HP-35S Discontinued?

[redglyph]

It may well be their last calculator with a ROM, if I'm correct? That's what I see from the SPLB31A specs, this part reference coming from an official HP factsheet (and not from Wikipedia).

It's not an EEPROM or a Flash memory, unless HP used an external component but I don't think so. And since those have a somewhat limited lifetime in comparison, it gives some extra value to the HP-35S despite its few quirks (like not being able to compute the square root of -1 directly, the limited number of labels, the general fact it's limited on purpose for exams, ...).

My HP-15C LE has been built in 2011 and the flash memory in this Atmel chip has a 10-year data retention, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it fail in a few years. My HP-11C and HP-48, on the other hand, are much older than that thanks for the ROM, other good design choices and some care from its user.

The lost art of making robust devices.