Manufacturer profile
About HP
Reviewed 2026-07-26
HP is the catalog-era label for Hewlett-Packard's historical electronic test-and-measurement business. The manuals cover oscilloscopes, meters, counters, analyzers, generators, power supplies, calibration equipment, and microwave systems developed before that instrument lineage moved first to Agilent Technologies and later to Keysight Technologies.
History
Bill Hewlett and David Packard founded Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto in 1939, and the company's first products were electronic test instruments. For decades the HP name appeared on laboratory and field equipment used in electronics, communications, aerospace, manufacturing, and calibration. That measurement heritage—not HP's later computer and printer businesses—is the subject of this manual profile.
In 1999 Hewlett-Packard separated its test and measurement, chemical analysis, healthcare, and semiconductor-product activities into Agilent Technologies. Agilent then spun off its electronic measurement business as Keysight Technologies in 2014, making Keysight the principal present successor for HP instrument families. In 2015 the remaining Hewlett-Packard Company changed its name to HP Inc. while Hewlett Packard Enterprise was spun off. Because the original legal entity continued under a new name, this profile avoids claiming that the organization simply vanished; HP here is a historical manufacturer imprint with split successor paths.
Equipment specialties
- Historical electronic test and measurement equipment
- Oscilloscopes and signal analyzers
- Frequency, RF, and microwave instruments
- Digital multimeters and calibration equipment
- Electronic design and measurement systems
Sources
- About Us — HP, Agilent, and Keysight Instrument History — Keysight Technologies (accessed 2026-07-26)
- Keysight Technologies History — Keysight Technologies (accessed 2026-07-26)
- Hewlett-Packard — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-07-26)