![]() ![]() Like the Energizer Bunny, the 12C just keeps on calculating.Įxcept for my 12C, which is now dead and looks like it could have died years ago. With daily use, my 12C’s first battery change was seven years after purchase! The internet says several owners have reported their 12Cs are running on original batteries after 20–22 years. Would this be true for today’s mobile devices. In plain English, the engineers believed this would let the 12C run for one year on three small silver oxide batteries. 25 milliwatts standby leakage was five or ten nanoamperes. HP engineers designed it for low-power consumption. Not the 12C it’s a model of stellar battery performance. We worry more about charging our batteries before leaving the house than eating a proper breakfast. Batteries always crap out at the wrong moment. Perhaps you smirk at these Paleolithic features, but note the 12C also included a low-battery detector on the chip. The LCD driver powered a one-line, 10-digit display. Under the hood, the CPU had 61Kbits of ROM and 2.2Kbits of RAM. Built-like-a-brick, the 12C was poised for any numeric challenge. ![]() 039 Bitcoin.Īnd what a beauty it was! With bespoke horizontal elegance, the 5.1” x 3.1” x 0.6” device weighed just four ounces. Retail price was $150, which is equal to $447.05 in today’s money, or. ![]() I bought my 12C before it was made, pre-ordered in 1981 in great anticipation of the Best Calculator Ever. But it’s still HP’s best-selling product and has been in continual production since its debut in 1981. Yes, the technology is old and the form factor is antiquated. It’s a tool for Old-ie Time-ies and TicTokers alike because it provides a simple way to get financial insight. The 12C is a superstar in the world of financial calculation. And there are many of you, tens of millions by some accounts. If you own a 12C, be forewarned this sense of loss may strike when your calculator dies. One more thing in a year not to remember: Covid. My oldest friend died today, an HP-12C financial calculator that’s been my daily pal for 39 years. ![]()
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