I just bought another HP 50g

[Mike Morrow]

(01-30-2014 01:08 PM)Jeff O. Wrote:  12 - week of manufacture. there is some debate regarding how close this is to reality

That debate applies most importantly to the old-style pre-1996 HP serial numbers. I purchased my first HP-15C in December 1985, yet it bore the old format serial number of 2605Axxxxx (1986 week 05). It has been suggested here before that HP begins the new year for the old style SNs with the fiscal year, not calendar year.

This old forum thread from 2011 suggests that HP's fiscal year begins on 1 November, a variance with the normal definition of the FY beginning on 1 October.

Regardless of that, it remains undetermined AFAIK if the year coding in the current HP serial number system is calendar or fiscal.

Nothing is simple, it seems.

One can find a "programme" on an obscure hp.com web site that allows download of a HP SN vs. manufacture date deciphering program...but the site warms that it will only work on Windows 2000 or Windows XP! I suspect that program replaced an earlier version that ran only on CP/M or TRS-DOS. :-)