Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) (03/09/91)
Not Enough HP48 Ports - An Unsolved Problem
A little while back, I purchased an HP48 Overhead Display device for use
in demonstrations at our local Philly-area user group meetings. A few days
later, I called Zengrange/Firmware/Tripod Data Systems (those guys wear many
hats!) to ask a technical question about the device. One thing casually
mentioned in the conversation was that since the overhead display plugs
directly into an HP48 port, they briefly considered adding a piggyback port
onto the pc board that plugged into the calculator so the lost port would
still be accessable. I believe that the reason this did not happen was cost
considerations (since the device already was expensive). It seemed, though,
one could assume that more than two ports in the HP48 was indeed feasible.
On January 12, 1991 there was a meeting of the HP handheld users who
annually gather at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There,
Karl Volkmar showed off a fancy 99-dollar leather carrying case which he
purchased through the Sharper Image mail-order catalog, originally offered
for the Sharp Wizard. This case opened on three sides with a zipper to reveal
a wallet-style (vertical-format) interior with a pouch for the machine on the
right and several pockets for plug-in cards on the left. Coincidentally, this
carrying case fit the HP48 like it had been made for it. (This case appears
on the meeting videotape, which has been made available on c.s.h recently.)
Having the calculator snugly attached on the right side and other useful
stuff on the other side kind of reminded me of the HP18/19/28 machines and
got me thinking about HP48 port extenders.
I wonder if a port extender for the HP48 couldn't be fashioned like this
leather case. The calculator could be held inside it on the right side with
the keys all accessable and a single I/O port attached to the extender at the
top. The other I/O port would be open for a plug-in card. The left side of
this device/case would contain several (at least 4??) card ports which all
were electrically attached to the system bus and could be switched on or off
line either mechanically or by some other means. Then, one could carry all
his ROM/RAM cards in this case along with the calculator and have them all
attached as well. Perhaps the extender ports could be controlled by software.
The thing could close up like the Wizard case (or the HP28) and protect
everything rather nicely. No ROM copying would be needed to keep several of
one's favorite 32K cards around at one time, and multiple pages of freed RAM
could be present for interchangable use.
Just an idea to think about....
Jake Schwartz akcs.kevin@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Kevin Jessup) (03/13/91)
What I would like to see (if it is possible) is double modules. If someone developed a combination rom module (containing high speed) assembly language utilities and maybe a unique application program or two) plus 132K memory module in one package, I'd buy it in minute!