HP 9100A: The Premiere of the PC

One of the most important inventions of the twentieth century, the 9100A was the world’s first commercially available programmable desktop calculator and the first commercial scientific calculator, meaning it was capable of complex mathematical functions previously only available through a slide-rule or a large computer. The 9100A would trigger a desktop calculator boom throughout the technology industry and contribute directly to the personal computer revolution. A 1968 advertisement even contained one of the earliest known uses of the phrase “personal computer.”

Watch an Inside the Vault video about the HP9100A.