The HP-27S was a

pocket calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized d ...

produced by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, introduced in 1988, and discontinued between 1990 and 1993 (sources vary). It was the first HP

scientific calculator A scientific calculator is an electronic calculator, either desktop or handheld, designed to perform mathematical operations. They have completely replaced slide rules and are used in both educational and professional settings. In some areas ...

to use algebraic entry instead of RPN, and though it was labelled ''scientific'', it also included features associated with specialized business calculators. The device featured standard scientific functions, including

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

and

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

. Equations could be stored in memory, and solved and integrated for specified variables.

Binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...

octal The octal numeral system, or oct for short, is the radix, base-8 number system, and uses the Numerical digit, digits 0 to 7. This is to say that 10octal represents eight and 100octal represents sixty-four. However, English, like most languages, ...

, and

hexadecimal In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexa ...

number bases could be used. Business features included a

real-time clock A real-time clock (RTC) is an electronic device (most often in the form of an integrated circuit) that measures the passage of time. Although the term often refers to the devices in personal computers, servers and embedded systems, RTCs are pr ...

and

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

with up to ten appointments (each with a 22 character message string), as well as functions such as

time value of money The time value of money is the widely accepted conjecture that there is greater benefit to receiving a sum of money now rather than an identical sum later. It may be seen as an implication of the later-developed concept of time preference. The t ...

calculations. The 27S was not programmable in the conventional way, but it included an advanced formula-storage system with programming features. Within stored formulas, sub-formulas could be defined and later referred to by name. Loops and conditional execution could also be embedded within formulas.

Hardware

The 27S has the same physical form factor and 37-key keypad as other models in the Pioneer series. Introduced at the same time as the

HP-17B HP-17B is an algebraic entry financial and business calculator manufactured by Hewlett-Packard, introduced on 4 January 1988 along with the HP-19B, HP-27S and the HP-28S. It was a simplified business model, like the 19B. There were two versions ...

, it shares the same internal hardware. The calculator had 6,900 bytes of usable memory, shared among variables and formulas. Ten storage registers R0 through R9 could each hold one number. Its hardware features included a

dot-matrix display A dot-matrix display is a low cost electronic digital display device that displays information on machines such as clocks, watches, calculators, and many other devices requiring a simple alphanumeric (and/or graphic) display device of limited re ...

of two rows of 22 characters. Depending on context, either the top row was used to display the current expression or a message, or the bottom row was used to show menu options, which could be selected with the corresponding keys. An infra-red transmitter was also included, allowing the machine to be used with a compatible printer, such as the HP 82240B. A beeper could be used to sound date/time alarms.

References

{{HP calculators

27S The Numbers Gang is a crime organization that started as a prison gang with one of the most fearsome reputations in South Africa. Although they were founded in KwaZulu-Natal, it is believed that they are present in most South African prisons. T ...

Hardware

See also

References