HP calculators are various

calculators 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-size ...

manufactured by the

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 ...

company over the years. Their desktop models included the

HP 9800 series The HP 9800 is a family of what were initially called programmable calculators and later desktop computers that were made by Hewlett-Packard, replacing their first HP 9100 calculator. It is also named "98 line". The 9830 and its successors were ...

, while their handheld models started with the

HP-35 The HP-35 was Hewlett-Packard's first pocket calculator and the world's first ''scientific'' pocket calculator: a calculator with trigonometric and exponential functions. It was introduced in 1972. History In about 1970 HP co-founder Bill Hewle ...

. Their focus has been on high-end scientific, engineering and complex financial uses.

History

In the 1960s,

was becoming a diversified

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

company with product lines in electronic

test equipment Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

, scientific instrumentation, and

medical electronics Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...

, and was just beginning its entry into

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

s. The corporation recognized two opportunities: it might be possible to automate the instrumentation that HP was producing, and HP's customer base were likely to buy a product that could replace the

slide rule The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...

s and

adding machine An adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. In the United States, the earliest adding machines were usually built to read in dollars and cents. Adding machines were ubiquitous off ...

s that were being used for computation. With this in mind, HP built the HP 9100 desktop scientific calculator. This was a full-featured calculator that included not only standard "adding machine" functions but also powerful capabilities to handle

floating-point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can b ...

numbers,

trigonometric functions In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all ...

, logarithms, exponentiation, and square roots. This new calculator was well received by the customer base, but William Hewlett saw additional opportunities if the desktop calculator could be made small enough to fit into his shirt pocket. He charged his engineers with this exact goal using the size of his shirt pocket as a guide. The result was the

calculator. This calculator provided functionality that was revolutionary for a pocket calculator at that time. Through the years, HP released several calculators that varied in their mathematical capabilities, programmability, and I/O capabilities. Some of them could be used (via

HP-IL The HP-IL (''Hewlett-Packard Interface Loop''), was a short-range interconnection bus or network introduced by Hewlett-Packard in the early 1980s. It enabled many devices such as printers, plotters, displays, storage devices (floppy disk drives ...

) to control the instruments other Hewlett Packard divisions produced.

Characteristics

HP calculators are well known for their use of

Reverse Polish Notation Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as reverse Łukasiewicz notation, Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators ''follow'' their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in whi ...

(RPN). Programmable HP calculators allow users to create their own programs.

Calculators

Below are some of HP's handheld calculator models produced over the years, in numeric rather than chronological order:

References

External links

HPMuseum.org
Museum of slide rules and significant HP calculators
HPCalc.org
Information about and software for HP programmable calculators * — HP Handheld Conference videos 2011–
MyCalcDB
HP calculators list.

Articles and programs for classic HP calculators
Programmable Calculators
Pictures, specifications, and details for most HP calculator * Th
HPDATAbase
a collection of data about all HP calculators
wiki4hp
Community driven wiki about HP calculators and related resources. * * — A comprehensive collection. *

Simulators

HP12C Simulator
Web based
HP15C Simulator
for Windows (XP and following), Mac OS X (Intel) and Linux (x86)
HP25C Simulator
for Windows NT/2K/XP and Vista (32 bit only)
HP29C Simulator
for Windows NT/2K/XP and Vista (32 bit only)
HP33C Simulator
for Windows NT/2K/XP and Vista (32 bit only)
HP67 Simulator
for Windows NT/2K/XP and Vista (32 bit only)

for Windows XP and Vista (32 bit only)
Nonpareil free source HP simulator set
for Linux, and Windows
nonpareil
for Mac OS X
debug4x
?

for Unix machines
HP emulators
for the PC
HP page of Christoph Giesselink

* Th

list includes many simulators
HP Calculator emulators, 12c, 15c, 42s, 48GX, etc.
for iPhone and iPad (by various developers) {{HP calculators