The Museum of HP Calculators

Benchmark Results

Two very simple benchmarks were run on various calculators. The Math benchmark tested the four basic functions and square root. The Trig benchmark tested the six basic trig functions plus natural log and anti log and spent proportionately more time in core math routines than the math benchmark. The results were normalized to the HP-9100A which was given a score of 100. (Higher scores are better.) These simple benchmarks may not represent real world usage.

Speed / dollar is calculated as (2×math score + trig score) ÷ price × 100. Naturally, this simple number penalizes machines with advanced features. No attempt to compute "power / dollar" was made due to the complexity of assigning values for the number of steps, flexibility in memory management, continuous vs. non-continuous memory, peripherals, etc.

Model	Intro Year	Intro Price	Math	Trig	Speed / dollar
HP 9100A	1968	$4900	100	100	6
HP 9810A ¹	1971	$2960	110	183	13
HP-9830A ²	1972	$5975	108	195	7
HP-65	1974	$795	7	25	5
HP-25	1975	$195	6	25	19
HP 9815A	1976	$2900	96	123	11
HP 9825A	1976	$5900	977	1140	52
HP-67	1976	$450	6	23	8
HP-97	1976	$750	7	23	5
HP-34C	1979	$150	5	18	19
HP-41C	1979	$295	13	45	24
HP-85B ²	1979	$3,250	275	398	29
HP-11C	1981	$135	6	25	27
HP-75D	1984	$1095	191	478	79
HP-71B	1984	$525	132	378	122
HP-28C	1988	$235	65	320	191
HP-42S	1988	$120	32	330	328
HP-32SII	1991	$70	86	370	774
HP-48S	1991	$250	113	655	352
HP-48G	1993	$165	159	1150	889

The Benchmarks

Each of the benchmarks sets R2 to zero and then runs indefinitely, adding 1 to R2 on each iteration. Each benchmark was run for one minute and then stopped (R/S key pressed) and then the counter in R2 was recalled (RCL 2). To normalize results to the HP 9100, the value in R2 was divided by the R2 value for the HP 9100 (below) and then multiplied by 100. For example, after running the math benchmark for one minute, register 2 (or C as ported ) on the HP 32SII was 587. 587÷679×100 = 86% of HP 9100 speed. Individual runs may vary by a few percent and different samples of each model may also vary.

Math pseudo code
HP 9100 final R2 value: 679 Trig pseudo code
HP 9100 final R2 value: 40

0 STO 2 1.01234 EEX 6 STO 0 2.345 STO 1 <loop> RCL 1 RCL 0 × RCL 1 - RCL 0 ÷ RCL 1 × 3.5 ÷ SQRT 1 STO + 2 GTO loop

56.26 STO 0 0 STO 2 <loop> RCL 0 SIN ASIN COS ACOS TAN ATAN LN e^x 1 STO + 2 GTO loop

Notes and Observations

The trigonometric algorithms in the handhelds appeared to be more efficient than the those used in the desktops but the desktops calculated trig functions accurate to 12 digits vs. 9 for the early handhelds. On the HP-67/97 handheld accuracy improved to 10 digits and on the HP-41C and RPL calculators, handheld accuracy was comparable to the desktops.

The code was changed as little as possible when ported. Both benchmarks had a single loop which was implemented using labels on label-based machines. Some machines like the HP-67 and HP-34C might have shown higher benchmark numbers if the benchmark was recoded using line addressing via the indirect register.

The recent handhelds have plenty of horsepower as evidenced by the trigonometric test, but they also have more overhead with larger screens, multiple data types, unlimited stacks, etc. As a result the math results are not as impressive because they spend proportionately more time on overhead.

Notes:

Used ATN(x/(SQR(1-x^2)) to calculate ARC SIN(x) and ATN(SQR(1-x^2)/x) to calculate ARC COS(x) on the HP-9830A and HP-85B.
HP 9810 price includes $485 mathematics module.

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