IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, has awarded the HP-35 Scientific Calculator with the prestigious IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing award. The designation was awarded on April 14, 2009 and an IEEE Milestone plaque recording the award will be permanently displayed at HP Labs in Palo Alto, CA, the site where the HP-35 was originally developed.
The Web page commemorating this award has all kinds of info on the HP-35, including a video and photos.
Just to show how old I am, the HP-35 came out my senior year in high school. When I got to engineering school the next year, several of my fellow students already had one. I waited until Texas Instruments came out with the SR-50. The SR stands for “slide rule,” as in “electronic slide rule.” The HP-35 cost $400, and the more advanced HP-45 a little more. The SR-50 cost $250, and as far as I could tell did everything that the HP-35 could do.
I actually still have my SR-50, although I haven’t used it in years.
Dan,
I also had an SR-50 in college. Even though I worked for HP many years, I was never very competent with RPN that the HP-35 used. Still, the HP-35 is a breakthrough product and set the stage for further innovation.
I came across a video interview with Tom Osborne, who was instrumental in the HP calculator business. It is a little long but worth viewing. See http://www.edn.com/blog/980000298/post/800022280.html?nid=2463&rid=898300882
Bob K0NR
If you want to see what extreme loyalty to a calculator looks like, find a business professional who’s been around a while and try to take away his/her HP-12C.