Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!think!ames!pasteur!agate!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpcvlx!everett
From: everett@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Everett Kaser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Re: HP-42S (really series naming question)
Message-ID: <101950008@hpcvlx.HP.COM>
Date: 14 Nov 88 17:57:47 GMT
References: <687@bnlux0.bnl.gov>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 45


 Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) writes...
>These are the names and the series' as I know them:
>Classic     HP35, 45, 55, 65, 67
>Woodstock   HP21, 22, 25, 25C, 27, 29C
>Spice       HP31E, 32E, 33E, 33C, 34C, 37E, 38E, 38C
>(unknown)   HP10, 19C
>Top Cat     HP91, 92, 97
>Nut         HP41C, 41CV, 41CX
>Voyager     HP10C, 11C, 12C, 15C, 16C
>Pioneer     HP18C, 19B, 28C, 28S
>(unknown)   HP14B, 17B, 20S, 22S, 32S, 42S

The 'names' are internal codenames used by HP during the development of the
products.  Not only does each 'series' have a name, but each variation of
the series and/or a product has a name.  (Numbers are not assigned until
the product is quite a ways into development, and you have to have some way
of referring to the projects before then.  Besides, it's suppose to confuse
the industrial spies :-).

I use to know a lot more of these, but memory fades.   The classic line
also included the HP-70 and HP-80.  Each member of the woodstock line had
a plant, or vegetable, name, with the HP-27 being "salad", because it had
a mixture of scientific and business functions.  The HP-19C and the HP-10
were printing-handheld calculators.  I can't recall the name of the HP-19C,
but I believe the HP-10 was known as "kiss".  Each member of the topcat line
had a name that included 'cat' in the name (its seems like one was bobcat,
but I'm not sure).  The 'nut' line started with the HP-41C, which was known
as Coconut.   The peripherals all had names, too, of course, and some of the
other names in that 'family' were Topnut, Grapenut, Halfnut.

There were also, of course, many projects that got started, were given names,
and eventually were cancelled, before making it to the market.  One, the
HP-95, actually made it into production-prototype stage, with about 100 units
built, and owners manuals all printed, before being cancelled (and rightly so!)
I still have a copy of the owners manual for it.

The HP-71 was 'titan' and the HP-75 was 'Kangaroo' (or 'roo' to its friends).
The HP-01 was 'firfly' (or was that it's follow on?  (also cancelled before
intro) ).  

If I remember more, maybe I'll post again.

Everett Kaser
!hplabs!hp-pcd!everett