HP 48gII Advanced User's Reference Manual page 607

12.Parallel Processing with Lists
Parallel processing is the idea that, generally, if a command can be applied to one or more individual arguments,
then it can also be extended to be applied to one or more sets of arguments. (Note: some examples assume
approximate mode.)
Some examples:
5 INV returns .2, so {4 5 8} INV returns {.25 .2 .125}.
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4 5 * returns 20, so {4 5 6} {5 6 7} * returns {20 30 42}, and {4 5 6} 5 * returns
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{20 25 30}.
General rules for parallel processing
As a rule-of-thumb, a given command can use parallel list processing if all the following are true:
The command checks for valid argument types. Commands that apply to all object types, such as DUP,
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SWAP, ROT, and so forth, do not use parallel list processing.
The command takes exactly one, two, three, four, or five arguments, none of which may itself be a list.
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Commands that use an indefinite number of arguments (such as "LIST) do not use parallel list processing.
The command isn't a programming branch command (IF, FOR, CASE, NEXT, and so forth).
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The remainder of this appendix describes how the many and various commands available on the calculator are
grouped with respect to parallel processing.
Group 1: Commands that cannot parallel process
A command must take arguments before it can parallel process, since a zero-argument command (such as
RAND, VARS, or REC) has no arguments with which to form a group.
Group 2: Commands that must use DOLIST to parallel process
This group of commands cannot use parallel processing directly, but can be "coerced" into it using the
DOLIST command (see Using D later in this appendix). This group consists of several subgroups:
Stack manipulation commands. A stack manipulation command cannot parallel process because the
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stack is manipulated as a whole and list objects are treated the same as any other object. Stack commands
(such as DROP) that take level 1 arguments will not accept level 1 list arguments.
Commands that operate on a list as a whole. Certain commands accept lists as arguments but treat
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them no differently than any other data object. They perform their function on the object as a whole without
respect to its elements. For example, "STR converts the entire list object to a string rather than converting
each individual element, and the = = command tests the level 1 object against the level 2 object regardless of
the objects' types.
List manipulation commands. List manipulation commands will not parallel process since they operate
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on list arguments as lists rather than as sets of parallel data. However, a list manipulation command can be
forced to parallel process lists of lists by using the DOLIST command. For example,
{{1 2 3} {4 5 6}} « œLIST » DOLIST returns {6 120}.
Other commands that have list arguments. Because a list can hold any number of objects of any type,
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it is commonly used to hold a variable number of parameters of various types. Some commands accept such
lists, and because of this are insensitive to parallel processing, except by using DOLIST.
Parallel Processing With Lists F - 1
F