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History Links: HP, Agilent, EDS, Compaq, Tandem...

 

Books, sites, and articles for alumni and friends on the history of HP and predecessor companies.

(HP stock certificate, 1973)

Recent additions are highlighted in yellow. To add or correct a listing, please Email.

Company

The HP Way "We have trust and respect for individuals..."
"The Great Innovators" Business Week: "...the birthplace of a new approach to management"
"Great Garages" Forbes: "...the key to the greatness of Bill Hewlett and David Packard was that they held no attachment to things, only people."
"Founding Fathers" Stanford Magazine: "...their contribution... was as much organizational as technological."
"Origins" watch  order HP's 2005 film – photographs, oral histories, film footage, and interviews with former employees
HP History and Facts HP: Timeline, Virtual Museum
Bill Hewlett on Management "The Human Side Of Management" by Bill Hewlett – on private site of Ed Sharpe
Packard on Management David Packard's "11 Simple Rules... for getting along with others" – 1958
HP Way "The HP Way was a way of life"
Agilent History Agilent: Timeline
HP CEOs HP: Biographies of all HP CEOs
HP Garage HP: History of the garage and the first years of the company
Acquisitions, Divestitures HPAA's list of dates when HP acquired and divested companies
   

Founders

William R. Hewlett "...ceaseless desire to inspire excellence."
William R. Hewlett "His greatest gift... was not the compass he could build with his hands, but his moral compass."  
Remembering Bill Hewlett "...philanthropy, curiosity, love of nature and music, good humor and stubborn streak."  
Hewlett Oral History Transcript of 1984 IEEE History Center interview – A. Michal McMahon
Bill Hewlett on Creativity "Random Thoughts on Creativity" – Commencement Speech at MIT, 1986
Bill Hewlett Tribute "Remembering Bill Hewlett" by John Minck
David Packard "...where he had taken a job washing dishes."
Farewell to David Packard "Dave was a decider, not a ducker. He knew what he thought, and he made decisions that worked."
David Packard "...wasn't afraid to point out what was wrong and suggest improvements."
"Big Dave's Legacy" The Packards and Monterey County... "Dave said, 'That's fine, but where are the birds?' "
David Packard Tribute "In appreciation of David Packard" by John Minck
Fred Terman Mentor to Hewlett and Packard
Silent Partners "Bill and Dave had two silent partners... their wives."
Lucile Packard "Lucile Packard's ideals and paycheck fueled the HP start-up, then shaped community history."
Bill's and Dave's Offices An online photo tour of Bill's and Dave's preserved offices – including the famous "open doors."
Hewlett-Packard 1938-2002 Statement by David Woodley Packard, May 2002
Hewlett Foundation "...to address the most serious social and environmental problems facing society, where risk capital, responsibly invested, may make a difference over time."
Packard Foundation "...provides grants to nonprofit organizations in the following program areas: Conservation and Science; Population; and Children, Families, and Communities."  
Monterey Bay Aquarium David Packard helped create exhibits at his forge in Big Sur.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute "Take risks. Ask big questions. Don't be afraid to make mistakes; if you don't make mistakes, you're not reaching far enough." – David Packard
   

Products and Reminiscences

Forums on HP history and products HPAA's directory of independent online forums on vintage HP equipment, publications, and manuals.
200A Audio Oscillator

The first HP product, Bill Hewlett's oscillator – from HP's "virtual museum"

Inside HP (revised 2/11) A personal narrative history of HP from 1939-1990 – John Minck (2MB pdf, 103 pages)
Memoirs of Hewlett-Packard people Learn from what went right – and what went wrong – at HP over the years. For example, the first two HP laser printers were not very successful.

Articles by key HP engineers and managers:
- Hank Taylor – Information technology visionary.
- Art Fong – Adventures of the engineer who created many of HP's most successful products.
- Chuck House – Engineering politics – management, customers, and engineering team.
- John Minck – A work culture trip through the Golden Age of high tech.
- Dave Cochran – How the blockbuster HP-35 handheld came about.
- Ray Smelek – Management, opening new operations overseas, growing successful leaders.
- Bob DeVries – The perspective of an inventive mechanical engineer and product designer.
- George Stanley – Crucial role of customer and sales training.
- Jim Hall – The difficult route to the LaserJet's "overnight success."
- Ed Phillips – Overcoming a continuing string of challenging design issues.

Developed and introduced by John Minck.
On Marc Mislanghe's personal HP Memory Project site.
Barney Oliver Oral history by Barney Oliver, founder of HP Labs – Charles Babbage Institute
HP Early Years Rough draft and source materials – private site of Ed Sharpe
"HP Memory Project" History of HP in products from 1939-2000 – private site by Marc Mislanghe
HP Computer History "HP: The Accidentally On-Purpose Computer Company" – Steve Leibson
HP Computer History "HP and Compaq: A Trip Down Memory Lane" – Loyd Case
HP Test Equipment Online museum and technical history of HP instruments – Kenneth Kuhn
"HP Archive" Site Searchable pdf files: 15,000 pages of catalogs, manuals, periodicals, app notes... – Glenn Robb
Museum of HP Calculators Displays and describes HP calculators introduced from 1968 to 1986 – Dave Hicks
HP-01 Wrist Instrument Opens New Dimension in Personal Information – HP Journal
HP-35 A personal history of the breakthrough handheld device – John Minck (pages 71-75)
HP 80 Series Documentation and software for HP-85 family of BASIC microcomputers – Vassilis Prevelakis
HP 9100 How the Model 9100A Was Developed – Barney Oliver
HP 9825 The HP 9825 desktop computer was way before its time – Steve Leibson
HP 9845 The HP 9845 Preservation Project
HP Computer Museum Photos, documentation, literature, and downloadable software – Jon Johnston
HP Computer Manuals Service manuals and other documentation for many HP computers – Al Kossow
HP's Early Computers Interview with Barney Oliver – Kip Crosby
HP's Early Computers Interview with Joe Schoendorf – Kip Crosby
HP 1000 "25 Years of Real-Time Computing – the HP 1000" – Todd Poynor, updated by Don Pottenger
HP 3000 The History of the HP 3000 – Bob Green
HP 3000 humor "Lunch, the HP Way" – parody by Stephen Harrison and Noel Magee
HP 3000 "The Rise, Fall and Rise of the 3000" – Christopher Edler
HP 9000 "The HP 9000 Computer" – Frank McConnell
HP 9000 HP 9000 model history in the Wikipedia*
PA-RISC PA-RISC model history in the Wikipedia*
HP-UX HP-UX release history in the Wikipedia*
HP 250/260 HP 250/260 Preservation Project
HP 300 HP 300 (Amigo) note in the Wikipedia*
Plotters and Recorders San Diego Division and F. L. Moseley Co.
The Jet Set Turns 20 HP: History of the ThinkJet, LaserJet, and DeskJet product lines
Inkjet Printers "Printing Enters the Jet Age" – from American Heritage Invention & Technology
Inkjet Printers "Close-up on color printing" – from HP Labs
LaserJet HP LaserJet – The Early History. By Jim Hall
Semiconductors at HP History of HP's semiconductor business – from Avago Technologies 

* Note: Wikipedia articles change over time, may not cover all aspects of the topic consistently, and may not be written from a neutral point of view.

   

HP Publications

Catalogs 15,000 pages of catalogs, manuals, periodicals, app notes... Searchable pdf files – Glenn Robb
HP Journal All issues – 1949-1998 – HP Labs.
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HP Journal Indexes Searchable pdf files – Glenn Robb
Measure HP employee magazine. Searchable pdf files – Glenn Robb
Manuals Manuals, Bench Briefs, Application Notes, more. Searchable pdf files – Glenn Robb
Digital Technical Journal Issues from 1991-1998 in pdf form – HP Labs
Tandem Systems Review All issues in pdf form – HP Labs
   

HP- Tandem- and EDS-Related Business Books

For a directory of business books about HP, click here: HP Books
For a directory of business books about Tandem, click here: Tandem Books
For a directory of business books about EDS, click here: EDS Books
 

Acquisitions and Divestitures

See Social and Networking Directory and Directory of Acquisitions and Divestitures
3Com 3Com acquisitions
3Com 3Com history
Agilent Agilent timeline
Agilent Agilent Wikipedia* article – with references and links
Apollo Apollo Wikipedia* article – with references and links
Apollo University of Michigan Apollo Archive – with many links
Compaq Compaq company history (via the Internet Archive)
Compaq Compaq/DEC Timeline
Compaq Compaq Wikipedia* article – with references and links
Convex Convex Wikipedia* article – with references and links
Convex Danny Faught's Convex Archives
DEC Gordon Bell's "CyberMuseum for DEC" – with many references and links
DEC Timelines, archival documents, trivia quiz, cartoon
DEC DEC contributions in architecture, Internet, services, storage, software, semiconductors, networking
DEC DEC Wikipedia* article – with references and links
DEC DEC Connection history pages. Data, photos, links, books about DEC. 
EDS Electronic Data Systems Wikipedia* article – with references and links
EDS EDS history on HP's retiree site
Mercury Interactive Mercury Interactive Wikipedia* article – with references and links
Tandem Tandem Wikipedia* article – with references and links
Tandem Systems Review "Technical information about Tandem software releases and products" (1983 -1994)
Tandem Value System "Tandem Value System Core Values and Business Relationships"
VeriFone VeriFone Wikipedia* article – with references and links

* Note: Wikipedia articles change over time, may not cover all aspects of the topic consistently, and may not be written from a neutral point of view.

11/17/11

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