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Hewlett-Packard 9100A

{{Short description|Programmable calculator}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019|cs1-dates=y}}

File:HP9100A-IMG 0393.jpg

The Hewlett-Packard 9100A (HP 9100A) is an early programmable calculatorSee Old Calculator Museum definition at the end of cited page (note with asterisk)

  • {{Cite web |title=Note in: WANTED - Data Acquisition Corp. DAC-512 |url=https://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/w-dac512.html |website=www.oldcalculatormuseum.com|at=Note with asterisk at the end}} (or computer), first appearing in 1968. HP called it a desktop calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared."{{Cite web | url = http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personalsystems/0021/0021history.html | title=History of the 9100A desktop calculator, 1968 | access-date=2009-12-18 | publisher=Hewlett-Packard}}

An ad for the 9100A in 1968 Science magazine contains one of the earliest documented use (as of 2000) of the phrase personal computer.

History

File:Electronic calculator prototype, made by Thomas E. Osborne for Hewlett-Packard, 1964, view 2 - National Museum of American History - DSC00028.jpg ]]

The unit was descended from a prototype produced by engineer Thomas "Tom" E. Osborne, who joined the company when HP decided to adopt the project.{{Cite web |url=http://www.hp9825.com/html/osborne_s_story.html |title=Osborne's Story |publisher=HP9825.com |access-date=2010-05-11}}[http://www.hpmuseum.org/journals/9100how.htm "How the Model 9100A Was Developed"], Bernard M. Oliver, September 1968, Hewlett-Packard Journal][http://www.hp9825.com/html/osborne_s_story.html 1994 letter from Tom Osborne to Barney Oliver], hp9825.com

An engineering triumph at the time, the logic circuit was produced without any expensive integrated circuits, the assembly of the CPU having been entirely executed in cheaper discrete components. With CRT readout, magnetic card storage, and printer, the price was around {{US$|4900|1968|round=-3}}.{{Cite magazine |last=Monoskop/Whole Earth |date=1968 |title=9100A Calculator |url=https://archive.org/details/1stWEC-complete/page/n34/mode/1up |magazine=Whole Earth Catalog (fall 1968), no. #1010 |language=English |page=34 |access-date=2023-10-27}}

Thanks to its high speed of operations which was an order of magnitude faster than competitors{{Cite web |title=The 9100 Part 2 |url=http://www.hp9825.com/html/the_9100_part_2.html |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=www.hp9825.com}} – addition or subtraction took just 2 ms, multiplication 22 ms and division 27 ms – the device could quickly execute not just regular trigonometric functions (330 ms) or logarithms (130 ms) but many iterative computations when following a program.{{Cite web |title=HP9100 |url=https://hpmemoryproject.org/timeline/dave_cochran/hp9100_01.htm |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=hpmemoryproject.org}} This made the 9100A the first scientific calculator by the modern definition, and also marked the beginning of Hewlett-Packard's long history of using Reverse Polish notation (RPN) entry on their calculators.

Due to the similarities of the machines, Hewlett-Packard was ordered to pay about {{US$|long=no|900000}} in royalties to Olivetti after copying some of the features adopted in the Programma 101, like the magnetic card and the architecture.{{Cite web |url = http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=847&st=1 |title = Olivetti Programma P101/P102 |access-date = 11 August 2010 |publisher = Old Computers |quote = The P101, and particularly the magnetic card, was covered by a US patent (3,495,222, Perotto et al.) and this gave to Olivetti over $900.000 in royalties by HP alone, for the re-use of this technology in the HP9100 series. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160609223035/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=847&st=1 |archive-date = 9 June 2016 |url-status = dead }}{{Cite web |url = http://www.google.com/patents?id=b9wAAAAAEBAJ |title= 3,495,222 Program Controlled Electronic Computer | access-date = November 8, 2010 | first = Pier Giorgio | last = Perotto | others = et al | date= February 10, 1970 | format = multiple |work= United States Patent and Trademark Office |publisher= Google patents}}{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{Cite web | url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/HP/HP.9100A.1968.102646164.pdf | title=HP 9100A Calculator (marketing brochure) | year=1968 | access-date= 2013-01-26 | publisher=Hewlett-Packard}} Hosted at the Computer History Museum.
  • {{Cite web | url=http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp9100.htm | title=HP 9100A/B | access-date=2013-01-26 | publisher=The Museum of HP Calculators}}
  • {{Cite book | last1 = Bell | first1 = C. Gordon | last2 = Newell | first2 = Allen | title = Computer Structures: Readings and Examples | publisher = McGraw-Hill | year = 1971 | chapter = Chapter 20: The HP Model 9100A computing calculator | page = [https://archive.org/details/computerstructur00bell/page/243 243] | access-date = 2009-12-18 | isbn = 0-07-004357-4 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/computerstructur00bell/page/243 | chapter-url-access = registration }}
  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZmWVKmV6oU Steven Leibson interview of Tom Osborne]

{{HP calculators}}

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