Posts: 73
Threads: 19
Joined: Nov 2009
The HP-80 has a (charming) behavior of flashing digits on the display briefly when calculating, for example, SQRTx, much like a programmable Classic while running a program. The HP-35 (and other Classics) don't do this for pre-programmed functions).
Since the HP-80 and HP-35 were basically the same electronics (HP-80 with more ROMs), does anyone know why the different behavior? Seems to me SQRTx (et al) would be implemented the same way on both?
Posts: 50
Threads: 4
Joined: Oct 2009
I'm presuming that the ROM implementations are different in each calculator, resulting in the distinct behaviors.
-Tim
Posts: 73
Threads: 19
Joined: Nov 2009
Certainly there are differences, I'm interested in why this behavior in the HP-80 (flashing the display) when it isn't present in other Classics, particularly it's closest neighbors (HP-35, HP-45).
Posts: 2,309
Threads: 116
Joined: Jun 2005
As Tim said, the difference is in the ROM code. If you want to know *why* the ROM code is different, I suppose you'd have to track down the engineers that wrote it and ask them.