The HP 3000: A Legend is Born

Photo of the HP 3000 minicomputer and a man working at a nearby terminal.

Share this piece of history

Date: 1972

The 3000 was Hewlett-Packard’s first machine designed for commercial data processing, thus making it Hewlett-Packard’s first committed entry into the computer market. (The company’s earlier 2100 series computers had technically been designed and marketed as controllers.) It would prove a phenomenal success, continuing in production for more than 30 years and generating revenues for the company of as much as $40 billion. In 1978, an HP 3000 became the first computer ever installed in the White House. One historian declared, “It ranks … as one of the greatest computers ever made.”