While up at MakeIt a few weeks ago, a fellow maker came up to me and handed me a Samsonite briefcase. With a wink and a smile, he said “Take this. You’ll like it.”
Ohhhkay, I’ll bite. Lets check this out.
Opening up the case revealed… an HP 75C handheld computer, made by Hewlett Packard in the early 80s. This machine has some pretty nifty functionality. A built in BASIC, expandability, magnetic card reader for loading / saving programs, a full QWERTY keyboard, and rechargeable batteries.
Writing code on it is remarkably easy, with a clear easy to read screen and nice tactile feel to the keyboard.
Specs:
- Manufacture date: Around 1983
- HP 8-Bit Capricorn
- 24K, 16K user RAM
- 32 character LCD
- 1.4K magnetic cards for storage
- BASIC OS
It’s a great addition to the collection!
What an incredible find! The HP-75C is a true vintage gem—proof that great engineering stands the test of time. It’s wild to think this 1983 handheld ran on an 8-bit Capricorn CPU with just 24K RAM, while today’s Xeon 8-core/3.6GHz https://serverorbit.com/cpus-and-processors/xeon-8-core/3-6ghz beasts crunch terabytes without breaking a sweat. Yet, both share the same spirit: maximizing capability within their era’s limits.
The tactile keyboard and magnetic card storage ooze retro charm, but imagine pairing this with modern silicon—a RISC-V or Xeon-powered HP-75C with NVMe storage? (HP, take notes!)