HP Innovation Issue 22: Fall 2022 | Page 77

During her historic 70-year reign , Queen Elizabeth II witnessed many technological advances , from the evolution of the television to the home computer to smartphones . But it was during a 1983 royal tour of California and the West Coast and a meeting with HP founder Dave Packard that she was given a firsthand glimpse of the budding innovations that would shape society for decades to come . As part of a three-day visit to the Bay Area — which included a tour of San Francisco Bay aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia and a serenade by Tony Bennett of “ I Left My Heart in San Francisco ”— the then 57-year-old monarch received an insider ’ s peek at Hewlett Packard ’ s Cupertino manufacturing facility . In addition to meeting with employees and seeing engineers at work , the Queen and her entourage , among them Prince Philip , witnessed a demonstration on how microchips and microphones were delicately integrated into computers by hand . Later that evening , during a formal dinner with President Ronald Reagan , the Queen remarked on the technological achievements she had seen that day , commenting that the “ miracle … lies not in the wizardry of electronics , but in the genius and shared dedicated determination of men and women . That is what speaks loudest in California .”
REMEMBER WHEN
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1938

1983

three-day visit to the Bay Area — which included a tour of San Francisco Bay aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia and a serenade by Tony Bennett of “ I Left My Heart in San Francisco ”— the then 57-year-old monarch received an insider ’ s peek at Hewlett Packard ’ s Cupertino manufacturing facility . In addition to meeting with employees and seeing engineers at work , the Queen and her entourage , among them Prince Philip , witnessed a demonstration on how microchips and microphones were delicately integrated into computers by hand . Later that evening , during a formal dinner with President Ronald Reagan , the Queen remarked on the technological achievements she had seen that day , commenting that the “ miracle … lies not in the wizardry of electronics , but in the genius and shared dedicated determination of men and women . That is what speaks loudest in California .”
— Angela Matusik
HP MODEL 200A / 200B Bill Hewlett ’ s 200A audio oscillator drastically improved accuracy and reliability at a lower cost than competitors ’ devices , retailing for $ 54.50 versus $ 200 to $ 600 . The Walt Disney Company ordered eight modified audio oscillators , the 200B , for the audio production pioneering sound system Disney installed in select theaters for the release of the 1940 animated film Fantasia . This initial deal led to the founding of HP .