| HP codename, series |
unknown
|
| Type, Precision,
Input Mode |
Scientific, 12 BCD digits, exponent
±499,
15 digit internal precision, Algebraic and Reverse
Polish Notation.
|
| Programmable |
Yes.
Global labels A-Z, branching to local line numbers with automatic
adjustment (!) on editing. To simplify program editing the global label
character preceeds the line number. 4 general purpose flags, 7 special
flags. DSE, ISG instructions, 20 subroutine levels, up to 999
instructions per program. Program checksums can be displayed to ensure
that instructions have been entered correctly. |
| Performance
Index |
9.5.
This is horribly slow! The HP-32S (introduced 1988, almost 20 years
ago) is more than three times as fast. For another test I ran the
faculty test program (see listing below) and still found that the
HP-32S is twice as fast. Maybe using those 37 bytes per number (see
"Memory" below) makes things so much slower. |
| Memory |
31kByte.
Number registers A-Z plus statistics registers, up to more than
800 indirect number storage registers (shared with program
memory). Each storage register (as well as stack register) occupies 37
bytes because it can hold
up to 3 real numbers (as needed for a 3D-vector).
|
| Display |
2 line LCD, each 14 dot matrix 5x7 characters
plus annunciators.
|
| Special features |
Solver,
numerical integration, equations, complex numbers, vectors, different
number bases, unit conversions, 42 built-in constants, fractions,
registers A-Z direct accessible, two index registers I
and J for
accessing many more indirect registers.
Data types: Real number, complex number, 2D-vector, 3D-vector. No
strings - although the standard register with 36 bytes (plus 1 byte for
type indication) made a nice string which would be sufficiently
long for most purposes. |
| Original Pricing,
Production |
April 2007 ($60) - now
|
| Batteries |
2x large button size cells, 3V.
|
| Dimensions |
Length 15.8 cm, width 8.2 cm, height 1.8 cm
|
| Links |
HP-35s Flyer (PDF from HP,
English, 2 pages, April 2007)
Hewlett Packard's 35th
Anniversary of Pocket Calculators Video
(WMV, 7:25min, 28 MByte, mentions the HP-35, HP-65, HP-41C, HP-12C.
There's an appearance of Dave Hicks, founder of hpmuseum.org!)
Large picture
of the HP-35S.
HP
Support Page with lots of information in PDF format.
Training
Modules (PDF format)
The HP 35s
(HPCC Datafile,
Gene Wright, PDF)
Quick Reference.
Quck Reference by Emilio Tozzi.
|
| Comments |
Introduced in 2007, 35 years after the
introduction of HP's first pocket calculator, the HP-35.
So "the HP-35s is the HP-35's 35th anniversary unit". It doesn't have
much in common with the old HP-35 other than its general shape and
color.
|
|
The
ability to branch to line numbers greatly enhances programmability
compared to the HP-32S/SII,
HP-33S
and
other older units. Although this has a subtle disadvantage: Program
listings must
be given with line numbers!
"XEQ" and "GTO" require a combined
label/line# argument, ie. "GTO A005". As a consequence, when entering
"XEQ A" to invoke a program nothing happens because the unit still
needs to know the line number! For an abbreviation the user can now
press ENTER to start executing at A001. |
|
In display mode ALL only positive numbers up to
9.9999999999E99 fit
into the display (because there are 14 display character positions). As
soon as the exponent reaches 100 or the mantissa or exponent becomes
negative the number doesn't fit any more and is truncated to the right!
In this case a small arrow is shown and the right-arow key can be used
to display the reminder of the number. Very awkward. "FIX
8", "SCI
8" or "ENG 8" ensures that numbers up to
±9.99999999E±99
fit entirely into the display. I think this is a consequence of
displaying complex numbers on a single line. In this case there is no
way around using the arrow keys to see it all.
Another oddity is the superscripted minus sign for negative numbers and
exponents. Presumably required to be able to distinguish between a
negative sign and the minus operator in equations.
|
|
Even though the HP-35s nicely supports complex
numbers only a seemingly random subset of functions actually support
them:
| Supported |
Not
supported |
| Storing complex numbers |
And kind of comparisn of X with 0 or
Y |
| +, -, ×, ÷ |
|
| sin, cos, tan |
asin, acos, atan |
| |
sinh, cosh, tanh, asinh, acosh, atanh |
| ln, ex, yx,
1/x |
x-th root of y, square root, square
(x²), log, 10x |
| ABS |
Any kind of unit conversion
|
| |
%, %CHG, nCr, nPr, n! |
| ISG, DSG (real part) |
Summing S+, S- |
|
|
The manuals for the HP-32SII, HP-33S and HP-35S
are more or less identical. |
|
The "cosine bug" reported for the HP-33s is
still present in the HP-35s. Apparently, the math routines are the same as in the HP-33s. |
|
Due to the lack of
character
strings programs and variables cannot be given descriptive names. And
there are no I/O interfaces for a printer, card
reader, ROM/RAM module or HP-IL. Altogether the HP-35S is "only" an
improved HP-32S/SII or HP-33S but it cannot rival the HP-41C or HP-42S. Not to
forget that the HP-28S
(although it did cost $235 in 1988) also had 32kByte of memory and was
equipped with the extremely powerful
RPL programming language that included descriptive naming of variables!
It is a pity that HP didn't bring the powerful RPL language with its
ability to give variables and programs descriptive names to the HP-35s.
Maybe it was assumed that the display was to small to enter structured
RPL programs and there were too few keys for the entire alphabet. The
HP-28S offered 4 lines of display and 72 (!) keys. |
|
Using binary, octal or hexadecimal numbers is quite a bit of a pain.
For one thing, hexadecimal digits A-F are located on the SIN, COS, TAN, sqrt, yx
and 1/x key - but these keys are not labelled accordingly! Furthermore,
entering a binary, octal or hexadecimal value requires the
appropriate base identifier at the end of the number, ie "3AFh"
or
otherwise the number is always assumed to be decimal and an error is
generated if it contains unappropriate digits. The base identifier
can only be reached thru the "BASE" menu, ie. for the "h" label press:
Shift,
BASE, down, down, right, ENTER - 6 keypresses!!!! Ok, there is an
abbreviation if you can remember that "h" corresponds to the 6th entry
in the BASE menu: Shift, BASE, 6 - but still these are 3 keypresses.
Integer numbers range from 0 to 0xFFFFFFFFF (40 bits). Values with the
high bit set are apparently considered negative: 0x3FF00
multiplied by itself results in OVERFLOW, the negative of 0x1 is
0xFFFFFFFFF, 0x7FFFFFFFF + 0x1 creates an overflow, 0xFFFFFFFFF
* 0xFFFFFFFFF results in 1 because -1 * -1 = 1. You need to get
used to this. |
|
A cool feature of the HP-35s is to use algebraic equations within a RPN program! Consider this:
Z001 LBL Z
Z002 REGZ ; Enter as "EQN Rv z ENTER"
Z003 RTN
The equation in line 2 simply takes the Z register and - as a result -
pushes this number onto the stack. So with this tiny program you can
get a copy of the Z register into X.... |
| Forensic Result |
8.99999986001 |
| Summary | It
leaves me with mixed feelings. The artistic and mechanical design is
very very good and easily matches the Pioneers. The support for
algebraic mode and equations really complicates and confuses things a
lot. Although I must admit that an equation can be much more
straight-forward and compact than a RPN program doing the same thing.
Compared to the HP-32SII there
is much more memory available, complex numbers are handled more
naturally, vectors are supported (although in a rather limited way) and
there are two display lines.
Why by all means did they squeeze algebraic mode into this unit?
|
