HP 41 PPC ROM Production Run Total

[rprosperi]

(10-07-2022 02:59 AM)Jake Schwartz Wrote:  

(10-06-2022 03:49 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  Here's the answers, straight from Richard:

The initial order was placed (early 82?), planned for 2500 pieces. After the order was placed, the actual costs were finalized and based on the estimated price paid by PPC members, it became clear that PPC could actually provide 2 ROMs to each of the initial buyers, which is why the first 5000 pieces are marked 1-2500A and 1-2500B, each member received a matched pair of A & B ROMs.

The letter which came in the box with the initial ROM order to users (and mine was #78) was dated Dec 14, 1981. This implies that the order would have been placed with HP earlier than 1982. In PPC Journal V8N1 (Jan/Feb 1981) on page 5 is the monthly "ROM Progress" column where it was announced that the completion of the initial testing of the ROM image in the HP software development system was Feb 17, 1981.

In the accompanying member letter with PPC Journal V7N8 (Oct 1980), Richard Nelson wrote: "..I have officially placed the order with HP and gave them the check for the tooling..." So 1980 it is.
Thanks,
Jake

Thanks Jake!

Actually what I wrote was a typo, it clearly should have been 'early 81?', but your usual great research proved that even that guess was not early enough. I knew there was a several month lead time to prepare the mask, but Richard was not sure how long it was. The actual facts and timeline are slowly emerging...