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Celebrating the HP-35 Calculator With a New Model

Posted by CowboyNeal on Mon Apr 09, 2007 08:49 PM
from the high-tech-slide-rules dept.
HP Handhelds Math Hardware
An anonymous reader writes "Hewlett-Packard last week announced a contest whereby HP-35 fans create and submit videos of their favorite calculator memories. HP will choose the best videos and you can win a 50-inch, high-def plasma TV. But everyone wins, because HP this summer will debut a special new calculator model. The details aren't announced, however, it's likely to be a 35th anniversary edition of some sort."
+ -
story

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[+] The Handheld Calculator Turns 40 158 comments
Ian Lamont writes "The handheld calculator turns 40 years old this year, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History has officially added to its collection examples of the first two programmable calculators, the TI-58 and TI-59. The museum already has the original 1967 'Cal-Tech' prototype, which weighs three pounds. At a ceremony at the Smithsonian yesterday, Jerry Merryman, one of the members of the TI team which developed the calculator, said that the project was started without a set budget and was something that 'we did in our spare time.' Antique calculators have a devoted following; news of a contest celebrating the 35th anniversary of the HP-35 slide rule calculator brought hundreds of fans out of the woodwork to reminisce about the pros and cons of various 70s' era calculators. There are a lot of Web resources devoted to these devices, including the Old Calculators Web Museum, where you can see pictures of everything from the Bohn Contex Model 10 Mechanical Calculator ('apparently the design of the machine caught the attention of the Soviets') to TI's first scientific calculator, the SR-20 ('keyboards were prone to bounce even when new')."
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Celebrating the HP-35 Calculator With a New Model 50 Comments More /

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  • As easy as 1 ENTER 1 + (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Monster (227884) on Monday April 09 2007, @08:52PM (#18670205) Homepage
    I loved RPN. It was kind of like running Linux; if someone asked to borrow my calculator, they'd freak out because they couldn't find the equals key, and I'd have to explain how to use the thing.
    • RPN is pure geekiness isn't it? Wrong! Amazingly, the most popular RPN calculators are the HP11/12 which are for beancounters!

      I learnt to program on an HP29C overalmost 30 years ago. 98 instructions (well keystrokes) of programming and only a few registers forced you to be pretty frugal, although at the time we thought that was pretty plush compared with the HP25 whiuch had half the memory.

      As I type this, I have an HP48SX and HP28S on the desk in front of me. Great devices. My kids both use HP48s for their

    • Hmm, I never have problems with people borrowing my calculator. Even supposed computer scientists can't figure it out.

    • Re:As easy as 1 ENTER 1 + (Score:5, Informative)

      by flyingfsck (986395) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:05PM (#18670273)
      BTW, that should be "1 Enter Enter +".

    • Re:As easy as 1 ENTER 1 + (Score:5, Funny)

      by ross.w (87751) <rwonderley@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Monday April 09 2007, @09:47PM (#18670529) Journal
      Yoda you must think like, if effectively these calculators you wish to use.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Majik Sheff (930627)
      That's why I carry my trusty 33s. I've sold many of my co-workers and associates on RPN just by running circles around them on complex calculations. They're parsing parentheses and I'm writing numbers. It is sad that yet another part of HP that made it great is all but dead. HP is dead, long live Agilent. (though I can't complain about my LaserJet 5si)

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TheGavster (774657)
        This is why they developed 'graphing' calculators that just accept expressions typed as written. TI even has a line of scientific calculators now that have a single line display that handles complex expressions.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by zippthorne (748122)
          48 and 49 *show* four element stacks (well the 49 will show fewer if you turn on algebraic mode, but only because formatted equations take up space). But the stack is limited only by available memory (or some very large number) afaik. I have no experience with any more recent HP calculators, and haven't used either of those series in a long time either, having largely abandoned graphing calculators: they're not nearly as useful as you'd think, at least for math. A simple scientific calculator is often mo

  • "35th anniversary edition" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AirLace (86148) on Monday April 09 2007, @08:53PM (#18670213)
    Wouldn't it be great to see an innovative new calculator design from HP to mark the 35th anniversary rather than a re-hashed "special edition" of some classic design?

    • Re:"35th anniversary edition" (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AstrumPreliator (708436) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:13PM (#18670303)
      Well as far as I know they've shut down [hpcalc.org] their calculator division. So unless they opened a new one somewhere else I doubt this will happen.

      • Re:"35th anniversary edition" (Score:5, Informative)

        by 644bd346996 (1012333) on Monday April 09 2007, @10:07PM (#18670719)
        They have introduced several new models since closing the ACO. They have a pretty small staff right now, but they are producing. Manufacturing is handled by Kinpo, and R&D is handled by Cyrille de Brebisson. Bernard Parisse, author of the 49 series CAS, is no longer an employee but he is still developing new software, such as a recent geometry app for the 49/50 series. And many of the other former ACO employees are still active on comp.sys.hp48.
    • Can anyone update an old timer as to the state of calculator development? When I was getting out of these things, it looked like TI and HP were going to have a duel to the death. With color LCD's on the verge of availability and the Power PC line of low-power chips set to overtake the world, it looked like a bright future of powerful visualizations.

      Fifteen years on, it looks like the high-end calculator market has all but been abandoned to mathematica. Prices for the calculators haven't budged a dollar,

  • Let's see an updated 48GX (Score:3, Interesting)

    by El Cubano (631386) <`roberto' `at' `connexer.com'> on Monday April 09 2007, @08:54PM (#18670225) Homepage

    But everyone wins, because HP this summer will debut a special new calculator model. The details aren't announced, however, it's likely to be a 35th anniversary edition of some sort."

    I love my HP 48GX. I'd love to see an updated 48GX with a faster processor and more memory. Mine is 11 or 12 years old and I still like it better than anything that has come since then, including all of TI's offerings which many schools prefer. With all the advances in semiconductor technology, you could pack a lot more memory and performance into the same package. Hopefully we won't have to wait for a 48th anniversary edition.

    • Re:Let's see an updated 48GX (Score:5, Informative)

      by 644bd346996 (1012333) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:03PM (#18670261)
      Get a 50g. The only downside compared to the 48 series is the lack of a large enter key. Otherwise, they have everything you have dreamed of: 75Mhz ARM9 processor, 2.5MB flash, SD slot, IR, USB, and serial comm, a CAS that is almost as good as a desktop app, and they can draw power from your computer via the USB cable. C compiler provided separately [hpgcc.org].
    • The HP48 keyboard layout was pretty good. Though the 48Gii,49G+ and 50 are a lot faster, the keyboard has been stuffed up. Now there's the small Enter/= key instead of the "proud to be RPN"-sized Enter key that was on the 48 and previous RPN devices.
    • Yikes, looks like the going rate for a used 48GX on ebay is $150-200. I'm glad I have a spare one tucked away if my main one ever actually dies. Of course I'd still be willing to pay that much if mine needed replacement.
  • Someone other than TI makes high end calculators that people buy?

    Wow, I must be really ignorant, but because every school across the country seemingly pushes TI use in school, I didn't think people used anything else.

    • Re:TI (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 644bd346996 (1012333) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:20PM (#18670345)

      ...because every school across the country seemingly pushes TI use in school, I didn't think people used anything else.
      I don't see how one implies the other. What engineer would take a high school teacher's calculator recommendation at face value? Public schools use TIs because TI markets to the teachers. Ten years ago, all engineers used HPs because HP marketed to engineers and professionals. Then Carly Fiorina took over and killed the HP calculator business for a few years. But they are now back in the game and developing new models that are once again very good products. If you can be bothered to learn RPN, you will never buy TI for yourself again.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by mrchaotica (681592) *

        What engineer would take a high school teacher's calculator recommendation at face value?

        One that was brainwashed by growing up using Ti calculators in school.

        • It wouldn't be the TI calculators that do the brainwashing. They aren't that bad. The real problem is that public schools do not encourage the development of critical thinking skills, and thus do not enable students to question their teacher's stupidity. That also happens to make most high-school grads incapable of becoming engineers. These days, the unlearning of bad things and the learning of simple things (like handling units) take up so much time in college that many students never catch up enough to re

        • Re:TI (Score:4, Interesting)

          by pyite (140350) on Monday April 09 2007, @11:19PM (#18671381)
          A person who has spent time with an HP will run rings around someone with a TI on almost any calculations

          It's been a few years, but I remember in things like physics labs where you have to do a lot of number crunching, all of my lab partners would always plug along dutifully on their TIs while I would have done the calculation twice (once and then a double check) using RPN on my 48GX. I don't use a calculator much anymore, as MATLAB tends to be quicker for the things I need to do, but whatever HP lacks in computational power, it makes up for in efficient syntax.

    • Re:TI (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Rob the Bold (788862) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:25PM (#18670395)

      Wow, I must be really ignorant, but because every school across the country seemingly pushes TI use in school, I didn't think people used anything else.

      Back in the day when HP still made calculators, everyone else -- TI included -- played second fiddle. HPs were the premier pocket (or belt-loop pouch) calculator from the early Seventies to the mid nineties, more capable, more durable and more desirable than TI, Casio, or any other pretender.

      Too bad they abandoned the market and now only sell rebranded units from Asia. Check http://www.hpmuseum.org/ [hpmuseum.org] for the complete history of the HP calculator.

  • I think it may be the HP 41CV, which was essentially a pocket computer in calculator's clothes.

    Personally, I'd much prefer seeing a re-issue of the HP 11C or 15C. Landscape layout (great for two-handed use), compact, RPN, and lasted forever on three button cells.

    Schwab

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ClosedSource (238333)
      I'd like to see a programmer's calculator like the 16C but with an alphanumeric display and programming capability like the 41CV. After programming the 41CV with the alphanumeric display, I couldn't stand scrolling through a program on the 16C and having to map numeric keycodes to functions.
    • They won't re-issue the 41. There would not be enough of a market for the expanability. Here's to hoping they release a beefed up 42 with IR and/or USB. Or a 15c. I don't really care, as I would buy both in a heartbeat.

      FYI, the 42s was essentially the 41cv sans expansion slots, but with a 2 line dot matrix lcd and a much thinner package.

  • PLEASE DON'T USE THOSE DAMN CHEAP KEYS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xtal (49134) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:16PM (#18670323) Homepage
    Hello HP;

    I am among the last in a long line of engineers who have been lucky enough to be exposed to the OLD HP. The HP run by engineers, that made great test equipment, and calculators. The HP that made great calculators with excellent tactile feedback. You know, one of the only reasons to USE a dedicated calculator.

    My HP48GX was purchased in the summer of 1994 before I started my electrical engineering degree. It followed me through every exam and project I have done since and proudly sits on my desk today where it continues to be used daily. I own a 48G I boughts as a spare; and happily run the emulators you have so nicely provided the ROM for, including on my very speedy Palm T3.

    I also owned a great HP35, and a HP100LX that I used daily for years. All of these devices had the great, tactile response keys and indestructible construction.

    So please, for the love all that is holy and good in the universe, do not make another fisher price calculator. Please make another quality business calculator, and PLEASE consider making an updated version of the best engineering calculator that ever was - the HP48GX.

    • Re:PLEASE DON'T USE THOSE DAMN CHEAP KEYS (Score:4, Interesting)

      by 644bd346996 (1012333) on Monday April 09 2007, @10:19PM (#18670793)
      The 50g is anything but a fisher price calculator. I have a [dead] 48gII and a 50g, and the improvement in quality is (obviously) like night and day. I do believe they are done with the crappy keyboards of recent years.

      Also, they never stopped making quality business calculators. The 12c has been on the market continuously for more than 25 years.
  • I remember when the HP-35 came out. It was the cover story in (I think) Popular Electronics magazine. It was incredible, an entire slide rule in this small electronic device. It could do trig functions, roots, powers, all to enormous precision. My mouth watered, but I was in high school and it was like $300, which would be more like $3000 today. My friend and I used to bike over to the local university bookstore, where they actually had one on display, and you could punch the buttons and everything.

    I never
  • http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp16.htm [hpmuseum.org]

    I need a calculator that can do hex, and shifts, and bitwise operations. I mean I love my TI LCD Programmer [datamath.org], but I really miss the shift operations...

  • 41cx! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The HP41cx was THE best calculator ever made by humans.

    Nothing before, nor after, touched it, IMHO.

    Anybody else remember the PPC ROM?

  • "But everyone wins, because HP this summer will debut a special new calculator model."

    Subtle...

  • Bah! (Score:4, Funny)

    by GFree (853379) on Monday April 09 2007, @09:38PM (#18670463)
    I suppose me and my loyal Ti-89 are not welcome in your HP love fest, huh!

    /me storms out

  • RPN (Score:4, Funny)

    by ross.w (87751) <rwonderley@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Monday April 09 2007, @09:44PM (#18670515) Journal
    I never got the RPN hang of

    • Re:RPN (Score:5, Insightful)

      by moosesocks (264553) on Monday April 09 2007, @10:28PM (#18670875) Homepage
      Wow..... you just made me realize that RPN is essentially the Latin grammatical syntax applied to math.....

      (For the uninitiated, Latin sentences typically go: Subject -> Direct Object -> Verb (with an indirect object optionally thrown in before or after the DO))

      Alternatively, rearrange the phrase as you'd hear Yoda say it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by ari_j (90255)
        You should have picked a language with strict word order rules. Latin is one of the most flexible languages out there in terms of word order. However, the more common word orderings from Latin seem to have become rules in some of the Romance languages. For instance, 'te amo' in most of them where there are probably 12 ways to order the words for the same sentence in Latin. ;)

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by AK Marc (707885)
            I expect the influx of immigrants to English-speaking countries will probably exacerbate that trend in the coming decades, as it seems to be easier to remember word order rules than word form rules.

            For the Chinese, that would be very true. There are no word forms. All words are fixed with no tenses, no gender (save for the gender-specific words themselves, like "man" or "woman"), no conjugation at all, not even plurals. Having learned some Chinese, I can now read the bad signs with clarity (aside from
  • Gah! My grandpa was a civil engineer and after he passed, we went through his personal belongings, among them was a non-working hp-35 final model (i realize this now from the pictures on a link in the original article).

    Had i realized that it was such a landmark calculator, i would have stowed it away for tinkering later, instead i thought it was like the ti-36 of a previous era and its either in the trash or in a box in the back of a storage locker.
  • News for Nerds, Calculators that Matter
  • The 45 is the daily use calculator. There are few things in this world that approach perfection. The HP-35 and the HP-45 are among those few things.

    Sure, I could use PCalc [pcalc.com] on the Macintosh. I've got the free version that came with a set of OS install disks. It's a damn fine application.

    However, the HP-45 is right by the keyboard. And I can operate it with my left hand and enter the results into the Mac via the keyboard keypad with my right.

    And it's faster than invoking and using PCalc, too.

    Who gets my HPs

  • The sad truth is... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DogDude (805747) on Monday April 09 2007, @10:02PM (#18670667) Homepage
    The sad truth is that the world just doesn't have much use for calculators, any more. The world is too busy worrying about who the Next Top Model is.
    • The not so sad truth is, no matter what happens, the world will eventually start throwing large sums of money at the people who can use an HP calculator, because they will be the only ones capable of keeping modern society (Internet, bridges and skyscrapers, airplanes, etc.) from falling apart.

    • The sad truth is that the world just doesn't have much use for calculators, any more. The world is too busy worrying about who the Next Top Model is.

      Yeah, I remember the Golden Era that was the 70s and 80s. All the cool people would whip out their calculators periodically and do some quick computations. Then we'd relax and watch all that stimulating television like Three's Company and Miami Vice. When we'd really want to get crazy, we'd calculate WHILE we watched Happy Days!

      -sniff- The good ol' days.

  • HP 35C set the direction for my life (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MykePagan (452299) on Monday April 09 2007, @10:15PM (#18670761)
    In maybe 1974 my dad, a Civil Engineer bought an HP 35C. Even though it cost a fortune (in those days), he let his 10 year old son (me) play with it. I remember being so impressed with it that it cemented my impression that HP was THE company to work for, if you were an electrical engineer.

    18 years later I joined HP.

    15 years after that and I'm still at HP. It's not the same place that it was in 1992, but then again what place is? I'd still rather be here than at the other computer makers, but the software and services companies are where the real action is now. Unfortunately, few of them seem to have that same "engineer's company" feel that HP did back in the day.

    FWIW I don't blame Carly, though I didn't like her either. It was inevitable, with commoditization of the hardware.
  • Rather, it's a GNU Octave window. Really, what can beat that? And on the occasion that I need to do something symbolic I pull out a TI-89.
  • My day to day calculator is an HP-14b [hpmuseum.org]
    50th Anniversary Limited Edition!, with the waaayyy coooool SWAP key. Talk
    about turning it up to 11!

    [joke]
    And it doesn't rely on that arse-backwards RPN crap either.
    HP did include an INPUT button to make engineers feel at home, although why
    engineers would want a calculator with:
    - time value of money
    - return on investment
    - inventory turnover rate
    is beyond me.
    [/joke]

    (dons flame suit anyway because poking at beloved RPN
    is dangerous around here)

  • Sears golden ratchet (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WindBourne (631190) on Monday April 09 2007, @11:40PM (#18671517) Journal
    Sears did a gold plated ratchet wrench for its anniversary. It would be interesting to see HP do something nice like that. The truth is that HP calcs last nearly forever, so why not?

  • TI-Nspire (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nbritton (823086) on Tuesday April 10 2007, @02:53AM (#18672437)
    TI is coming out with a new calculator this fall, called the Nspire...

    http://www.ti-nspire.com/tools/nspire/index.html [ti-nspire.com]

    * 320x240 Gray Scale LCD
    * CAS Functions.
    * 16MB RAM
    * 20MB Flash
    • The one we did in High School:

      "If Betty goes out with 5001 men and charges each one $7, what is she?"

      The answer is the product and looked at upside down.

      myke

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