HP Voyager

Models

The Voyager series of HP calculators included five models, some of which were manufactured in multiple variants (with years of production):

• HP-10C – basic scientific calculator (1982–1984)
• HP-11C – mid-range scientific calculator (1981–1989)
• HP-12C – business/financial calculator (1981–present)
• HP-15C – advanced scientific calculator (1982–1989, 2011, 2023–present)
• HP-16C – computer programmer's calculator (1982–1989)

{{anchor|10C}}HP-10C

The HP-10C is the last and lowest-featured calculator in this line to have been introduced, even though its number would suggest an earlier origin. The 10C was a basic scientific programmable calculator. While a useful general purpose RPN calculator, the HP-11C offered twice as much for only a slight increase in price. Designed to be an introductory calculator, it was still costly compared to the competition, and many looking at an HP would just step up to the better HP-11C. Poor sales led to a very short market life, making it one of the most difficult of the series to find today.

{{anchor|11C}}HP-11C

The HP-11C is a mid-range scientific programmable calculator.

{{anchor|12C|12CP}}HP-12C

Main article: HP-12C

The HP-12C is a popular financial calculator. It was such a successful model that Hewlett-Packard redesigned it from scratch, added several new functions, and reintroduced it as the HP 12c Platinum in 2003, along with the HP 12c Prestige. Over the years, a number of anniversary editions of the calculator were also produced.

The HP-12C is HP's longest and best-selling product, in continual production since its introduction in 1981.

{{anchor|15C}}HP-15C

Main article: HP-15C

The HP-15C is a high-end scientific programmable with a root-solver and numerical integration, produced between 1982 and 1989. It is also able to handle complex numbers and matrix operations. Although long discontinued, its continued popularity among users triggered Hewlett-Packard to offer a HP 15c Limited Edition remake of the calculator in 2011, followed by an HP 15C Collector's Edition in 2023.

{{anchor|16C}}HP-16C

Main article: HP-16C

The HP-16C is a computer programmer's calculator, designed to assist in debugging. It is able to display, compute, manipulate, and convert numbers in or between different numeric bases relevant for programming, including hexadecimal, decimal, octal, and binary. The display would use "h" to indicate hexadecimal, for example. A number of specialized functions are provided to assist the programmer, including left- and right-shifting, masking, and bitwise logical operations. HP has (as of 2015) never made another programmer's calculator, but the 16C's functions have been incorporated into later calculator models.

Features

Arithmetic

Hewlett-Packard retained the numerical analyst William Kahan of UC Berkeley, the architect of the IEEE 754 standard for floating-point arithmetic, to design the numerical algorithms implemented by the calculators. He also wrote parts of the manuals.

Programming

The HP Voyager series calculator are keystroke programmable, meaning that it can remember and later execute sequences of keystrokes to solve particular problems of interest to the user. These keystroke programs, in addition to performing any operation normally available on the keyboard, can also make use of conditional and unconditional branching and looping instructions, allowing programs to perform repetitive operations and make decisions.

The available programming features differentiate between the various HP Voyager series calculator systems.

Legacy

Models

The HP-12C and its derivatives remain in widespread use today and is still available from Hewlett-Packard.

In 2011, the long-discontinued HP-15C was re-released as a "Limited Edition" that has since again been discontinued.

In 2023, the HP-15C was briefly released one more time as a Collector's Edition.

Emulators

Official emulators for the 12C and 15C are commercially available from Hewlett-Packard for Android and iOS devices.

Simulators

There are many software simulations of HP calculators, including Voyager-series devices. The WRPN Calculator, a public domain open-source HP-16C simulator, is one of the oldest active software projects of this type. Jovial Reverse Polish Notation Calculators is another project that has developed a cleanroom, open source implementation of the HP 15C and 16C calculators and has released a browser interface as well as installable applications for various platforms.

{{anchor|DM10CC|DM10|DM10 Silver Edition|DM10L|DM11CC|DM11|DM11 Silver Edition|DM11L}}Clones

In 2011, the continued popularity of the Voyager series among users prompted SwissMicros (originally called RPN-Calc) to produce a series of credit-card-sized calculators looking like miniature versions of their HP equivalents and running the original HP firmware in an emulator on a modern calculator hardware. The series consisted of the DM10, DM11, DM12, DM15 and DM16. All calculators used the same hardware, but differ in keyboard and firmware (which can be changed with an upgrade port). After the introduction of the larger DM15L, DM41L and DM16L in 2015, the DM11L was added in January 2016 with the DM12L following in February. A limited production run for a DM10L was planned for 2019.

References

Bibliography

References

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