|
1963 to 1976
A Jaunt Through The History of Hewlett Packard and AICS Research 
A short while ago Hewlett-Packard
ran a trivia game on their home page
where you were asked to "guess" the function of the products shown. Can
there ever be a better measure of the fact that you're getting old than to have
people ask in a trivia game what function these various products served,
especially when you don't have to guess, and indeed you can remember the
serial numbers of the devices you owned?
HP has listed a number of products that they consider to be revolutionary.
In general, I agree their selections. However, several products of equal
stature are missing, most notably the HP2645 terminal and the HP3000.
Perhaps what is more extraordinary yet, the first
three products following immediately behind the famous 1939 audio oscillator
are products that each have personally
had a profound effect on my life and the prehistory of
AICS Research. I've included short vignettes about each of these HP products
and my personal association with them.
What follows begins in 1963, when I was first introduced to the
extraordinary quality of HP instrumentation, and proceeds until 1976,
when AICS Research was officially founded.
Wirt Atmar
|