3 Jul
1997
3 Jul
'97
9:44 a.m.
In message <199707031310.GAA04318(a)mx5.u.washington.edu> classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
writes:
-tony
I got more into the guts of the HP-71, which was a
20-bit, nybble-oriented.
It had a Saturn chip (I think), on which I programmed in FORTH. A FORTH
chip was talked about for the HP-41 (never heard it called a coco, though)
but I don't know if it jelled.
'Coconut' was certainly the code-name for the HP41
I also like the HP71B. They're very easy to find in the UK at the moment, and
tend to sell for about \pounds 20.00. Forth/assembler ROMs are a lot rarer,
though, but the built-in Basic is quite nice.
I was very lucky - I managed to obtain all the technical docs on the HP71B,
including a commented source of the ROMs. It's a very interesting machine
internally. The Saturn (which is used in a lot of later HP handhelds,
including the HP48 family) is a strange chip. I'd not call it 20 bit, though.
Addresses (nybble addresses!) are 20 bits, most registers are 64 bits, and the
ALU is (I think) 4 bits. Call it whatever size you like.