[HN Gopher] The Hewlett-Packard Archive
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The Hewlett-Packard Archive
Author : joebig
Score : 50 points
Date : 2025-06-16 02:01 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (hparchive.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hparchive.com)
| TruffleLabs wrote:
| FYI they say "Computers and calculators are not the focus of this
| archive website."
| adrian_b wrote:
| While the HP computers and calculators were well documented and
| their design process was also frequently described in HP
| Journal or other HP publications, the most valuable HP
| publications were about their measurement instruments.
|
| Many of the ancient service manuals for HP measurement
| instruments were much better for learning electronics
| engineering than most university manuals.
| whartung wrote:
| I understand, but that's a shame.
|
| Way back, talking 1980 or so, my father got a newsletter cum
| magazine of sort from HP. Marketing material to be sure, but
| not just raw marketing. Some corporate organ that could easily
| been called something like "HP Today".
|
| But inside was, at the time, a science fiction story about
| handheld computers in the future. It was a fascinating bit of
| "snapshot in time" that I would enjoy seeing again.
| burnt-resistor wrote:
| In the off-topic calculator department: hpcalc.org :)
|
| I have an HP 48 (series of graphing calculators) overhead
| projector display (InVision 48) that may need refurbishment to
| work, but I just found the manual at hpcalc.org.[0]
|
| 0. https://literature.hpcalc.org/items/1290
| fmajid wrote:
| The actual HP archive, held by Agilent, went up in flames during
| a California wildfire:
|
| https://spectrum.ieee.org/loss-of-hewlettpackard-archive-a-w...
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yeah, too bad it had not been digitized sooner.
| computator wrote:
| The HP 185A oscilloscope[1], 500 MHz bandwidth, was $2000 in
| their 1960 catalog[2]. That would be $22,000 in today's dollars.
| (The brochure doesn't say MHz but uses MC meaning megacycles.) It
| would be fun to compare the specs to a cheap hobbyist level scope
| today.
|
| [1] https://hparchive.com/Brochures/HP-185A-Brochure.pdf
|
| [2] https://hparchive.com/Catalogs/HP-Catalog-1960-Short-
| Revised...
| bandoti wrote:
| I'm sure someone has done this, but it would be interesting to
| study the overall tech landscape and compare which technology
| has sort of retained its value, depreciated, or increased in
| value--and how long those phases take. Even as far back as
| things like cast-iron printing presses and such. I mean also
| value in terms of usage not necessarily monetary.
|
| The cycles we go through where a new tech supplants an old one,
| people thinking it's the way of the future, and the old
| processes maybe forgotten for a while. Some might come back,
| others completely obsolescent. Still others the old tech might
| be superior to new--but more expensive (like old hard-wood
| window panes) and not sustainable.
| godzillabrennus wrote:
| Historically, technology has been deflationary.
| msgodel wrote:
| I think I have this scope or a very similar one. I got it for
| free from someone else. (currently in storage.) It's a great
| hobbyist scope although mine doesn't have a DFT function which
| can be annoying. I've been borrowing a friend's modern digital
| scope when I've needed one. I think he only paid a few hundred
| for it. It's a little faster and has some more modern
| functions.
|
| EDIT: Oops nope. Looked at the model number rather than the
| brochure. That's definitely an older analog scope while mine is
| digital.
| mrweasel wrote:
| Historically it's interesting, but come on, give us the IRIX
| source code, we know you have it somewhere.
| bitwize wrote:
| IBM - AIX
|
| DEC - Ultrix/Digital Unix
|
| Apple - A/UX, macOS
|
| HP - HP-UX
|
| SGI - IRIX
|
| Sun - SunOS, Solaris
| spijdar wrote:
| Given acquisitions, the current IP ownership is more like:
|
| IBM - AIX
|
| HPE - ULTRIX, Tru64/OSF1/DIGITAL UNIX, HP-UX, IRIX
|
| Apple - A/UX, macOS
|
| Oracle - SunOS, Solaris
| pkaye wrote:
| If HP and Sun had merged, I wonder if HP-UX would become
| HP-SUX.
| hawflakes wrote:
| It's in the Jargon file. Your comment made me remember
| this bit:
|
| Hackers at HP/Apollo (the former Apollo Computers which
| was swallowed by HP in 1989) have been heard to complain
| that Mr. Packard should have pushed to have his name
| first, if for no other reason than the greater eloquence
| of the resulting acronym.
|
| https://zvon.org/comp/r/ref-Jargon_file.html#Terms~HP-SUX
| burnt-resistor wrote:
| In the 00's, the CS program at my undergrad university had
| computer clusters with all of the above +Linux +MINIX -Apple
| -DEC. It was de rigueur then to write portable C/C++ code and
| (non-GNU) Makefiles.
|
| Also, lest not forget the contentious one: SCO - SCO -> Sun
| -> Oracle
| sillywalk wrote:
| It's not complete but there's this:
|
| https://github.com/calmsacibis995/irix-6517-src
| darthcloud wrote:
| I worked for almost 10 years at HP/HPE in the 2010s on embedded
| systems. I don't remember if it was a memo from Dave or Bill, but
| it was about never sacrificing quality for a deadline. Needless
| to say, we loved to dig up that old memo whenever PMs pushed too
| hard to get things released too early.
| markneub wrote:
| I rescued an HP-200A audio oscillator from the basement of a
| relative who'd passed away, thinking it looked interesting.
| Anyone know if it has any value? I'm guessing it's nothing too
| special with a serial number of 30211.
| pidgeon_lover wrote:
| I thought it would be an HP computer driver archive, as HP are
| notorious for taking down the driver downloads for older models.
| Does anyone know of such a driver archive?
|
| The Sony Vaio line of computers had a similar problem, and
| community members launched the Vaio Library
| (https://vaiolibrary.com/index.php/Welcome_to_the_VAIO_Librar...
| / https://archive.vaiolibrary.com/)
| burnt-resistor wrote:
| If the website didn't use some annoying click tracking
| redirection or javascript, try the old standby:
| https://archive.org
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(page generated 2025-06-16 23:02 UTC)