Question on HP code names (for experts)

[Jim Horn]

No, I didn't work on *any* of HP's calculators or peripherals. I did get to be an alpha tester for the HP-75 due to its incorporation of the then-new HP-IL. From 1979 until 1989 I was an HP employee. Initially in Santa Rosa, California's Redwood project to create what became the HP50000 modular measurement system (MMS), we moved to Rohnert Park with expectation of HP's employment in the area to hit 12,000. It peaked at about 4000 and dropped below half that (all as Agilent/Avago/Verity/Keysight/etc, of course). My role there was in defining the human interface for the MMS then writing the code and development tools for use in HP's instrument divisions to create modular instruments that would be compatible with the rest of the MMS.

We were considering having HP-IL as an option on the MMS so were in the planning and communication as the HP-IL was defined. Since the HP-75 was the first HP-IL controller, we were given one with an external box full of circuitry including EPROMs so it could work at all. The minorly tricky part was that I drove up to Corvallis to get it the same weekend of HHC 1981. So the whole time the ever-enthusiastic HHC attendees were abuzz about potential new machines, I had to make sure never to open the trunk of my VW Scirocco lest anyone see what was there. Once the '75 did go on sale, I got one and used it for years of note taking until the '110 replaced it.

My HP110 portable was the result of an employee surplus equipment auction in which the sales force's Portables were sold for $250 each. Sam Chau, another enthusiastic HP user and employee, and I got one each, leading to the modifications I've mentioned elsewhere.

No, I don't know what the code name for the Portable Plus was, I'm sad to say. I will check to see what '110 documentation is readily available and email the new owner of my old files to see if he'd be interested in scanning any missing ones.

Other than my negligable contributions above, I've written a bit of HP-25 and '67 software in the old HP-65 Users Club and PPC days, handed down the '25 to my younger brother who has since done massively more than me with HP calculators, and generally cheered on the many who really do contribute. To them go the honors - including those who continue to do so today!