HP 48 Calculator emulation with MESS

This page documents my MESS drivers to emulate the HP 48 family of calculators built by the US company Hewlett Packard in the 90's.

Driver Documentation
Options
Known Issues
Resources (ROMs, artworks, files, links, etc.)
Contact

Driver Documentation

The following HP 48 models are emulated; click on a driver to access its documentation:

Driver list
Driver	Model	Comment
`hp48sx`	HP 48SX	first generation: Scientific Expandable Calculator
`hp48s`	HP 48S	cheaper non-expandable version of the HP 48SX
`hp48gx`	HP 48GX	second generation: Graphical Expandable Calculator
`hp48g`	HP 48G	less memory and no expandable version of the HP 48GX
`hp48gp`	HP 48G+	HP 48G version with 128 KB of RAM, not expandable

Options

The HP 48 drivers have several command-line options that are succinctly described bellow.

I/O

I/O options can be used to transmit files between the host emulator and the emulated HP 48 by attaching an image file to the HP 48 serial port and choosing a protocol. More detailed information are available in the HP 48SX and HP 48GX documentations.

I/O options
Option	Description	Models
`-kermit file`	wire RS-232 connection to a Kermit server	all models
`-xmodem file`	wire RS-232 connection to an XModem server	HP 48G/GX/G+ only

Note that only the Kermit and XModem protocols are emulated and that infra-red I/O is currently not emulated.

Memory Cards

Memory card options allow extending the memory of an HP 48SX/GX by attaching an image file to a extension slot. The HP 48S/G/G+ having no extension slot, they do not support these options. More detailed information are available in the HP 48SX and HP 48GX documentations.

Extension
Option	Description	Capacity	Models
`-port1 file`	RAM/ROM extension slot 1	32 KB to 128 KB	HP 48SX/GX only
`-port2 file`	RAM/ROM extension slot 2	32 KB to 128 KB (SX), or 4 MB (GX)	HP 48SX/GX only

ROM revisions

By default, the newest ROM revision is selected for each model. The -bios option can be used to select another ROM revision.

ROM revisions
Option	Available revisions	Default	Models
`-bios revision`	`a`, `b`, `c`, `d`, `e`, `j`	`j`	HP 48S/SX
`-bios revision`	`k`, `l`, `m`, `p`, `r`	`r`	HP 48G/GX/G+

Known Issues

infra-red I/O is not implemented
only Kermit and XModem serial I/O is implemented, direct HP-to-HP communication is not implemented
some gray-scale programs exhibit flickering
cannot set memory card size on image creation
timing and interrupts in Saturn CPU are not accurate
test mode reports some failures

Resources

Files

The following files are required to emulate the HP 48 calculators under MESS.

Help

HP 48 FAQ at hpcalc.org.
How to install software on the HP 48. at hpcalc.org.
Some manuals are available at the HP Graphing Calculators page at HP.
HP48 machine language - a journey to the center of the HP48 S/SX book at Paul Courbis' site (mostly in French)

HP 48 Links

hpcalc.org: wealth of software and information on HP calculators, including all HP 48 models.
The Museum of HP Calculators has some pages about HP 48 models.
HP 48 page at hpcc.org.
Area48, a site dedicated to new HP 48/49 users.
The HP 48 Goodies Page.
Daniel Lidströms HP48 page has some documentation and software.
The Gouri HP48 Collection, a large collection of HP 48 software