Philadelphia Area HP Handheld Club Meeting | Wednesday, February 9, 1994 | Drexel University

HP48 ROM Upgrades

It looks like the HP48GX upgrade program is in force, with users still reporting that HP is taking names for a trade-in in the March time frame. More than one source claims that ROM version R is in the works for the same time period. The understanding is that ROM versions M and earlier would be accepted for upgrades. We know of no HP48G's containing version P like the latest GX's, but there may indeed be some out there.

A New Bug (As If We Needed One)

Related to the upgrades, still another HP48 bug has been reported recently by Joseph Horn. This one involves the XROOT ("xth root of y") function when it is used with list object(s) as inputs. When either (or both) input argument is a list, the XROOT function erroneously reverses the X and Y values when taking the xth root. For example, the operation 3 5 XROOT yields the value 1.25, representing the 5th root of 3. However if we press 3 { 5 } XROOT, the result becomes { 1.71 } which is in fact the cube root of 5. The same result is obtained when the stack arguments are { 3 } and 5. Apparently, this bug is in every HP48 G-series machine to this point.

Dutch Conference "Discount" Registration Deadline Past

The January 31st deadline is now past for discount registrations to the PROMPT group's Tenth Anniversary Conference to be held May 28-29, 1994 at the Galaxy Hotel in Amsterdam. (I sent in mine a few weeks ago.) So far, from the U.S., the other folks in the "possible attendance" category include Paul Hubbert from Chicago, Richard Nelson from Southern California and Craig Finseth from Minneapolis. Actually, Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz isn't even sure if many folks will attend from his HPCC British group, only a short hop to the west. Perhaps there will be more interest as the season progresses.

EduCalc "Finds" More Old HP Calcs

A couple of weeks ago, Richard Nelson reported in the EduCalc newsline (714-582-3976) message that they would be coming into posession of some more of HP's older machines, namely HP11C's, 15C, 16C's 21S's and 27S's. These units come without a manual (which is ten bucks extra) or a carrying case. Only small quantities were supposed to be available of each, with prices being $24.95 for the 11C and $29.95 for each of the others. (In fact he said that if the newsline was mentioned, a five-dollar discount was available on the 30-buck machines.) As of the next (last week's) newsline message, they had already sold out of the 15C's. If you are interested in any of the other machines, get your call in quickly. This is just one example of the advantages of keeping up with the newsline information.

HP Introduces 2MB HP100LX

Another example of a newsline tidbit is the announcement of the 2-meg RAM version of the HP100LX, which is already in stock at EduCalc. The price is $719. with that of the 1-meg machine dropping $190. to $529.00. It was also mentioned on comp.sys.palmtops that HP was also offering a RAM upgrade for 1-meg owners to convert them to 2-meg machines, however at $297.00 a pop, few thought that it would be a very popular option. With the prices of the original 100 dropping so far and the price of the 95LX staying the same, it won't be long before the '95 disappears after a three-year life. Additional versions of the 100 are strongly rumored to be released soon, with one reputedly called the 105LX. The only detail heard is that new application software is slated for inclusion (with none being related to scientific calculations).

Lithium-Polymer Batteries Upcoming from HP

A recent article in Electronic News mentioned that Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis division was going to a third party for a deal on a very new subnotebook battery based on lithium-polymer technology. (Check this later in the handout.) With a supposed fourfold increase in capacity over nickel-cadmium, this could be the ace up their sleeves that allows a practical solution to backlighting the Omnibook's LCD without sacrificing battery life. In fact, one could expect the non-backlit machines to run for around 30 hours on a full charge if the quoted figures prove correct. Imagine if such a battery was crammed into the 100LX, allowing hundreds of hours of use, or perhaps backlighting IT'S screen (or even inserting a color screen).

Intel Not Resting on its Pentium Laurels

Apparently, despite its causing imminent customer confusion at the PC high-end, Intel has decided to push to introduce the successor to the Pentium as early as the first quarter of 1995. Currently dubbed the P6, this 6-million transistor device will allegedly have a 300-million-instruction-per-second rating and outpace the as-yet-unannounced 100-megahertz Pentium by three to one. The only certainty in the PC industry is that whatever you bought will be obsolete well before it wears out. This should keep the Power-chip proponents IBM and Apple on their toes for awhile. So, what do you suppose they'll call this chip? I doubt that "686" will be chosen and "Hexium" sounds too much like a chemical element to me.