Upgrading memory of Pioneer models - other than 42s

[Jeff Kearns]

I have seen numerous posts and even some documentation on upgrading the 42s memory to 32 KB. Has anyone ever successfully done the same thing with other Pioneers? Is it even possible and if not, why not? My search through the archives turned up nothing on this. I ask this because my 32sii remains my preferred calculator when compared to the 33s and 35s - if only it had enough memory to hold more than one moderately sized program and still solve a definite integral or find the roots of an equation. Its memory limitations make it next to useless for holding programs. But I like it for so many other reasons!

If they ever do produce the elusive 43s, as suggested umpteen times a day by Walter ;-), I hope it has a better form factor than the latest models. As nice as the 35s is, it is just too big (at least with its case) to stuff in anything less that a coat pocket. I also hope HP implements a proper complex number handling capability in their next non-RPL calculator. That post on hyperbolic sines of complex arguments renewed my appreciation for my 15C.

Jeff Kearns

[Nelson M. Sicuro (Brazil)]

Hi

That I know the only one upgradeable is the 42S. The 17B has the same board and chips, but the internal ROM doesn't accept the extra RAM (I tested myself). The other models doesn't have the same board with external RAM chip (neither the external data/address lines), only internal RAM.

Best regards,

Nelson

[Christoph Giesselink]

Quote:

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I have seen numerous posts and even some documentation on upgrading the 42s memory to 32 KB. Has anyone ever successfully done the same thing with other Pioneers? Is it even possible and if not, why not? My search through the archives turned up nothing on this. I ask this because my 32sii remains my preferred calculator when compared to the 33s and 35s - if only it had enough memory to hold more than one moderately sized program and still solve a definite integral or find the roots of an equation. Its memory limitations make it next to useless for holding programs. But I like it for so many other reasons!

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A memory upgrade on the Low End (10B/20S/21S) and Mid Range (14B/22S/32S/32SII) Pioneers isn't possible. The memory of these calculators is integrated in the custom chip (256B or 512B). Even if you would manage it to adapt HP71B RAM chips to the internal Saturn bus, this wouldn't help because such RAM chips must be initialized by the OS.

All High End Pioneers (17B/17BII/27S/42S) can physically upgraded to 32KB, but only the HP42S detects the more RAM and can use it. On all other calculators only the normal 8KB can be used. So an upgrade on these one is useless.

Cheers

Christoph

[Karl Schneider]

Hi, Christoph --

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A memory upgrade on the Low End (10B/20S/21S) and Mid Range (14B/22S/32S/32SII) Pioneers isn't possible. The memory of these calculators is integrated in the custom chip (256B or 512B).

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The HP-32S from 1988 and HP-32SII from 1991 were compromised by lack of user RAM -- 390 bytes for the HP-32S, and 384 bytes for the HP-32SII, which also offered equations to use storage. The HP-15C from 1982 had 469 bytes total.

The HP-32S/SII programming paradigm is good enough to keep "in-residence" programs and/or equations, but the user is occasionally forced to delete some -- along with variables -- to free up space. This is frustrating.

The 2-kB RAM of the HP-28C from 1986 was inadequate for that "symbolic-object" machine, but would have been quite ample for the HP-32S/SII. I've wondered why that same RAM chip (if it was one) couldn't have been used: Cost of the chip? Too close in capacity to the much-costlier HP-42S with 7 kB?

You probably provided the technical answer why more RAM could not be easily incorporated, but it's still disappointing.

-- KS

Edited: 18 Oct 2008, 12:38 p.m.