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Full Version: How do HP Come up with their serial nos again?[nt]
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Well, they have this big dice....

What in particular do you want to know. Your question is a tad wide in scope.

For HP41's (and many others) the serial number consists of three parts: the date code, the country of manufacture, and the serial number within the date and country.

for example:

2546S21xxx

is a calculator manufactured in 1985 (1970 + 25) in week 38 (46 - 8 -- apparantly the 8 weeks was to allow for delay between manufacture and retail), in Singapore (S), and was the 21xxxth that week.

This is from memory, I'm sure that if I've got the figures wrong then someone will kindly correct me.

Note that this does not necessarily apply to all calculators (e.g. my HP48SX that has a serial number 3308S02xxx, which seems to indicate it was made in 2003).

Like the 32SII and 48G etc. thanks

After thinking about it again (and failing to find the actual reference, I think that the date offset for the year of manufacture is 1960. That makes my 41CX manufactured in 1987, my 48SX in 1993, and my 48GX in 1996.

Sorry, that's all the calculators I have on me at the moment :-)

try this. It gives you both the old and new serial number scheme. And it's right here on this site.

http://www.hpmuseum.org/collect.htm#numbers

I know I got my HP35 in 1973 and it has a code of 1346. That would make the 33C I got at a buck-a-box tag sale (bwa-ha-haaa!) with 2032 code a 1980 model, which is right in the middle of its range.

Your assumptions are correct for the older calculator series and maybe even for the new.

I have 2 service manuals, which mention this formula.