joe skrev:
>At 02:10 AM 8/5/01 +0100, Iggy wrote:
>>Went to the junkyard with a mate today and found (well, stepped on) an ugly
>>HP something. It's a HP 9000 (Yay!) 226 (?h?),
> aka 9826. It's a 8 MHz 68000 CPU baed system that runs HPL (HP's
>version of APL), BASIC or Pascal. Most of the OS were disk based but you
>could get them on plug in ROM cards. The really interesting thing about the
>OS is that you canhave multiple OSs (and muiltiple versions of the same
>one) on the same drive or even multiple drives and you can select the one
>that you want it to boot. Very nice for tinkering. All in all, it's not a
>bad machine. They're wided used as HP-IB instrument controllers.
We were very impressed by the 68000 processor, both the fact that it used one
and the processor itself, since it's a bona-fide Motorola model, and an
expensive gold and ceramics one at that. Very pretty to look at, just like the
ROMs.
>>which is a clumsy box with a small
>>CRT and a 5?" floppy as well as an integrated keyboard. This unit had been
>>retired from the telemonopoly (well, all the stickers date back to that
>>time), which ad apparently modified it into some kind of luggable
>>workstation by putting a biug brass handle which seems to have come off a
>>door on one side of the unit.
> I wonder if the handle is original? There was an option for some kind
>of handle from HP but I've never seen one.
As absurd as it seems, it may have been intended for certain portable
applications by design, what with the space for a battery pack in a
compartment in the bottom. OTOH, the handle and the small shock absorbing feet
both seem to come from a furniture shop, not a computer one. =)
>>Apart from the handle, it has been equipped with an RS-232 interface
>>and additional memory cards, adding up to roughly 1,7 MB.
>>The unit powers up fine, the screen looks nice, but the keyboard has been
>>massacred, with five or six keys missing.
> That's not a problem, the keys from most of 9000 200 series machi8nes
>will fit it.
Oh, well, isn't that nice, I'll just go to the shop and buy some HP 9000/200
keytops then. ;-)
>>But now what? The system is looking
>>for a system. What system does it run, and is software obtainable anywhere?
> Yes, software is available. I have it but it's almost impossible to
>duplicate. You have to "build" the system from files on the distribution
>disks, then you save it as a new system file. The problem is that the
>system file is too large to fit on a floppy disk so there's no way to
>distribute it except by shipping a complete hard drive with the system
>installed on it or by making copies of the original distribution disks. I
>have copies of a number of different versions of all three OSs that I've
>picked up on hard drives but I've never been able to find ANY original
>distribution disks. That leaves shipping complete hard drives as the only
>way to distribute OSs for the moment. And we're not taling about just
>shipping a bare hard drive. The drives use the HP-IB interface so you need
>the entire unit which is about 13 inches square and 5 inches tall and they
>weigh about 15 pounds. Your best bet would be to check the surplus
>sources in your area and see if you can find any HP hard drives (7957,
>7958, 9133, 9134, 9153 etc etc). I've found that frequently they still the
>OS on them.
I know of no surplus sources in my area. I'll have the check the university
cellar when the semester begins, though, they use some HP and HP-IB equipment.
> I used to have a long detailed article about the HP 9000 at my website
>but my ISP deleted them. You may be able to find them in the cache at
>google or one of the other search engines. Search for "HP 9000 200 series
>computers".
Riger will do.
--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
Computer hackers do it all night long.
Received on Mon Aug 06 2001 - 19:31:42 BST