The HP 49/50 series are Hewlett-Packard (HP) manufactured graphing calculators. They are the successors of the popular HP 48 series.
There are five calculators in the 49/50 series of HP graphing calculators. These calculators have both algebraic and RPN entry modes, and can perform numeric and symbolic calculations using the built-in Computer Algebra System (CAS), which is an improved ALG48 and Erable combination from the HP 48 series.
HP 49G
Released in August 1999, the HP 49G (F1633A, F1896A) calculator was the first HP unit to break from the more traditional subdued coloration. In addition to having a metallic blue color, the keyboard material was rubber and did not have the traditional HP calculator hinged keyboard feel. In addition, it lacked a large key which was seen by many as the defining characteristic of an HP calculator. These changes were disliked by many traditional HP calculator users.
The 49G incorporated many of the most powerful interface and mathematics tools available on the HP 48 series into the firmware of the new 49G, including the ability to easily decompile and compile both SysRPL and Saturn assembly code on the unit.
The 49G was the first HP calculator to use flash memory and have an upgradable firmware. In addition, it had a hard sliding case as opposed to the soft pouches supplied with the HP 48 series. Almost the same hardware is also used by the HP 39G and HP 40G.
The last officially supported firmware update for the 49G calculator was 1.18, but several unofficial firmware versions were released by the developers. The final firmware version was 1.19-6. Several firmware versions for the successor hp 49g+ and HP 50g calculators have also been released in builds intended for PC emulation software that lacked full utilization of the successors' ARM CPU. Until at least firmware version 2.09, those emulator builds could be installed on the original HP 49G as well.
In 2003, the CAS source code of the 49G firmware was released under the LGPL. In addition, this release included an interactive geometry program and some commands to allow compatibility with certain programs written for the newer 49g+ calculator. Due to licensing restrictions, the recompiled firmware cannot be redistributed.
hp 49g+
In August 2003, Hewlett-Packard released the hp 49g+ (F2228A). This unit had metallic gold coloration and was backward compatible with the HP 49G. Instead of the rubber keyboard found on the HP 49G, this calculator's keyboard had plastic hinges intended to return the feel of older HP calculators, and also included a pouch to protect the unit, similar to those included with older HP models. It was designed and manufactured by Kinpo Electronics for HP.
This calculator featured an entirely new processor architecture, USB (Mini-B) and IrDA (IrCOMM) infrared communication, memory expansion via an SD (SDSC/MMC) card, and a slightly larger screen, as well as other improvements over the previous model.
The calculator system did not run directly on the new ARM processor, but rather on an emulation layer for the older Saturn processors found in previous HP calculators. In principle, the firmware for the calculator is identical to that for the 49G, but it gets automatically patched in the course of development to replace some code sequences by special virtual "Saturn+" instructions which bypass the emulation and run natively on the underlying ARM processor in order to improve the calculator's speed. This allowed the 49g+ to maintain binary-level compatibility with most of the programs written for the HP 49G calculator, as well as source code-level compatibility with many written for the HP 48 series.
Despite the emulation, the 49g+ was still much faster than any older model of HP calculator. The speed increase over the HP 49G is around 3–7 times depending on the task. It is even possible to run programs written for the ARM processor thus bypassing the emulation layer completely. A port of the GNU C compiler is also available (see HPGCC below).