An HP-67 in 1974? What if?

[Matt Agajanian]

Hi all.

Just wondering. If the tech were feasible and we had an HP-67 in 1974 instead of a 65, how much would it cost in ’74? What would that amount to in today’s dollars?

[Peet]

(11-05-2023 06:17 AM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Just wondering. If the tech were feasible and we had an HP-67 in 1974 instead of a 65, how much would it cost in ’74? What would that amount to in today’s dollars?

I don't think the 67 would have been more valued than the 65 because there was no competitor as a reference, so the price would probably be the same because of market acceptance.

[brouhaha]

(11-05-2023 06:17 AM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Just wondering. If the tech were feasible and we had an HP-67 in 1974 instead of a 65, how much would it cost in ’74? What would that amount to in today’s dollars?

It would have required four or five more ROM chips, and about eight more RAM chips, so probably two hybrid circuits rather than just one. At a rough estimate, production COGS about $100 higher, so list price perhaps $500 higher. Battery life would have been worse.

The 1st generation chipset was not well suited for that advanced a calculator feature set. It didn't support any numeric data other than BCD, so the fully merged program steps would have required 50% more program storage RAM for the same number of program steps as the actual 67. The RAM chips also only contained 10 56-bit registers rather than 16 each in the next generation.

Not to mention that it would have probabl6 taken two years longer to develop at the time, so the first ship probably wouldn't have been until 1976.

Clearly shipping a good product when they did was much better than holding off until they could ship something even better. The 65 was utterly amazing in 1974.

[Matt Agajanian]

Amazing is a good word for it. Yes, the 65 was a miracle for its time.

[Eddie W. Shore]

(11-05-2023 11:14 AM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Amazing is a good word for it. Yes, the 65 was a miracle for its time.

The HP 65 is my favorite RPN calculator that I don't have.

[Matt Agajanian]

(11-05-2023 04:03 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  

(11-05-2023 11:14 AM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Amazing is a good word for it. Yes, the 65 was a miracle for its time.

The HP 65 is my favorite RPN calculator that I don't have.

I know there’s Cuvee’s RPN-65 for iOS. There should be an HP-65 app for Android. How’s that for you?

[Eddie W. Shore]

(11-05-2023 04:07 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  

(11-05-2023 04:03 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  The HP 65 is my favorite RPN calculator that I don't have.

I know there’s Cuvee’s RPN-65 for iOS. There should be an HP-65 app for Android. How’s that for you?

I have Curvee's app. I should have clarified, I don't have a physical, hardware HP-65.

[Matt Agajanian]

(11-05-2023 04:11 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  

(11-05-2023 04:07 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  I know there’s Cuvee’s RPN-65 for iOS. There should be an HP-65 app for Android. How’s that for you?

I have Curvee's app. I should have clarified, I don't have a physical, hardware HP-65.

I figured that you meant that you didn’t have the real thing. I got that.