| HP 9830 |
Hewlett-Packard 9830A
Computer |
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The Hewlett-Packard 9830A is a desktop-sized, all-in-one computer, released in 1972.
It was usable out-of-the-box, booting to BASIC (stored in ROM) immediately at power-up.
It incorporates a 16-bit processor, full alpha-numeric keyboard, 32-character alpha-numeric LED display, and digital cassette tape drive, in one package, with ROM firmware and I/O expansion capabilities.
Read-write memory is up to 8KW (16KB).
The tape cassettes can hold on the order of 35KW (70KB) each.
The 9830 was something of a closed system, to my knowledge there was no complete service manual or schematic released by HP in 'normal' publications, nor was there machine language or assembly programming documentation or support.
It was intended to be used and programmed in BASIC, and that's all.
HP did file a substantial patent (UK#1,444,141, US#4012725) however, that covers the 9830 in considerable depth, if one can stand wading through the hundreds of pages of diagrams, listings and patent-ese language with no table-of-contents or index.
The UK patent is better organised than the US version, and far preferable for perusal.
A version of the UK patent and a rudimentary-and-partial table of contents for the same are linked below.
The December 1972 issue of the HP Journal was dedicated to the 9830 and siblings 9810 & 9820 and includes some internal technical description (see External Links below).
These pages focus on technical aspects of the HP 9830.
For some history of the development of the 9830 see the great articles at hp9825.com.
Working in conjuncton with Rob Ferguson, these pages present:
- Hardware Architecture Description: An accessible technical description and overview of the 9830 hardware, including a complete schematic.
The material has been compiled from a reverse-engineering of a 9830A unit, with some reference to the patent HP filed for the 9830.
- Machine Architecture Description: Similarly, documentation for the processor at the machine-instruction level.
- Machine-Language Programming: Techniques for creating machine-language programs for the 9830, and downloading those programs into the 9830.
- Tape File Server: Techniques for using a modern host as a 'tape server' to a 9830.
This is accomplished with the use of the MPSI I/O Interface.
- Tape Imaging: Techniques for reading and writing byte-for-byte images of physical 9830 cassette tapes to/from a modern host.
This can be accomplished two ways:
- Print Capture: A method of displaying and capturing print output from the 9830 on a modern host.
This can be accomplished three ways:
- Downloading Source: A method to download BASIC source into the 9830 from a modern host.
This can be accomplished two ways:
- Servicing: A plug-in Service ROM card to assist with fault-finding by providing boot-program options.
SOME PERIOD CONTEXT
While it was too expensive in its day to be considered generally obtainable by individuals, the 9830A is nonetheless a good contender for the title of 'first personal computer'.
Two other comparable machines in the marketplace in the period were the Wang 2200 (1973/76) and the IBM 5100 (1975).
The 9830 predates the first generation of hobbyist/personal microcomputers (the Altair, IMSAI, SWTP-6800, etc.), and was released 5-6 years before the trinity of better-known, somewhat-equivalent, 'easy-to-use' personal computers of the Apple II, Commodore PET, and Radio Shack TRS-80.
To the awareness of this author, the 9830 was the first the 'boot-to-BASIC-from-ROM-at-power-on' machine or 'BASIC appliance', a paradigm that would come to characterise much of the home-computer market of the late-1970s-early-1980s.
PROCESSOR SPEED
The 9830 was not known for its speed. It was intended as a capable but economic machine.
According to hp9825.com, the processor was slow enough that Bill Hewlett expressed some criticism of the slowness of the sibling 9820 during development (the HP 9830, 9820 and 9810 use the same processor).
Instruction execution times vary for different instructions, but to give an idea of the processor speed, the timing for a typical instruction has been calculated.
It turns out the basic add-memory-to-register (ADA/B) instruction takes 13.25uS, an execution rate of 75,000 instructions per second.
See the hardware architecture page for more detail.
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