At 11:05 PM 4/23/04 -0600, you wrote:
>There was a prototype of the 64000 with a 5MB
>hard drive, but I don't know if it was ever
>produced.
>
>The original 64000 benchtops had a tape drive
>(DC100? DC300?
I want to say DC300 but I'm not sure, it's been a long time. However
it's the same tapes that are used in the HP-85s. Check the archives, they
have been plenty of discussions about HP-85 tapes and drives. Don't waste
your time or money on old HP tapes, they're ALL bad. Take my word for it!!!
You can use the old DC 2(something) 40 Mb tapes that were used for backups
in PCs. The DEC CompacTape will also work. The tapes will have to
formatted. I'm not sure if the 64000 can do that or not but the HP-85 and
9825 can so I suspect the 64000 can too.
Can't remember, IIRC it was the
>same drive used in the 26xx terminals, but a
>different data format on the tape, of course :-)
>and a later option had two 5.25 floppy drives in
>place of the tape drive.
The ones that I've seen with the tape drives are marked 64000. The ones
with the two floppy disks were marked 64100 and the large "portable" one
were marked 64110. The portable version is built like an oversize (and
overweight!) Kaypro.
>
>The whole idea was to put several 64000s on
>one "large" disk drive using the HP-IB port on
>the back. The resulting arrangement was called
>a "cluster" in the HP manuals.
I've seen that shown in some of the manuals but I suspect that they
would require the use of some kind of SRM (Shared Resource Manager) software.
You could also hook
>up a standard HP-IB printer to the cluster...
>I seem to remember some mumbo-jumbo where the
>disc had to be HP-IB ID 0 and the printer ID 1,
>but that may have just been the early devices.
>
>We used 7920s (50MB) and 7925s (125MB) until the
>winchester types were available (7914, etc.) The
>64000s would boot from the common disk. You might
>be able to locate some of those around... 7906 with
>the HP-IB option should also work, but you would
>probably have better luck locating a CS-80 drive
>like a 7912/7914/etc.
You'd have a lot better luck finding a 7957, 7958 or 7959. They're a lot
smaller, newer and more reliable. I've NEVER found one of the large 79xx
drives that was still working. The 7957, 7958 and 7959 are roughly 80 Mb,
150 Mb and 300 Mb capacity. If you only need 15, 20 or 40 Mb then you can
probably use a 9133, 9134, 9153 or something of that type. 20 Mb doesn't
sound like much but it's more than enough for most of the old HP computers.
I have a 80 Mb 7958 attached to my HP Integral and I've installed every
piece of software that was ever available for the IPC and I've only used a
fraction of the drive.
Hint. If you're considering the purchase of any of these HP drives, plug
it in first and power it up without connecting it to a system. The newer
ones have built-in self test and thry will run for about a minute and test
the drive. If the fault light comes on and stays on then the drive is bad
so don't buy it. Some of the early ones have a 2 character display on the
back. If they pass selftest it will show P and the HP-IB code (2 for
example). If they say F something then they failed self test. ALSO on some
(or all?) models powering them up >>with no system attached<< will cause
them to park the heads. That's another reason that I always power them up
before purchasing and moving them.
One more thing! If you get involved with any of the 3.5" floppy drives
be warned that the double sided drive have a bad tendency to get gummy and
not open completely. When that happens, the top head will catch on the disk
when you try to insert or remove it. That will ruin both the head and disk.
Check these carefully BEFORE even putting a disk in them. The good news is
that all you need to do to fix the problem is to clean the old grease off
the drive and relubricate it. Check the archives for more information.
>
>If it has floppies (like the "portable" version) you
>can boot it from floppy, if you have them... The ones
>for the portable unit should boot in a crock. (You
>could also put the "portable" (dragable?) unit on
>a benchtop cluster and it would boot from the cluster
>if there wasn't a boot floppy in the drive.)
>
>Actually, you need the base OS to boot the unit and
>the 80186 emulator code. Surely someone on this list
>has the system tapes for a 64000 laying around...
I believe I gave some to Frank a couple of years ago but the biggest
problem is going to be finding a good tape drive. If somebody is serious
about these they should fix one of the tape drives then connect a external
floppy drive and dump the tapes to a^H MULTIPLE floppy disk. That's what
I've been wanting to do with the HP-85 and HP 9825 software. The tape drive
isn't exactly the same as that used in the HP-85 and other calculators. It
is the same as that used in some of HP Spectrum Analyzers and other test
equipment. But it's similar enough that you can follow the instructions for
fixing a HP-85 tape dirve. Those have been published here on the list
several times and should be available in the archives. The main things that
you need to watch are to get the roller the right size and close to being
round.
Joe
>
>Good luck...
>
>Bill
>
>
>SHAUN RIPLEY wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>> Does HP 64000 have a build in HD? If I don't have
>> the floppy disks, can I boot it? Also, where can I
>> find the softwhere for the 80186 emulator that comes
>> with it? Thanks. It is bulky.
>>
>> vax, 3900
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
Received on Sat Apr 24 2004 - 07:20:49 BST