various calculators manufactured by the Hewlett-Packard company over the years. Their desktop models included the HP 9800 series, while their handheld models started with the HP-35. Their focus has been on high-end scientific ...

webpage. The calculator was officially discontinued in 2015.

Programming

The HP 49/50 series of calculators support both algebraic and a stack-based programming language named RPL, a combination of

Reverse Polish Notation Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as reverse Łukasiewicz notation, Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators ''follow'' their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in whi ...

(RPN) and

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

. RPL adds the concepts of lists and functions to stack-based programming, allowing the programmer to pass unevaluated code as arguments to functions, or return unevaluated code from a function by leaving it on the stack. The highest level language is

User RPL RPL is a handheld calculator operating system and application programming language used on Hewlett-Packard's scientific graphing RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) calculators of the HP 28, 48, 49 and 50 series, but it is also usable on non-RPN ...

, consisting of sequences of built-in postfix operations, optionally including loops and conditionals. Every User RPL command checks the stack for its particular arguments and returns an error if they are incorrect or not present. Below User RPL is System RPL (SysRPL). Most System RPL commands lack argument checking and are defined only for specific argument types (e.g. short integer vs. long integer), making System RPL programs run dramatically faster than equivalent User RPL ones. In addition, System RPL includes many advanced functions that are not available in User RPL. System RPL programs can be created without the use of PC software (although it is available), thanks to the calculator's built-in compiler, MASD. MASD also can compile

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

and, with the latest firmware revision for the 49g+/50g, ARMv4T assembly language on the calculator itself. Many tools exist to assist programmers and make the calculator a powerful programming environment.

assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

, and, on the 49g+/50g, ARM assembly and C, are also programmable using desktop based compilers. See also the programs available for the

. No model of this series is programmable in

HP PPL HP may refer to: Businesses and organisations * HP Inc., an American technology company ** Hewlett-Packard, the predecessor to HP Inc. * HP Foods ** HP Sauce, formerly made by HP Foods * Handley Page, an aircraft company * Hindustan Petroleum ...

HPGCC for the 49g+/50g

HPGCC is an implementation of the

GCC compiler The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free software ...

, released under the

GNU GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

. It is now mainly targeted at the ARM-based 49g+/50g calculators. Previous versions of HPGCC supported the other ARM-based calculator models (the 48gII, and the

hp 39g+ HP 39/40 series are graphing calculators from Hewlett-Packard, the successors of HP 38G. The series consists of six calculators, which all have algebraic entry modes, and can perform numeric analysis together with varying degrees of symbolic ...

HP 39gs HP 39/40 series are graphing calculators from Hewlett-Packard, the successors of HP 38G. The series consists of six calculators, which all have algebraic entry modes, and can perform numeric analysis together with varying degrees of symbolic ...

HP 40gs HP 39/40 series are graphing calculators from Hewlett-Packard, the successors of HP 38G. The series consists of six calculators, which all have algebraic entry modes, and can perform numeric analysis together with varying degrees of symbolic ...

), but this was removed due to lack of interest and compatibility issues. Formally, HPGCC is a

cross-compiler A cross compiler is a compiler capable of creating executable code for a platform other than the one on which the compiler is running. For example, a compiler that runs on a PC but generates code that runs on an Android smartphone is a cross ...

; it compiles code for the ARM-based HP calculators, but runs on a PC rather than the target system. The latest version of HPGCC offers many enhancements from earlier versions. Most notably, the compiled code is now in ARM Thumb mode by default, resulting in great reduction in code size with little performance hit. Besides implementing most of

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...

C, there are device-specific libraries that allow access to things like the calculator's RPN stack, memory and

piezoelectric Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied Stress (mechanics), mechanical s ...

buzzer. The GCC compiler itself is the property of the Free Software Foundation, and they state that its use does not impose any particular licensing restrictions on any of its output. However, the libraries included with HPGCC, including routines necessary to actually invoke any HPGCC-compiled program on an actual calculator, are released under a modified

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

license, contrary to GCC on many other platforms which use a more

permissive license A permissive software license, sometimes also called BSD-like or BSD-style license, is a free-software license which instead of copyleft protections, carries only minimal restrictions on how the software can be used, modified, and redistributed, ...

for their libraries. Thus any programs that link against them can only be distributed if they are also released under the GPL (with an exception for "non-profit" software). Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X versions are available for download. The Windows version also includes a version of Programmer's Notepad for a basic IDE.

Emulators

There are several

emulators In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

available for the HP 49G calculator. A version of EMU48 is available in the Debug4x IDE that allows emulation of most of the features of the 49g+/50g, but will not execute any ARM-based code. An ARM-based emulator, x49gp, has been released and allows the true emulation of the 49g+/50g ARM processor and successfully runs HPGCC 2 and 3 compiled programs. The emulator is only available for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

and

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

and must be compiled from the source. (See README.QUICKSTART for details.) The commercial version of the application m48 also supports HP 49G. So far, there are no 49g+/50g emulators for smartphones with the exception of HP 50g for iPhone and iPad released in October 2012. An emulator for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

(PPC, smartphones) is available. Other 49G/49g+/50g emulators for Android (without ARM support). In 2012, Hewlett-Packard released an emulator named ''HP 50g Virtual Calculator'' (version 3.1.29/3.1.30 with firmware 2.16 and support for the StreamSmart 410) for Windows.

Firmware updates

The 49/50 series allows the user to update the firmware to gain enhanced features or bug fixes. Official firmware updates are released by Hewlett-Packard. Unsupported unofficial firmware updates are also available at sites such as hpcalc.org.

References

External links

* Official HP support for , , , * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hp 49 50 Series Computer algebra systems Graphing calculators 49 de:HP-49G