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From: rrd@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Ray Depew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: The First (?) HP Calculator (long)
Message-ID: <7360120@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM>
Date: 7 Jun 91 20:36:43 GMT
References: <1991Jun6.153021.10025@ll.mit.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Lines: 29

Bill Chiarchiaro writes:

> Now for a question:  Does anyone know if HP made any other calculators
> between the 9100A and the HP-35?

I learned RPN programming on a 9810.  The '10 was already obsolete in 1975, 
when I did all my freshman ChemE homework on it.  It was located in one of the
computer rooms (terminals for the Engineering Building's DEC-10), and there 
was always a sign-up list for it.  The department secretary would sell you mag 
cards for the 9810, at $1.00 each.

The 9810 had 3? 4? ROM slots, a 3-line (x, y, z) LED display and the same card 
reader as the 9100, but it could take longer cards as well as the short ones 
that the 9100 used.  It also had a thermal paper-tape printer, and if you
had the right ROM installed, you could make some pretty fancy output on the
printer.  It had a plotter interface as well, which came in handy during
Thermodynamics.

The 9810 did everything that the 9100 could do.  It must have had more memory
or something, but that's so long ago that I don't remember.  It had a few 
enhancements over the 9100, but again I don't remember what they were.

Once I learned how to program the 9810, I knew that I would never be able to
use an non-RPN programmable. 

Regards
Ray Depew
HP ICBD, FOrt Collins, CO
rrd@hpfitst1.hp.com