I consider this unit forever relevant, forever great, and a testament to the awesome status that HP once had as the King of manufacturing calculators for REAL ENGINEERS!!!! It has become part of who I am as an Engineer, and it actually transpires confidence (as another author once wrote, and I agree). The physical design is superb, and the calculator is simply beautiful. When I am away from my desk and in a lab or meeting I have found that the HP 32SII always has what I need to quick calculations and simple yet very useful programming tasks (and its programmabilit y is GREAT by the way!). What we need is versatility, ease of use, and enough functionality to be effective when we are not sitting at our desks, where there would likely be desktop access to tools like MATHCAD, MATLAB, etc. What I mean by that is that Engineers today do not really require the over abundance of functions that the more powerful units possess. As I stated in previous reviews, it is not the most powerful, but it is one of the most useful and versatile calculators in a modern context. The HP 32SII really is the best true calculator that HP has ever designed/manufactured. I wish HP would bring back the HP 32SII as a "Special Edition Anniversary" offering. I still love it, and I will always recommend this HP model to all my engineer friends and anyone who does some heavy calculations. It has served me well over the years and I hope for many years to come. I would highly recommend this calculator to any science student or engineer who would like a very accurate and reliable calculator as their day to day work horse. I've owned several calculators since my original 32SII, but none really compare. The fact HP stopped making what I feel was the best calculator in the history of HP. HP no longer repairs this model of calculator. My only dislike about this great calculator is the inherent problems after years of use, (internal errors) all calculator have some type of problems after awhile and HP lets you run tests on the internal workings so if you do purchase one of these 32SII calculators make sure you run the built in test on all functions of the calculator. My original one began to have issues a couple of years ago, so I purchased a new model of the HP calculator (42 and 33S) both great calculator, but it was nothing like my original 32SII As an engineer I rely on my calculator on a day to day basis. I purchased this HP 32SII calculator because I originally owned one when they first came out in 1989. In this interview, David not only shares the history and how of creating the HP35, but also shares stories about Bill Hewlett, David Packard and others including Steve Wazniak.Great calculator, but unfortunately they do not mfg. Existing pocket calculators at the time were only four-function, i.e., they could only do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Before the HP-35, the only practical portable devices for performing trigonometric and exponential functions were slide rules. In the first months, orders were exceeding HP’s expectations as to the entire market size, which was 10,000 units per year. The HP-35 was the first calculator with a full suite of trigonometric and transcendental functions. When these prototypes proved popular, HP decided to turn the HP-35 into a commercial product. It is rumored that the development engineer got carried away and implemented a full suite of scientific functions to satisfy requests from his co-workers. Thus, the first ~12 HP-35 portable calculators were made as a “hack” by and for other engineers at HP. In about 1970, HP co-founder Bill Hewlett challenged his co-workers to create a “shirt-pocket sized HP-9100“. Market studies at the time had shown no market for pocket sized calculators. Introduced at US$395, the HP-35 was available from 1972 to 1975. Like some of HP’s desktop calculators it used reverse Polish notation. The HP-35 was Hewlett-Packard‘s first pocket calculator and the world’s first scientific pocket calculator (a calculator with trigonometric and exponential functions). This is the 1st in a series of interviews of individuals and teams who have created what I would consider killer innovations. In this episode, I recorded an interview with David Cochran, the original Product Manager of the HP35 calculator.
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