https://spectrum.ieee.org/loss-of-hewlettpackard-archive-a-w...
[1] https://hparchive.com/Brochures/HP-185A-Brochure.pdf
[2] https://hparchive.com/Catalogs/HP-Catalog-1960-Short-Revised...
The cycles we go through where a new tech supplants an old one, people thinking it’s the way of the future, and the old processes maybe forgotten for a while. Some might come back, others completely obsolescent. Still others the old tech might be superior to new—but more expensive (like old hard-wood window panes) and not sustainable.
EDIT: Oops nope. Looked at the model number rather than the brochure. That's definitely an older analog scope while mine is digital.
DEC - Ultrix/Digital Unix
Apple - A/UX, macOS
HP - HP-UX
SGI - IRIX
Sun - SunOS, Solaris
IBM - AIX
HPE - ULTRIX, Tru64/OSF1/DIGITAL UNIX, HP-UX, IRIX
Apple - A/UX, macOS
Oracle - SunOS, Solaris
Hackers at HP/Apollo (the former Apollo Computers which was swallowed by HP in 1989) have been heard to complain that Mr. Packard should have pushed to have his name first, if for no other reason than the greater eloquence of the resulting acronym.
Also, lest not forget the contentious one: SCO - SCO -> Sun -> Oracle
The thing that I wish he had snagged more of (which HP actively encouraged engineers to do) was the HP branded prototyping boards that fit DIP package ICs nicely and had power/ground rails with detached shared signal busses.
Does it look like the one in the photo on that site? Sounds like a very cool artifact. You can't always tell much from the serial number -- for example, notice that they started their model numbers with '200,' just to make the company look bigger and more reputable.
There are a few HP 200As listed on eBay in the $100-$300 range. Not sure if they're actually selling for that, though.
The Sony Vaio line of computers had a similar problem, and community members launched the Vaio Library (https://vaiolibrary.com/index.php/Welcome_to_the_VAIO_Librar... / https://archive.vaiolibrary.com/)
TruffleLabs•7mo ago
adrian_b•7mo ago
Many of the ancient service manuals for HP measurement instruments were much better for learning electronics engineering than most university manuals.
whartung•7mo ago
Way back, talking 1980 or so, my father got a newsletter cum magazine of sort from HP. Marketing material to be sure, but not just raw marketing. Some corporate organ that could easily been called something like “HP Today”.
But inside was, at the time, a science fiction story about handheld computers in the future. It was a fascinating bit of “snapshot in time” that I would enjoy seeing again.
burnt-resistor•7mo ago
I have an HP 48 (series of graphing calculators) overhead projector display (InVision 48) that may need refurbishment to work, but I just found the manual at hpcalc.org.[0]
0. https://literature.hpcalc.org/items/1290