From: Sushi (Sushi_at_ragingbull.com)
Date: Wed Apr 21 2004 - 00:18:36 PDT
>On 4/21/04 @ 9:27 AM, Chris Chapman wrote:
>
>Yeah I have a Nextstation.. still works.. musta been
>expensive too.. heh.. its got the 21" Monitor, 128MB
>RAM {maxed out!} and tons of software..
While I don't remember the retail price, I remember lusting over them.
Unfortunately, they were too expensive for me at the time. Sweet systems.
With all this reminiscing about old computers, a favorite comes to mind.
A totally different type of computer, that I really liked, that I picked
up in 1985, was the HP-71. About the size of a Newt 2100. It had a one
line display. You could buy modules that had 4K RAM, Text Editor,
Finance Pac, Assembler/Forth (Forth what an interesting language), and
other software packs. It ran on 4 AAA cells or AC power.
Here are some pics:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/71.jpg
http://www.hpmuseum.org/3qs/71b3q.jpg
http://www.hpmuseum.org/71back.jpg
It used the HP-IL interface. In simple terms, it was kind of like USB,
but only in a loop.
I got the inkjet printer and external floppy disc drive (both were about
the size of a 3 inch 3 ring notebook). But they would run on batteries
for quite a few hours.
HP put a real cool version of basic in the ROM. It could dynamically
allocate variables to include arrays, and do recursion. Very sweet. I
made a personnel database. Unfortunately, the installed 16K or RAM was
not enough to store the data for the database.
So I purchased a 96K (as in 96,000) memory module for $995, or about 99
bytes per $1.
Let's see, at those rates a 256MB memory module would cost about 2.6
million bucks! Yikes!
Anyhow, the computer served me well at the time. Still have it.
But there is nothing more awesome, IMHO, than the HP82161A Digital
cassette drive.
It is item #4 in this diagram:
http://www.hp-collection.org/demonstrations.htm
At the time, folks were using the standard cassette tape method to save
and load files/data. This mini-cassette drive worked just like a regular
mainframe tape drive. Totally automatic. You could save and load files
with commands from inside programs. No manual work needed. But what was
really impressive was just watching the little guy work. It was jump to
the header and read/write data as needed, then position the tape in a
loud whirl as it zipped to the particular point to read/write the data.
Then it would slow down and read/write. Kind of like watching a Indy 500
car going at 5-10 mph (reading the header), then instantaneously going to
200 mph (positioning the tape) then stopping abruptly inches from the
wall (to read/write the data). Of course when this was all done, the
tape would retreat to it's home position.
BTW, I heard that at HP they had a room with 30 of these connected to one
HP-41. They would use this system to duplicate the tapes for
distribution. I understand that the sound of 30 of these tape drives
moving at once was pretty awesome.
Dang, I wish that I still had my Digital Cassette Drive...and HP-41
system.
...sorry for the trip down memory lane...
Sushi
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