Slacker redemption time

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Sun May 17 00:42:03 1998

"Max Eskin" <maxeskin_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Uh-huh. It's time to move out of my apartment. Is the HP 3000 any
> good (in terms of how interesting it is)?

Well, that depends how you define interesting. If you are thinking of
the purported Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times", then
I'd have to say no, they just work and don't try to be interesting at
all. That's why I like 'em.

On the other hand, they run an operating system called MPE that is
interesting in that it's pretty much its own thing, so if you're
thinking of the OS world in terms of "Windows" vs. "Unix" vs. "old
stuff that isn't relevant any more" then this will expand your mind
and maybe introduce you to interesting things like files that aren't
just streams of bytes and pseudo-half-duplexish terminal I/O that is
oriented toward transferring blocks of characters, not just one at a
time.

I looked at the URL that Greg Troutman posted. The description is
about as clear as mud and somewhat less useful, but it does make clear
that what is offered is a fairly large system. It's hard to say what
an HP3000 is beyond "a minicomputer that runs MPE" because there are
several different architectures (two major instruction-set flavors
with several different hardware and I/O schemes) that could be inside
the box. The series number is how you tell them apart; series >= 900
is PA-RISC and <= 70 (or with the name "Micro <mumble>" in place of a
series) is the "classic" 16-bit stack-architecture.

At a guess the system is a late-model "classic" (probably a Series
64/68/70), or an early-model PA-RISC (like a Series 950). If it is
still supported by HP, HP is probably real close to dropping hardware
maintenance on it.

Oh yeah, that some of the classics are called "Micro" is a hint:
they're smaller, lighter, and their Thirst for Power may be satisfied
with residential electrical service.

-Frank McConnell "I want my MPE" (w/apologies to Dire Straits)
Received on Sun May 17 1998 - 00:42:03 BST