New find: HP 1000 E series

From: Jay West <west_at_tseinc.com>
Date: Mon Jun 12 21:38:17 2000

You wrote...
> I have not been able to open the front panel
> latch because I do not have the key, so I don't know
> what's in the front card cage;

Memory subsystem.

> all I know is that there
> are seven cards, four at the botton and three at the top.
> In the back cage there are three jumper cards

Jumper cards continue the interrupt priority chain in the backplane. If your
OS is interrupt driven, you need the jumpers for open slots. If your OS
isn't interrupt driven, you don't need these.

> two 12821A disk
> interfaces

Disk interface, HP-IB variety ISTR

>one "time base generator card"

This card provides timing to the OS or any program that wants timed
intervals.

> and four
> cards marked "BACI 12966A" where most of the control
> I/O was apparently done.

BACI boards are serial cards.

> There are two big cards
> below the main card cage, but I haven't got to them
> yet.

Motherboard and the one below that if I understand you right is firmware.

> I also got several cables; two of them obviously
> connected the disk interface cards to an HPIB
> device (an HP 7946 tape drive also came in the lot),
> while others went to the test rig, and yet another
> seemed to go to a PC being used as a terminal.
> Unfortunately, I don't know where the cables were
> originally connected, as somebody had already pulled
> all cables off the computer.

Most typically in this system, the OS was genned for each card in a certain
slot. If the card positions have been changed the OS generally won't boot.
If you moved the cards, you have to regen the OS. Most likely the system
console was the baci board that was lowest in the backplane, as this one
would have the highest priority. If it was running RTE, ISTR there is way to
boot the system that tells it that the configuration has changed and where
the console and disk are. If this matches your situation, drop me an email
and I'll look it up for you.

> So, does anybody have any info on the power supply of this
> thing so I can test it before applying power to the
> cards? And, where did the console go in this machine?

I have a fair amount of info on the E series, as do others on the list. Let
me know if you need anything...

Jay West
Received on Mon Jun 12 2000 - 21:38:17 BST