The HP Prime Graphing Calculator is a

graphing calculator Graphing Calculator may refer to: * Graphing calculators, calculators that are able to display and/or analyze mathematical function graphs * NuCalc, a computer software program able to perform many graphing calculator functions * Grapher, th ...

introduced by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

in 2013 and manufactured by

HP Inc. HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company with its headquarters in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing services. It is the world's s ...

until the licensees Moravia Consulting spol. s r.o. and

Royal Consumer Information Products, Inc. Royal Consumer Information Products, Inc. (formerly The Royal Typewriter Company) is an American technology company founded in January 1904 as a manufacturer of typewriters. Royal’s product line has evolved to include cash registers, shredders, ...

took over the continued development, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and support in 2022. It was designed with features resembling those of

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s, such as a full-color

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

display and a user interface centered around different

application Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

s. It claims to be the world's smallest and thinnest CAS-enabled calculator currently available. The functionality of the HP Prime is also available as

emulation software 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 perip ...

for PCs and Macs, as well as for various smartphones.

Design and software

The HP Prime's

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

features two separate home screens, one of which contains an integrated

computer algebra system A computer algebra system (CAS) or symbolic algebra system (SAS) is any mathematical software with the ability to manipulate mathematical expressions in a way similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists. The de ...

(CAS) based on the free and open-source Xcas/Giac 1.5.0 engine, which evolved from that of the

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

and its successors. Both the standard and CAS modes function independently of each other and the calculator can quickly switch between the two, unlike some of its competitors, such as the

TI-Nspire series The TI-Nspire is a graphing calculator line made by Texas Instruments, with the first version released on 25 September 2007. The calculators feature a non-QWERTY keyboard and a different key-by-key layout than Texas Instruments's previous ...

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

, which comes in either CAS-supported models or non-CAS models. The G1 model calculator has a 1,500 mAh battery, which is expected to last up to 15 hours on a single charge. The G2 model comes with a battery with a capacity of 2,000 mAh. Unlike the

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

and its predecessors, the HP Prime does not have an

SD card Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...

slot and does not feature a beeper.

Exam Mode

The HP Prime has a feature called ''

Exam Mode An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-size ...

''. This enables various features of the calculator (such as CAS functionality, user-created apps, notes, etc.) to be selectively disabled for a specific time, from 15 minutes to 8 hours. This can be done manually within the calculator's menus, or by using a computer with HP's connectivity software. LEDs on the top of the calculator blink to let the instructor see that the calculator is in this mode. Despite this feature, the Prime is still prohibited in many examinations, such as the US's ACT college-entry test. It is however starting to be accepted in other examinations, like those run by the Dutch CvTE, the Swiss IB, or

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

(Canada) education authorities.

Programming

The HP Prime's non-CAS home-screen supports textbook, algebraic and 128-level RPN (aka Advanced RPN) entry logic. Unlike RPL, which throws an error message when its dynamic stack is exhausted, the Prime's fixed-sized stack just drops values off the stack on overflow (like with four-level RPN). The calculator uses a new operating system unrelated to HP's legacy

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 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

and Saturn-emulated systems, which were used on HP's previous RPN/RPL graphing calculators; therefore, it is not compatible with any

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 ...

or System RPL, or with programming in Saturn or ARM assembler language. The calculator supports programming in a new, Pascal-like programming language now named HP PPL (for Prime Programming Language, but originally also referred to as HP Basic) that also supports creating apps. This is based on a language introduced on the HP 38G and built on in subsequent models.

Hardware revisions and model variants

The first production model (NW280AA) in 2013 reports its hardware revision as A. This model does not support wireless connectivity, unit-to-unit USB communication, or data streaming. The calculator is manufactured by Inventec Besta and utilizes a modified version of their Besta operating system. The second production model (G8X92AA) reports its hardware revision as C. It was introduced in May 2014. This model supports features lacking in the first production model, namely wireless connectivity (using the ''HP Prime Wireless Kit'' (FOK65AA)), unit-to-unit USB communication (through

USB OTG Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical in ...

), and data streaming (using the ''HP StreamSmart 410'' (NW278AA) 4-port data streamer). The wireless kit includes a base station connected to a PC and wireless modules to connect to up to 30 HP Prime calculators for use in a classroom. The third production model, which was introduced in August 2016, has a revised color scheme with darker blue and orange colors for an improved readability of the keyboard. It still carries the model number G8X92AA and reports a hardware revision of C, but the package shows a 2016 copyright. In July 2018, HP introduced a new hardware generation with model number 2AP18AA and hardware revision D. This version features an NXP

i.MX 6ULL The i.MX range is a family of NXP proprietary microprocessors dedicated to multimedia applications based on the ARM architecture and focused on low-power consumption. The i.MX application processors are SoCs (system-on-chip) that integrate many p ...

MCIMX6Y2 processor with ARM Cortex A7 core and is about three times faster. It provides more RAM (256 MiB instead of 32 MiB) and a bigger Flash module (512 MB instead of 256 MB) and runs

FreeRTOS FreeRTOS is a real-time operating system Kernel (operating system), kernel for embedded devices that has been ported to 40 microcontroller platforms. It is distributed under the MIT License. History The FreeRTOS kernel was originally developed ...

. It is labelled "G2" on the back.

Images

Hp prime apps.jpg, Selection of bundled apps (G1 Model) Hp prime cas.jpg, Computer Algebra System (G1 Model)

References

External links

HP Prime
HPCC
Reverse engineering the HP Prime USB protocol
{{HP calculators Computer algebra systems Graphing calculators

Prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

Products introduced in 2013