Hewlett-Packard





The Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) is a large American technology company
whose products include many types of imaging, computing, and electronic
devices as well as software and services.

HP was founded in 1939 by William Hewlett and David Packard as a
manufacturer of test and measurement instruments. Their first product was a
precision audio oscillator (their innovation was the use of a light bulb as
temperature stabilized resistor in a critical portion of the circuit). Their
first major customer was Disney, who bought several of these oscillators for
use in the movie Fantasia.

HP initially entered the computer market in order to provide digital
controllers for their test and measurement equipment.

HP has been well known for a variety of products, including printers and
oscilloscopes, and were famous for their pioneering range of calculators.
They are now a large manufacturer of personal computers. On January 5, 1980
Hewlett-Packard announced the release of its first personal computer.

HP was one of the, if not the, founding companies of Silicon Valley.

In March 2002, Hewlett Packard announced that the company would no longer
produce calculators, disappointing many long-time fans of such a famous
product line.

HP technologies include:

   * the HP-UX operating system
   * the PA-RISC processor architecture
   * the IA64 processor architecture
   * the UDC (Utility Data Center)
   * OpenView family of management software

HP has merged with Compaq in 2002, in a controversial move.

Agilent Technologies Incorporated is the original instrument company founded
by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939. It was spun off from HP in 1999.