Calc vs XEQ41

Calc-U-59 is a TI-59, TI-58, and TI-58C emulator for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It runs the original ROM, so every program, module, and quirk works exactly as it did on the real hardware — with virtual magnetic cards, a PC-100C printer, all fourteen Solid State Software modules, and a CPU-level debugger for anyone who wants to look under the hood. CYCLE-ACCURATE EMULATION The TMC0501 processor is emulated at the cycle level, reproducing the exact behaviour of the original hardware — including the TI-58C's constant memory, preserved across restarts. The Master Library ROM and many more modules are included. INTEGRATED DEBUGGER Inspect program memory, data registers, CPU state, and internal SCOM registers live as the machine runs. Step through instructions one at a time, or let the emulator run and freeze it at any point. You can even run your own assembly programs! On iPad in landscape and on the Mac it sits beside the calculator; on iPhone and in portrait, turn on the debugger page in Settings. PAPER TAPE PRINTER A functional recreation of the PC-100C thermal printer with dot-matrix font rendering. Trace exactly what programs print and why. Copy output as plain text or as a high-resolution bitmap. MAGNETIC CARD READER Load and save programs and data registers as card files, stored on your device and synced via iCloud. Bring old listings back to life and run them under the debugger. STATE FILES Load .ti59 and .ti58(c) state files to instantly configure the machine with a program, registers, and flags — ideal for sharing reproducible scenarios or revisiting known machine states. SOLID STATE MODULES Select a Solid State Module and run programs from there. Whether you're bringing an old program back to life, running the Master Library modules, or exploring how these machines actually worked under the hood, Calc-U-59 gives you a faithful TI-59 in your pocket. Calc-U-59 is free software under the GPLv3; the source code is on GitHub.

XEQ41 is a hand-written emulator of a 1983 programmable RPN calculator, running the original manufacturer's microcode on a simulated NUT processor. It is not a re-implementation of the machine's behaviour — it is a simulation of its processor, so the calculator on screen executes the same instructions the hardware executed, and does what the hardware did for the same reasons. THE DETAILS THAT GET TESTED • Hold a key too long and the microcode itself cancels the function and prints NULL. That is 7,100 instructions — 1.23 seconds at original speed. Nobody wrote a timer; the ROM does it, and it stays 1.23 seconds when you run the machine faster. • BEEP is four tones, not three: 578, 361, 722 and 578 Hz, because the microcode falls through into a fourth. The test was written expecting three and the machine corrected it. • The display is modelled as a liquid crystal panel rather than sampled as a register, so the half-built strings the hardware never showed stay hidden and the 174 ms blink it does intend does not. • Continuous memory. Close it, force-quit it, come back next week — it is where you left it. • Shift-ON puts up a running clock, exactly as the manual says. THE FACEPLATE IS DRAWN, NOT PHOTOGRAPHED Thirty-nine moving key caps, the glass and the annunciator row are all vector, generated from a measured coordinate table — sharp at any size, with no image assets anywhere. A key going down travels, closes the shadow beneath it and darkens. The fourteen-segment display face is ours outright, drawn from our own segment table, so no third-party font ships. Every key is an accessibility element whose label is composed from the printed legend, so VoiceOver says "x squared" where the plate prints x². WHAT IS IN IT • FOCAL programming, with program files in and out through Files • Extended Memory, with real file structure • Four ports for plug-in module images you supply • The 82143A thermal printer and its paper tape, once you supply its ROM image • Synthetic programming — the byte grabber runs • Saved machines that record what was plugged in and refuse to open as something else • Alarms, the clock, BEEP and TONE, LCD contrast, haptics • Fifty transcribed keyboard overlay cards • Three faceplate palettes, and an optional extra display for the stack or the machine's status • Seven FOCAL programs written for this app, free to use and modify HOW IT IS CHECKED Thirteen scripted scenarios run byte-identical against a second, independent implementation of the same processor. Six programs from printed sources reproduce their published answers, including a polynomial fit and a singular linear system whose correct answer is the degenerate one. All thirty coordinates of a published planetary ephemeris match to the seven digits the display carries. 673 tests. PRIVACY There is no networking code in the app at all. No account, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, nothing collected. Everything stays in the app's own storage on your device. WHAT IT IS NOT It is not a general-purpose calculator — it is one specific machine, and if you have never wanted that machine it has nothing to offer over the one already on your phone. Third-party module images — the printer's ROM among them — are yours to import, not ours to distribute. COMPATIBILITY XEQ41 is functionally equivalent to the HP-41CX. XEQ41 is not affiliated with, authorized by, endorsed by, or sponsored by Hewlett-Packard. HP, Hewlett-Packard and HP-41 are trademarks of their respective owners.