Leibson's Law

Feb 22 2008 9:47AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (17) |
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This year marks the 40^th anniversary of HP’s entry into the calculator market. Many, many people contributed to this event, but one person stands out. He was never an HP employee, but he designed and built the prototype machine that was destined to be the foundation of HP’s first calculator, the HP 9100A. He tried selling the design to several companies including IBM, Friden, and HP. He failed. Then luck intervened and a former co-worker from SCM (Smith Corona Marchant) got him an audience with the legendary head of HP Labs, Barney Oliver. The rest, as they say, is history. First came the HP 9100A (with no ICs except in the magnetic card reader) and then, a few years later when IC technology matured, came the HP 35. (Last year was the 35^th anniversary of the HP 35’s introduction.)

The man’s name is Tom Osborne. He was instrumental in developing both of HP’s first calculators and follow on machines. He also developed a logic-design methodology based on ASMs (algorithmic state machines) that gave HP a real competitive design advantage for many years before the advent of HDLs.

I’d known of Tom for decades but we’d never met. Then, a few years back, we connected by phone and email as he helped me develop my history site that covers the development of early HP desktop calculators and computers (www.hp9825.com). During our exchanges, I got a lot of Tom’s story, which he really hasn’t told. He seems pretty modest about his significant contributions. In fact, he seems far more eager to make sure others associated with the projects get all their due credit than he is to talk about himself.

I jumped at the chance when Tom agreed to do an interview. It took us a few months to connect. Sometimes it seemed that the fates were against this meeting but earlier this month I drove up to his home north of San Francisco and spent some time with him. We talked for several hours one day. Then after I spent the night at his place, we talked for several more hours the next morning. I recorded a bit more than an hour of this extended conversation. Now I’ve edited the interview and have put it up on the Web. You’ll find it just below.

In this interview, you’ll learn:

• How a Manhattan Project scientist inspired Tom to design a calculator.
• Why SCM, Tom’s employer, didn’t get his calculator.
• How Tom developed a world-beating calculator in his apartment.
• How Hewlett and Packard ran their business and treated their competitors.
• How the HP 35 came to be.

Tom Osborne’s story encapsulates a time when an individual could move the industry forward in a great leap very quickly. It’s also about a time when some companies (like HP) treated competitors with respect and when a young inventor could directly interact with corporate presidents and CEOs, make deals with them directly, and seal the deal with a handshake. This interview takes you back to another time in the electronics industry.

If you have trouble seeing the embedded video player below, here's the link: http://www.viddler.com/explore/sleibson/videos/4/

(Note: This is my 200^th blog entry. Thanks to all who have encouraged me and egged me on.)