HP-10C series

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The HP-10C series calculators were introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 1981.^[1] Also known as the "Voyager" series, all are programmable and use reverse Polish notation. Nearly identical in appearance, each model provided different capabilities and was aimed at different user markets.

One of the least-known features of this calculator series is the quality of the arithmetic inside them. Hewlett-Packard retained the well-known numerical analyst Prof William Kahan, from UC Berkeley, the architect of the IEEE 754 standard for floating-point arithmetic, to design the numerical algorithms implemented by the calculators. He also wrote parts of the manuals. Because of this care in design of normally invisible features, HP calculators are widely trusted, particularly by those who have experienced the numerical anomalies that can be produced by other so-called "scientific calculators."

The HP calculators 10C series consisted of five models:

• HP-10C – low end calculator. ($80 1982-1984)
• HP-11C – basic calculator. ($135 1981-1989)
• HP-12C – financial calculator. ($150 1981-present)
• HP-15C – advanced calculator. ($135 1982-1989)
• HP-16C – programmer's calculator. ($150 1982-1989)

Contents 1 The HP-10C 2 The HP-12C 3 The HP-11C and HP-15C 4 The HP-16C 5 References

[edit] The HP-10C

The HP-10C is the last and lowest-featured calculator in this line even though its number would suggest an earlier origin. The 10C was a basic scientific programmable. While a useful general purpose RPN calculator, the HP-11C offered twice as much for only a slight increase in price. Designed to be an introductory calculator, it was still relatively expensive compared to the competition, and many looking at an HP would just step up to the better HP-11C. Poor sales led to a very short market life.

[edit] The HP-12C

The HP-12C is a popular financial calculator. It was such a successful model that Hewlett-Packard redesigned it from scratch,^{[citation needed]} adding several new functions, and introduced the HP-12C Platinum in 2003.

The HP-12C is HP's longest and best-selling product, in continual production since its introduction in 1981.^[1] Due to its simple operation for key financial calculations, the calculator long ago became the de facto standard among financial professionals - for example, Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns issue HP-12Cs to the members of each new incoming class of its analysts and associates. Its popularity has endured despite the fact that even a relatively simple, but iterative, process such as amortizing the interest over the life of a loan--a calculation which modern spreadsheets can complete almost instantly--can take over a minute with the HP-12C.

Later HP financial calculators are many times as fast with more functions, but none has been as successful. The HP-12C's programing mode is very intuitive and works like a macro operation on a computer. Basically, the keys you would press in the calculating mode to arrive at a solution are entered in the programing mode along with logical operaters (if, and, etc.) applicable to the solution. After the programing is complete the macro will run in the computation mode to save the user steps and improve accuracy. There are 99 lines of programmable memory on the HP-12C, but 400 lines of program memory are available on the HP-12C platinum.

Over its lifespan, the processors technology has been improved in order to integrate all the circuitry in a single chip and to refresh the manufacturing process (as the foundry could no longer manufacture the necessary chips, having meoved on to making higher-density chips). However, HP's market research found in the late 80's that the users did not trust results obtained too quickly and so the CPU speed was never improved from the original 200 or so KHZ.^{[citation needed]} In the late 1990's, the CPU was changed to a 3V process and the battery was changed to a single 3V cell.

The HP-12C is one of only three calculators permissible in the Chartered Financial Analyst exams, the others being the Texas Instruments BA II Plus and BA II Plus Professional.

There are two versions of the HP-12C Platinum. The early versions did not have parentheses. This often led to awkward key-sequences to solve problems in algebraic mode. Newer versions of the HP-12C Platinum have parentheses, as blue shifted functions of the STO and RCL keys.

Hewlett Packard makes an HP-12C / HP-12C Platinum solutions book available as a PDF on their website.

People have been known to take an HP-12C into a mortgage-broker's office and tell the broker the mnthly payments on a proposed loan, well before the banker could compute the number, because most bankers had to look up a number in a thick book of mortgage tables, while this calculator could compute it directly. The HP-12C calculator had compound-interest and annuity functions built in, which made them well suited for various time-value-of-money calculations

The Hp-12C is sometimes referred to as the "Papal calculator", because when Pope John Paul II visited the United States in the late 1980's, he visited a Hewlett-Packard facility in Palo Alto. On that occasion, he was gives an HP-12C as a memento. What use he made of it is unrecorded. It is not likely that the "reverse-Polish" logic would have been of more use to a native Polish speaker than to a speaker of any other language, because the term Polish refers to a Polish mathematician, Jan Łukasiewicz, rather than the Polish language.

[edit] The HP-11C and HP-15C

The HP-11C is a mid-range scientific programmable. The HP-15C is a high-end scientific programmable with a root-solver and numerical integration. It is able to handle complex numbers and matrix operations. Although out of production, its popularity has led to high prices on the used market and a petition asking HP to restart production.

[edit] The HP-16C

The HP-16C is a computer programmer's calculator, designed to assist in debugging. It can display numbers in hexadecimal, decimal, octal, and binary and and convert numbers from one base to the other. To accommodate long binary numbers, the display could be 'windowed' by shifting it left and right. For consistency with the computer the programmer was working with, the word size could be set to different values from 1 to 64 bits. Binary-arithmetic operations could be performed as unsigned, 1's complement, or 2's complement operations. This allowed the calculator to emulate the programmer's computer. A number of specialized functions were provided to assist the programmer, including left- and right shifting, masking, and bitwise logical operations. Sales were poor, and no similar calculators have been made by anyone. These calculators are greatly prized by those who have them; however, eBay bids are less impressive, indicating that the calculators are actually used, rather than admired in glass cases.

[edit] References