Hi, Karl:
Karl posted:
"Thank you for the informative follow-up to my post."
You're welcome. If you want to know more, have a look at this very interesting PDF document discussing all three methods, with pretty challenging examples:
A Comparison of three high-precision quadrature schemes
"I have to admit that I still haven't gotten a Math ROM for the HP-71B I bought
on eBay more than a year ago. The ROM itself seems pretty hard to get -- I've never seen it appear on eBay or the MoHPC Classifieds as an individual item."
Yes, it's a real gem, a much valued and sought-after add-on among knowledgeable HP-71B fans. However, it actually isn't that rare, there are tens of thousands of them still in existence, because it was bundled with a very large order of HP-71Bs by a British (IIRC) health care organization, and when the machines were replaced, their Math ROMs went with them.
Myself, I have three HP-71B and each one of them came with their own Math ROM included.
Anyway, if you're eager to try it, or the examples I post or some of my articles about it (i.e.: "Baker's Dozen" in the next Datafile issue), just get Emu71 from Jean-François Garnier, it comes complete with the Math ROM image and all, and it's absolutely free, very convenient to use, and runs at awesome speeds (25-30x times the speed of a physical HP-71B), which makes the Math ROM functions all that more powerful.
Or, if you have a 48/49 model, you can get HP-71X from Hrastprogrammer, which will give you full 71B compatibility with the added bonus of portability, at 2x-3x the speed of a physical 71B.
"Not having yet posted a "WTB" ad, though, I can't really complain. I'm not even sure what a fair price is, but the amount that might be asked would probably be sobering."
Can't say. As stated, I just bought the 71B's and the Math ROM was included as well (together with the HP-IL ROM; it was bundled with them, too). I got the machines for prices around $100 (i.e., HP-71B + HP-IL ROM + Math ROM), virtually mint.
"As for Casio's methods, I'm only speculating. My fx-3600P from 1981 uses Simpson's, as does the 2004 fx-115MS, so I assume that all their low-end models did."
I'm convinced that only HP engineers of the golden age actually cared about the quality of their algorithms. I know for sure that both the HP-15C and the HP-71B Math ROM were incredible tours de force with engineers, programmers and numerical-algorithms experts racking their brains to the most to achieve the maximum speed, accuracy, range and, of course, functionality in the allotted ROM space. As such, the HP-71B Math ROM is the most optimized, higher quality 32K of Saturn assembler programming ever written, bar none. Everyone of the many incredibly gifted people involved in its creation loved what they they were doing, and it shows.
Best regards from V.