Mathatron & other stuff

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Thu Aug 20 22:20:59 1998

At 05:41 PM 8/19/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> Another "crossover" machine that I have a little info
>> (mainly pictures) of is the HP 9830, called a calculator
>> but in fact a computer with BASIC.
>
>The 9830 doesn't get discussed much, but it's one of my favorites.
>There's a lot of noise on this list about the Altair, a "PC" from 1975
>that was just a big box with lights and toggles. In 1972, the HP 9830 was
>an elegant light-weight

  Light-weight!!!!!!!!!! I have both an Altair and a 9830 and the 9830 is
at least three times as heavy as the Altair! It's also probably 5 times
stronger. I have used my 9830 as a step stool (after it died of other
causes). I wouldn't even think of doing that with the Altair.


desktop computer with full alphanumeric keyboard,
>built-in secondary storage, built-in display,

   One line LED. Whoppee!

built-in BASIC,

   Yes, and ONLY BASIC! The Altair was a general purpose machine.

 and it just
>plain works. There was nothing else remotely like it at the time, and it
>was even reasonably priced (around $5000, I think).

   That's what, 12 times the price of the Altair? The two machines aren't
comparable. They're completely different. Have you ever tried to generate
music or word process on a 9830? You can't do it. You could on an
Altair. The 9830 is a sophisticated programmable calcualtor. The Altair is
a striped down general purpose computer.

   Joe
   
>
>-- Doug
>
>
>
Received on Thu Aug 20 1998 - 22:20:59 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:30:45 BST