HP-71B and some (to me) interesting modules

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

Interesting find. This must be about as much memory as one can fit into an HP-71B!

My first association with "W&W" and "VRB" is "Wüstenrot & Württembergische" and "Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken". The first two are a building society and an insurance company in Stuttgart, Germany, the latter a group of banking cooperatives in Germany.

The computer could have been used to calculate finance and insurance schemes for customers. During the 1980ies a lot of small computers, especially less expensive ones like the Ti-74 and some models from Sharp, were used for this purpose with specially made ROMs. Until some years ago one could still find them on flea markets and eBay in Germany (especially the ones from the "Allianz" insurance company were in plentiful supply). This would be the first time I see an HP-71B used for that purpose as it was ridiculously expensive in Germany and certainly not something a company would hand out to their average insurance agents.

What stands against my theory however is that "Wüstenrot" and "Württembergische" were only fusioned to form "W&W" during the 1990ies and this module dates back to 1986. But who knows, maybe their marketing was joined earlier?

Regards
Max

NB: Don't bother to look for a card reader for this machine. Even if you can find a working one (without selling your car for it) the cards are almost impossible to find. And if you are lucky enough to get a reader and card(s) you will discover that using it is a very major nuisance because the hand operated cards need to be pulled through the reader at a very constant speed (which I am able to achieve maybe one time out of ten attempts).