Hewlett-Packard HP 97 Calculators

HP also known as Hewlett-Packard made the famous HP 97 Calculator. According to the Wikipedia "The HP-67 was a magnetic card-programmable handheld calculator, introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 1976 at an MSRP of $450.[1] A desktop version with built-in thermal printer was sold as the HP-97 at a price of $750.[2] Marketed as improved successors to the HP-65, the HP-67/97 were based on the technology of the "20-series" of calculators (HP-25, HP-19C etc.) introduced a year earlier. The two models are functionally equivalent, and programs on magnetic cards can be interchanged between them."

We wanted to add some nice images to the WWW for the enthusiasts out there.

"These calculators are collector items now..."

"They were like miniature programmable computers. Far ahead of their time. And affordable, although $750 was a still a lot of money back then. I used them mainly to calculate lift points of concrete panels with offset openings. I graduated to the HP-97 because of the paper print out."

"35 years ago is a long time. As I remember, you inserted the magnetic strip and stored whatever program you wrote on it. You could also buy pre-programmed strips to do various things. You wrote a program by pushing various keys in the proper sequence. HP had by far the best instructions of any company."

In 1976: The Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, is released by Seymour Cray's Cray Research. The first commercial Concorde flight takes off. Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The space shuttle Enterprise is rolled out of a Palmdale, California hangar.

Links:

1Visit the HP 97 And 67 Calculators on the Wikipedia.