The 60s
 | ||
| Bill and Dave in 1963 | ||
HP continues its steady growth in the test-and-measurement marketplace and branches out into related fields like medical electronics and analytical instrumentation. It also develops its first computer (the HP 2116A), making its entry into that business in 1966.
The company continues its expansion overseas, forming several subsidiary companies. Early in the decade it expands into Asia with a Japanese joint venture. In the U.S., HP opens its first manufacturing plants outside Palo Alto.
HP begins to be noticed as a progressive, well-managed company — and a great place to work.
1960
HP establishes its first U.S. manufacturing plant outside of Palo Alto in Loveland, Colorado.
Revenue: $60.7 million. Employees: 3,021.
1961
 | ||
| HWP on the New York Stock Exchange | ||
HP is listed on the New York Stock Exchange's "big board" for the first time March 17, 1961. It lists on the NYSE and Pacific stock exchanges simultaneously under the symbol HWP.
HP expands into the medical field with purchase of Sanborn Company, Waltham, Massachusetts. Medical equipment will be a significant source of revenue for HP; eventually that business will become part of Agilent Technologies, the company formed from HP in 2000.
The Oscilloscope and Frequency & Time Divisions are formed, and HP Associates is established as a subsidiary to engage in solid state research and development. The firm’s principal areas of focus include semiconductor devices, electroluminescence and photoconductivity.
Revenue: $87.9 million. Employees: 5,040.
1962
For the first time, HP makes Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 U.S. companies. It enters the list at number 460 and continues to climb in the annual ranking throughout the coming decades.
Revenue: $110 million. Employees: 6,260.
1963
 | ||
| HP's first joint venture: Yokogawa Hewlett-Packard | ||
HP enters the Asian market and forms its first joint venture, Yokogawa Hewlett-Packard (YHP), in Tokyo, Japan, with Yokogawa Electric Works. By 1963, overseas sales already account for 18 percent of HP's business; the largest foreign markets are Western Europe, Canada and Japan.
The 5100A frequency synthesizer, one of the most complex instruments developed by the company to date, is introduced. It can do the work of a whole battery of instruments and does it with greater accuracy. The 5100A is used for automated testing, advanced communications systems and communications with deep-space vehicles.
Revenue: $117 million. Employees: 6,598.
1964
HP celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Dave Packard is elected CEO and chairman of the board; Bill Hewlett is elected president.
 | ||
| The "flying clock" | ||
The highly accurate HP 5060A cesium-beam atomic clocks gain worldwide recognition as the "flying clocks" when they are flown from Palo Alto to Switzerland to compare time as maintained by the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. to time at the Swiss Observatory in Neuchatel. The atomic clock was designed to maintain accuracy for 3000 years with only one second of error. The cesium-beam standard becomes the standard for international time. Atomic clocks are valuable in time-critical applications such as space shuttle operations, airplane collision avoidance systems and telecommunications.
HP's first spectrum analyzer, the 8551, becomes indispensable for RF and microwave workbenches. Within the first year of production, the company sells more than 75 a month, and it soon becomes the company's first $1 million-a-month product.
The private David and Lucile Packard Foundation is created.
Revenue: $126 million. Employees: 7,092.
1965
HP enters the analytical instrumentation field with the acquisition of F&M Scientific Corporation, Avondale, Pennsylvania. The acquisition allows HP to further expand its measuring and testing expertise into the area of chemical analysis.
Revenue: $165 million; Employees: 9,033.
1966
HP Laboratories is established as the company's central research facility and begins a long history as one of the world's leading commercial research centers. At HP Labs' inception, primary areas of research include solid state physics, physical electronics, electronics, and medical and chemical electronics instruments.
 | ||
| HP 2116A | ||
HP's first computer, the HP 2116A, is introduced. It is developed as a versatile instrument controller for HP's growing family of programmable test and measurement products. In an early version of "plug and play," it interfaces with a wide number of standard laboratory instruments, allowing customers to computerize their instrument systems. The 2116A is the largest single mechanical package HP has built to date, and it marks HP's first use of integrated circuits.
In 1966, most computers have to be pampered in air-conditioned rooms on spring-loaded floors. HP assumes that the 2116A should pass the same environmental tests as the instruments it will team with and be rugged and reliable. This approach transforms the 2116A into the first go-anywhere, do-anything computer. The first 2116A is sold to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and used aboard a research vessel in a salt-air environment for more than 10 years. With 4K of magnetic core memory expandable to 32K, the 2116A costs $25,000 to $50,000, depending on options.
The company produces breakthrough GaAsP (gallium-arsenide-phosphide) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which prove to be useful in ever-increasing applications, including alphanumeric displays for handheld devices and, eventually, stoplights, signage and automobile lighting.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Bill Hewlett to the nation's Science Advisory Committee (he serves until 1969). Committee members provide advice and counsel to the federal government.
Revenue: $203 million. Employees: 11,309.
1967
HP pioneers the concept of flexible working hours, or "flextime" at its operation in Boeblingen, Germany. The program allows employees to arrive early or late to work as long as they work a standard number of hours. In Dave's words "To my mind, flextime is the essence of respect for and trust in people." The concept is later instituted throughout HP's U.S. facilities in 1973.
HP's Boeblingen, Germany, plant introduces a non-invasive fetal heart monitor that helps babies by detecting fetal distress during labor.
HP engineers fly the atomic clocks they have developed to 18 countries on a mission to synchronize international time standards. Eventually, the cesium-beam standard is used to determine Greenwich Mean Time and becomes the standard for international time.
Revenue: $243 million. Employees: 12, 131.
1968
 | ||
| HP 9100A | ||
HP introduces the world's first desktop scientific calculator, the HP 9100A. The programmable calculator stores programs on magnetic cards and lets scientists perform complex calculations without the need to access much larger computers. It is 10 times faster than most machines at solving science and engineering problems. Ads for the 9100A call the device a "personal computer," one of the first documented uses of the term.
HP introduces the first commercially available light-emitting diode (LED). The technology proves to have major applications for alphanumeric displays and is integrated into HP’s early handheld calculators.
Continuing its growth and expansion, HP opens a manufacturing facility in San Diego, California. Initial production includes x-y recorders and strip-chart recorders.
The private William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is incorporated.
Revenue: $268.9 million. Employees: 13,430.
1969
 | ||
| Dave is appointed U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense | ||
Dave is appointed U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense. (He serves from 1969 to 1971.) He uses his management skills to reinvent cumbersome processes and introduce new efficiencies in military procurement. According to William J. Perry, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Dave's recommendations enabled the military to modernize more quickly and at lower cost. Upon accepting the appointment, Dave resigns from HP, and Bill becomes CEO, running the company in Dave's absence.
In an early instance of utility computing, HP markets its first time-shared operating system on a minicomputer with support for up to 16 users.
The first robotic sample injector for chromatography, designed by HP engineers, allows samples to be analyzed while a system is unattended.
Revenue: $326 million. Employees: 15,840.
No comments:
Post a Comment