wei@princeton.UUCP (P Wei) (01/15/86)
Can anybody tell (email) me what the CPU is in HP-87 computer ? 8088 or other 8-bit microprocessors ? Thanks. HP Wei (wei@princeton)
tgl@a.sei.cmu.edu (Tom Lane) (01/17/86)
In-Reply-To: P Wei's netnews message of Tue, 14-Jan-86 23:09:15 EST It's a proprietary HP processor bearing hardly any resemblance to any known commercial microprocessor ... just to give you an idea, there are 64 on-chip registers! Curiously enough, it's also quite slow ... typical instruction times of more than 5 microseconds. However, it is real good on multi-precision arithmetic, as a single instruction can add binary or BCD numbers of any width from 1 to 8 bytes. This suggests to me that it might be descended from the processor in some early HP hand calculator, but I don't know this for a fact. If you are eager to learn to program it, buy the Assembler ROM for the 87; it includes the only available documentation. Unfortunately, this manual has to be the worst piece of writing I have ever seen from HP. If you can find the manual for the HP-85B Assembler ROM, you should study the two together. The latter covers similar material but was written by a different person, and the errors occur in different places... be prepared to experiment to discover the Truth. Another source of assembly programming info is Professional Computing, a bimonthly rag that is mostly devoted to Series 80. Their address is PO Box 250, Camden, Maine 04843 and subs are $29.97/year (6 issues). hope this helps tom lane (lane@a.cs.cmu.edu on ARPA) The usual disclaimer goes here.
daver@hp-pcd.UUCP (daver) (01/17/86)
>Can anybody tell (email) me what the CPU is in HP-87 computer ?
The processor in the HP-87 is a custom 8-bit CPU designed and built by HP
specifically for that computer, as well as the HP-85 and HP-86 (a CMOS version
is used in the HP-75 portable computer). It was optimized for BCD computation,
which it does extremely well.
HP can provide full documentation for the processor as well as an assembler and
machine language development system. For information you can contact Technical
Customer Support at 800-858-8867; they have a charge for technical help but can
probably direct you to a free number for more information. You might also try
1-800-FOR-HPPC.
Dave Rabinowitz
hplabs!hp-pcd!daverdennis@hp-pcd.UUCP (dennis) (01/17/86)
The CPU in the HP-87 is a custom processor designed and built at HP's Corvallis (Oregon) Division. It is known there as the "Capricorn" processor. If you want to find about the internals etc., order the Assembler ROM for the HP-87.