Object Details
- Hewlett-Packard Company
- Description
- This is an engineering prototype for an improved form of the HP-41CX, one of the first forms of an Hewlett-Packard handheld electronic calculator that could show letters as well as numbers in the display. The HP-41 series included the HP-41C (introduced 1979 – code name coconut), the HP-41CV (introduced in late 1980), and the HP-41CX (introduced in 1983). In the course of the 1980s, Hewlett-Packard engineers devised a way of building the calculators with fewer chips that cut the cost in half and improved reliability. These were codenamed “halfnut” calculators. This is a model for the “halfnut” version of the HP-41CX, made in about 1985.
- The prototype has a translucent plastic case, and four rubber feet. A plastic template covers the keyboard. This keypad is marked with the functions of the calculator in orange, white, and blue. A latch just below the display releases the template. Under the template are thirty-five plastic keys, marked in white and blue. The calculator lacks the usual keyboard under the keys, having a transparent one instead.
- Four buttons behind the keys are for turning on the machine, setting user determined key functions, setting programming mode, and setting alphabetic mode. Behind this is the LCD display.
- The top edge has four slots for additional memory or devices. One of these is empty, one of them has a chip encased in plastic, and two of them have plastic frames but no circuitry. The chip enclosed in plastic is a prototype for an infrared “blinkie” transmitter linking the calculator to a printer. Such a transmitter originally was envisioned for calculators in the HP-28 series, but a Hewlett-Packard engineer suggested that HP-41 calculators also could link to the printer.
- A mark along the front edge of the calculator reads: hp HEWLETT • PACKARD 41CX. Text at the top of the back reads: SERIAL NO. However, there is no serial number.
- The donor of this model, David Rabinowitz, was an employee of Hewlett-Packard from 1975 until 1989 and worked on the design of the halfnut form of the HP41CX calculator as well as on HP’s infrared printers.
- The 41C and 41CV sold until 1990, the 41CX until 1991. (another source (http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp41.htm) gives dates of discontinuation of 1985 for the HP-41C, 1990 for the HP-41CV and 1990 for the HP-41CX).
- References:
- W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz, A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers , Tustin, California: Wilson/Burnett Publishing, 1997, pp. 65–66, 133.
- David G. Hicks, The Museum of HP Calculators, http://www.hpmuseum.org/, accessed July, 2014.
- Accession file.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of David Rabinowitz
- ca 1982
- ID Number
- 2004.0165.01
- accession number
- 2004.0165
- catalog number
- 2004.0165.01
- Object Name
- electronic calculator
- Physical Description
- plastic (case; keys; circuit board; template; display cover material)
- metal (circuitry material)
- ceramic (display circuit board material)
- Measurements
- overall: 3.3 cm x 7.8 cm x 15.3 cm; 1 5/16 in x 3 1/16 in x 6 1/32 in
- module: .5 cm x 3 cm x 3.8 cm; 3/16 in x 1 3/16 in x 1 1/2 in
- place made
- United States: Oregon, Corvallis
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Computers
- Computers & Business Machines
- Handheld Electronic Calculators
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_1276235
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-7aff-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
