[time-nuts] Re: HP105B

[Louis Taber]

Thanks for the HP history lesson!

I find it all pretty impressive.  I guess I have always thought great
things about the instrumentation side of HP anyway.  Their engineering has
always been great.  But, maintaining not only parts inventory, production
capability for any product that has lasted over decades in the fast moving
world of electronics is amazing to me.

I do wonder how much the product changed internally.  It has been a long
time since anyone has used as much point-to-point wiring as was common with
tube circuitry.

On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 8:31 AM Tom Van Baak <tvb at leapsecond.com> wrote:

> Louis,
>
> Keep an eye on the 5071A. It was introduced in 1992; now 30 years old,
> still in full production, showing no signs of being retired. Same
> product number, same instrument, same parts, same manual. It also
> survived corporate name changes: hp -> Agilent -> Symmetricom ->
> Microsemi -> Microchip. So give it a few more years and it will beat
> your 33 year hp 105B number.
>
> It's maybe cheating to allow all the variations in the evolution of the
> original 200A audio oscillator, as Magnus mentions. In that case you may
> also allow the evolution of the original 5060A cesium standard: hp 5060A
> -> 5061A -> 5061B -> 5071A. The 5060 came out in 1964, so that's 58
> years, and counting.
>
> If you're playing product history games also look at the hp 100 -> 101
> -> 103 -> 104 -> 106 -> 107 -> 105 quartz oscillators. That covers 1943
> (100A) to 2000 (105B), also 58 years.
>
> /tvb
>
>
> On 1/16/2022 1:18 PM, Louis Taber wrote:
> > The HP 105B is in the HP catalogs for a 33 year period, 1968 through
> > 2000.  That is a 33 year run.  Is this an HP/Agilent/Keysight record?
>
> On 1/16/2022 2:25 PM, Magnus Danielson via time-nuts wrote:
> > No, not for HP. The HP200A through D products where separate products
> > for 8 years, then the 200A and 200B was merged to the 200AB and the
> > 200C and 200D merged into 200CD that was running for 37 years,
> > totaling in 45 years of continuous production.
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