HP-IB Controllers

Early test equipment accomplished remote control by bringing every switch contact to the rear panel.  A large bundle of wires were run from the instrument to a card in the computer that was dedicated to that instrument.  The HP 5100 is an example of this type of instrument where there are about 100 wires in the interface.  This was time consuming and expensive so HP invented the HP-IB interface , see US Patent 5327121 (Google patents).  This interface uses a two way 8 bit data bus and a number of control lines.  It incorporates a three wire handshake so that the slowest instrument on the bus controls the data transfer speed.  At some point HP put this patented technology in the public domain and it became IEEE-488.  The first version used English threads on the connector and soon a Metric thread version was approved.  The metric threads have black screws and nuts.  This version only addressed the hardware and electrical level but the 488.2 version added a higher level that includes some basic commands, like *IDN?, and adds a standardized status reporting structure.

Note that HP-IB came way before today's common PC so most of the standards that came with the PC did not exist then.

6 Oct. 2003 IEEE 488.1-2003, "Standard for Higher Performance Protocol for the Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation"  Uses a 2 wire handshake instead of the classical 3 wire.  Up to 8 Mega bits per second, compared to the prior 1 MB/S. Is backwards compatible with the prior standards.

2100 Series Rack Mount Computers for Instrument Control

Early systems made by dynac  (lower case dy so they could use the small hp logo turned upside down) used DEC PDP-11 computers, but soon HP introduced the 2114 (the smallest rack mount computer), 2115 and the 2116 (HP Journal March 1967). At the beginning each instrument had it's own custom interface to the computer.  All used core memory.  Later the 2100 was introduced.  Although I saw demos of these, I never did use one.
HP Journal Vol. 8 No. 3-4 Nov-Dec 1956, pg 3: DYNAC, INC. - A New Service for Specialized Instrumentation  - maybe custom boxes?
HP Journal Vol 12 No. 2 Oct 1990: dymec - an -hp- Service for Special Instrumentation Situations - maybe custom systems?


Various versions of 8 level TTY machines were used for human I/O and paper tape was the standard machine I/O method.  There was a rack mount tape reader that ran very fast using optical reading of the tape (the TTY machine read the holes with metal pins in a mechanical way).  A motorized K&E drafting eraser with the eraser replaced by a shaft and disk was the common tool used to wind up the paper tapes.  This would take tens of seconds to wind a 4" diameter roll, but it would take forever to do it by hand.
Jeff Moffatt - Archive site for HP's first computer, the 2116, and its descendants -
The beginnings of a photo album -2116 and sales brochure for 2114/2115/2116
Categories: Hewlett-Packard products, Minicomputers

Also see 8409 Demo -

Desktop Calculators

9100A

The first HP calculator that I used with the 9100A.  It was the first calculator able to work with transcendental functions and both fixed and floating point numbers with a large number of digits of accuracy.  Sales brochure at the Silicon Valley Computer Museum.

For more on the 9100 see my Computers web page

It was followed by the 9100B and then the HP 35 pocket calculator.  The HP 41CV was the next scientific pocket calculator.  The newest calculator I have that's a direct descendent of the 9100 is the HP 48GX.

9830

Museum of HP Calculators 9830A -
3839630 Programmable calculator employing algebraic language, HP, App: 1971-12-27, Pub: 1974-10-01, -
3859635 Programmable calculator, HP, App: 1971-06-15, Pub: 1975-01-07, -
4012725 Programmable calculator, HP, App: 1972-07-07, Pub: 1977-03-15,  -
4566072 Programmable calculator including means for digitizing the position of an X-Y plotter pen,

80 Series

HP introduced the 80 Series (85, 86 and 87) desktop calculators that had optional HP-IB interface (and other) plug-ins.  Although they had computing power comparable with the PC when it later came out, they were still called "calculators" to minimize the red tape associated with purchasing a "computer".  I built a number of test systems using these.

These calculators have an internal operating system and add on ROM packs can enhance features.
Photo HP 85B Front, 85B Rear 

Rocky Mountain Basic Workstations

Although I think the original purpose for these was to replace the DEC PDP-8 or PDP-11 in what would have otherwise been an all HP rack test system using mainly HP-IB for instrument control they were also used for Computer Aided Drafting (CAD).  HP developed the ME10 and ME30 Mechanical Engineering CAD packages for these systems and as late as 1999 Agilent in Santa Rosa was still using this system for many of their mechanical drawings while the rest of the world was using Autocad.  This says that the ME10/30 software was very good.

The later versions of these Workstations were also capable of running Unix and being networked.

There was a version of Adobe Framemaker that would run on the larger workstations.

I think the RMB language was developed in Pascal.  Pascal was a language designed for teaching computer languages in colleges.  When I learned programing at San Jose State they had a language called TUTAC (as far as I can remember) that ran on an IBM machine with punched cards for input.

HP used the Morotola 68000 and the follow on versions of this chip as the foundation for a number of their test instruments and also for a number of HP-IB controllers.  The 16, 26 and 36 were also called the 9816, 9826 and 9836.  These were also known as the HP  9000 model 216, 226 and 236.  When the series 300 versions started to appear these were called 200 model 16, 26 and 36.

The computer has a boot ROM that looks for operating systems at power up and lists them on the CRT.  You then have the option of choosing which op system to run by typing the 2 characters that prefix the description.  This multiboot feature is not standard on the PC, but can be added.

When the PC came out HP offered an I/O board with a DOS operating system so you could run PC DOS software on the 300 and 800 series WS.

The early LAN was called ThinLAN Cable and was a coax based X.25 system.  Also offered was an 802.3 LAN using the IBM format.

RMB Language Versions & Description

Note that RMB is both an operating system and a language optimized for instrument control.

The code is stored in the computer as ASCII text with a header byte.  If the code is "protected" one of the bits in the header is changed and then the monitor or printer only shows an "*" after the line number.  There's a command (maybe ReadIO and WriteIO) that allow you to Peek and Poke anywhere in memory, so it's possible to change that bit.  It's also possible to read the boot ROM and decode it based on the 68000 instruction set.

The first version (1.0) of RMB came on a single 5¼ inch floppy disk.  Later versions came on 3½ inch single sided floppy disks so the system was booted from either an internal floppy drive or an HP-IB connected floppy drive like the 9121.  At maybe version 3.0 (if memory serves) the language was supplied on 3½ inch double sided floppy disks and so an upgrade to the  9122 floppy drive or one of the hard drives with a double sided floppy drive was needed to run the language.

I think the newest version is 5.1 and comes as a set of 3½ inch double sided floppy disks.  Also included are a number of example programs.  I used the contour drawing program for a number of applications.  Along with the disks there was a set of European size (maybe A4?) manuals that went into great detail about all aspects of the language

There's an add on Basic Plus that provides a family of Graphical User Interfaces that also support color, like on the 9836 or 340 controllers. 

In addition there's a compiler.  Although compiled code may run faster, for most instrument control applications the instrument speed is so slow that a compiled program does not run faster than a interpreted program.  But the big advantage of compiling is that each sub program only takes up one line number instead of tens or hundreds of line numbers.  This allows writing much larger programs.

Test & Measurement Systems Inc. - HP BASIC/WS 6.4 - Sep 2005 still selling RMB and offering support.

9816

These used plug in 9000 series Printed Circuit boards to add RAM and other features.

This was the lowest cost system and had a monochrome CRT.  It was all contained in the monitor housing but required external disk drives and an HIL keyboard (remember there was no PC then).  There were two common keyboards, the small one and the "Nimitz" large one built like a battle ship.  The keyboards had a RPG (Rotary Pulse Generator) or knob that could be read by the basic language.

The 9816 was designed to have a very small foot print on a desk top.

9826

The 26 has a smaller CRT than the 16 but includes a built in 5 1/4" floppy drive.  It's designed to be rack mounted so is in that format.  These were more expensive than the 16 so I didn't use them.

9836

This was the high end version and had the largest screen and built in dual 5 1/4" drives.

9836C

This was the Color display version of the 9836.
YouTube: 1981 CAD Monster - HP Series 200 9836C, 38:48 -
Archive.org: Files for hp-series-200-basic-40 -

217

This may have been the first HP computer model to run Unix.  It is packaged in the same type of case used for the 300 series computers.  A European standard and there's an associated HP rack case for this narrower than 19" format.

200 Series Accessories

98257A 1 Meg RAM board

300 Series Workstations

These were packaged in some metric standard cases and could be racked (not 19").  Instead of Printed Circuit Boards for the add-on functions they used metal boxes.

318

This was a "Diskless Unix Workstation" that retailed for $4995 at one each and was to compete with the Sun "Diskless Unix Workstation". The lowest end HP RMB Workstation cost more like $ 15,000 to 20,000 by comparison.  I did some homework and learned that the boot ROM in the 318 was very similar to the boot ROM in the 200 series RMB WS computers, so took a gamble and ordered one.  Note that this is just a box and so needs an external monochrome monitor, HIL keyboard and HP-IB disk drive.  They have two HP-IB ports built in as well as a serial port that can drive a Desk Jet printer.  One of the HP-IB ports is a "high speed" port designed to connect to disk drives and the other port can be used for instruments.  Remember that HP-IB runs at the speed of the slowest instrument connected to the buss, so if a slow instrument is on the same bus as the disk drive it slows the drive way down.

We ended up buying a number of these for instrument control.

340

98785 Color Monitor	9153C, 9144, 340, 79628, Drawer	Rear View Top off

This is a RGB color RMB WS and was the one I used in my office.  Similar to the 318 but with color and much more powerful than the normal RMB workstations.

R332

This was a portable or rack mount (?) RMB WS.  Never used one.  The keyboard was hinged at the bottom and could fold up to cover the CRT and Floppy drive.

9000 Series Workstations

This table generated from information in the  HP 9000 Workstations Configuration Guide Jan. 1, 1990

Model	Func	MIPS	MFLOPS	RAM base/max MB	I/O slots base/expander	Stock I/O	Bus	Displays
332	IC	4	0.14	1/8	1/20	HP-IB, HP-HIL, RS-232, beep	DIO	12" 512x400 m 16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m
340	2D 3D	4	0.14	4/16	1/0	HP-IB, LAN, HP-HIL, RS-232, beep	DIO-II	16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
345	2D 3D	12	0.5	8/16	0	HP-IB, LAN, HP-HIL, RS-232, print, beep	DIO-II	16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
360	IC 2D 3D	5	0.2 (0.4  w/FPA)	4/16	1/23	HP-IB, LAN, HP-HIL, RS-232, beep	DIO-II	12" 512x400 m 16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
370	2D 3D	8	0.3 (0.6 w/FPA)	8/48	1/23	HP-IB Disk, HP-IB, LAN, HP-HIL, RS-232, beep	DIO-II	16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
375	2D 3D	12	0.5	8/16	1/23	SCSI, HP-IB, LAN, HP-HIL, RS-232, Printer, beep	DIO-II	16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
825	2D 3D	8	0.65	8/96	4/11	HP-IB Disk, LAN,HP-IL, beep		16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
834	2D 3D	14	2	8/48	1/0	HP-IB Disk, LAN,HP-IL, beep		16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX
835	2D 3D	14	2	8/96	4/12	HP-IB Disk, LAN,HP-IL, beep		16" 1280x1024 c 17" 1024x768 m 19" 1280x1024 m 19" 1280x1024 c SRA/SRX

SRA = Solid Rendering Accelerated I/O board, SRX = Ultra-fast SRA
IC=Instrument Controller, 2D = 2 Dimensional CAD (ME10), 3D = 3 Dimensional CAD (ME30)
The base computer would be configured with different options and accessories depending on the end use.
HP-HIL Hewlett Packard - Human Interface Loop had a similar function as the PS2 interface used on PCs except that you could daisy chain up to 6 devices.  

In 1990 RMB was on version 5.1.

PC Card

Instruments

9000 Series Bus Interface Cards

DIO Digital Input Output

PCB cards used on the 9816, 9826, 9836

36592A HP-UX SNA Link to IBM 370
36593A HP-UX SNA Link to IBM 370
36941A X.25 Link
50955A IBM 3278 Display Station Emulator
50962A Shared Resource Management (SRM) was an HP networking system
98171A LAN coax card
98287A to 98700 display
98235A AUI LAN card
98237A coax LAN card
98253A EPROM Development
98255A EPROM card
98259A 128 K Bubble
98286D DOS Coprocessor
98542A 512x400 monochrome output to 35731A display
98543A 512x400 4 Color output to 35741A
98544B 1024x768 monochrome output to 98786A
98546A 200 series compatability display
98547A1024x768 RGB Video output to 98751A or 98785A
98549A 1024x768 RGB Video output to 98751A or 98785A
98603A ROM-based Basic
98622A 16 bit General Purpose I/O
98623A 43 line BCD I/O typically used for older non HP-IB instruments
98624A Standard HP-IB typically used for instruments, maybe more than one in a system
98625B High-Speed HP-IB typically used for hard drives
98626A Single port RS-232 typically used for modem, terminal,printer,plotter, etc.
98628A Single port Data Com RS-232, RS-422, RS-423 & RS-449 CCITT V.28
98630A Breadboard Interface
98633A Multiprogrammer I/O for the 6944A
98640A 7-Channel Analog Input
98642A 4-channel RS-232 Multiplexer
98644A single port RS-232
98646A DIO to VME adapter
98658A SCSI Single-Ended typically used for hard disks
98627A Color Video to 13279B
98724A I/O to 98720A SRX Graphics Controller
98725A I/O to 98720A SRX Graphics Controller

DIO-II

Metal boxes used on the 300 series computers

98229A 4 M RAM
98229B 8 M RAM
98248B Floating Point Accelerator
98548A 1280x1024 monochrome output to 98788A
98550A 1280x1024 Color Video output to 98752A or 98788A
98258A 4 M RAM
98264A 8 M RAM
98264B 16 M RAM

98267A 4 M RAM
98267B 8 M
98267C 12 M
98268A 4 M
98269A 1 M
98269B 4 M

98562-66533 System Interface ThinLAN card
98562-66534 System Interface AUI LAN
98641A RJE I/O like IBM 2780, 3780
98643A LAN AUI
98691A Programmable Data communications I/O
98726A I/O to 98730A SRX Graphics Controller

Displays

35731A  12" 512x400 monochrome
35741A 12" 512x400 color
98751A 19" 1024x768 color
98752A 19" 1280x1024 color
98785A 16" 1024x768 color
98786A 17" 1024x768 monochrome
98788A 19" 1280x1024 monochrome
98789A 16" 1280x1024 color

Human Interface Loop HIL

46021x Keyboard
98203x Keyboard

M1309A 3-button trackball
35723A HP-Touch bezel for 12" 357xx series displays
46060A 2-button Mouse
46060B 3-button Mouse
46094A Quadrature Port
46095A 3-button HP Mouse Interfacing to 46094A Quad Port
46083A Rotary Control Knob
46085A 3-axis Control Dials Box
46086A Button Box

45911A 1-button 11"x11" Tablet
46087B 3-button A-size Digitizer
46088B 3-button B-size Digitizer
46089B 4-button cursor for 46087B/46088B

92916A Bar Code Reader

46084 ID Module

46080A HIL 2.4m extension
46081A HIL 2.4 extension w/audio
46082A HIL 15m extension
46082B HIL 30m extension w/audio
46080-61601 HIL 2.4m male-male cable
46083-61601 HIL 0.4m male-male cable

Generic Accessories

The standard interface connection for all these was HP-IB.

Floppy Disk Drives

Note that although the HP 3.5" Floppy drives look very similar to the ones used in a PC but they are different and not interchangable.

Year	Model		RMB	Description	HP Museum Link
1978				360 kB 5-1/4" FD introduced	Wiki
?			1.0	5-1/4" FD
1980	82902M			Single 5-1/4" HP-IB floppy drive	HP Museum Link
1980	82901M			Dual 5.25" HPIB floppy drive	HP Museum Link
1981		DS/DD	2.0	3.5" Floppy Disks	HP Museum Link
1982	9121			Dual 3.5" Single Sided HP-IB drive	HP Museum Link
1983		DD		3.5" Double Density floppy introduced (720 kB)
1984	9122S 9122D	DS/DD		Sinbgle 3.5" Double Sided HP-IB drive Dual 3.5" Double Sided HP-IB drive	HP Museum Link
1984		DS/DD	3.0		HP Museum Link
1985		DS/DD	4.0		HP Museum Link
1985	9153A	DS/DD		10MB Hard drive & Single 3.5" Floppy Drive	HP Museum Link
1987		DS/HD*		3.5" High Density floppy introduced (1.44 MB)
1987		DS/DD	5.1		HP Museum Link
1991			6.2		HP Museum Link

* When HP first offered DS/HD (1.44 MB) floppy disks I bought a box of 10 for $50 plus tax and shipping.  They were black plastic, unlike the prior floppy disks which were light gray plastic.  There was an option when LIF (Logical Interchange File) formatting them that allowed controling the size of the index file.  The index size would be small if you were going to store a few programs, or large if you wanted to store a lot of samll data files.  This was before the existence of the PC.

Note: The Rocky Mountain Basic (RMB) versions changed to support the improvement in drives starting with the 5-1/4" then the increasing density of the 3.5" drives.

Note:  RMB is both a language AND an operating system.  Since it runs on the Motorola 68000 family micro processors all it takes is a boot ROM change to make any 68000 hardware into an Amige, HP Work Station, or McIntosh computer.  The boot ROM contains a pointer table that assigns memory addresses to the hardware devices.  It was using this method that I was able to use the Motorola Assembler and Editor for the 6800 on my South West Technical Products (SWTP) home build computer.

Printers

Model	series	rate	paper	quality	Bar codes
2225A/D Think Jet 2227A/B Quiet Jet 2228A Quiet Jet 2276A Desk Jet 2277A DeskJet + 3630A Paint Jet c1602A PaintJet XL	300 & 800	150 cps 160/192 160/192 120/240 120/240 167 167	fanfold/cut wide ff/cut ff/cut ff/cut ff/cut ff/cut wide ff/cut	draft NLQ/draft NLQ/draft LQ/draft LQ/draft NLQ NLQ	no
2235A/B?C/D RuggedWriter 2932A GP Printer 2934A Office 41063A Asian WS printer	300 & 800	240/480 cps 200 40/67/200 40/80- 60/120	wide ff/cut	LQ/draft draft LQ/draft NLQ/draft	no no yes no
C1202A Asian HS	300	110/220/165/330 cps	wide ff/cut	LQ/draft	no
33440A LaserJet II 33447A LaserJet IID 2684A LaserjET/2000	300 & 800	8 pg/min 8 pg/min 20 pg/min	single single & duplex single	LQ	yes
2562C Industrial 2563B Line 2564B Line 2566B Line C1200A Asian Lind	300 & 800	300/150 lpm 300/150 lpm 600/300 lpm 900/248 lpm 270/330 lpm	wide ff/6-part forms	Draft/NLQ	y opt opt opt no
2566B Line	800	1200/320	wide ff/6-part form	draft/NLQ	opt

2277A DeskJet Plus
This printer has a plain back side and can be positioned flush to a wall.  The paper feed and exit is to the front side.  On the bottom is a hollow where the power cord and either RS-232 or Centronics parallel cables connect.  This one has the Times New Roman plug in font cartridge.

It's a black ink spitter with very good quality text and graphics.

Hard Disk Drives

many used the Seagate ST-506 type drives.   HP-IB interface.    All these use the HP CS/80 command set

Model	System disk	Cap MB	access MS	rate Kb
C220A	Y	335	24	1,000
C2203A	Y	670	24	1,000
7907A	300 SERIES ONLY	20.5	44.3	600
7914x	300 SERIES ONLY	132	44.3	600
7933X	Y	404	35.1	1,000
7936H	Y	307	30.8	1,000
7937H	Y	571	30.8	1,000
7957A	300 ONLY	81	41.5	853
7957B	300 ONLY	81	28.4	875
7958A	300 ONLY	130	41.5	853
7958B	300 ONLY	152	28.4	875
7959B	Y	304	28.4	875
7962B	300 ONLY	152	28.4	875
7963B	Y	304	28.4	875
9122C	3.5" Dual floppy   SS/80 300 only YouTube: HP 9122C Floppy Drive Refurb, 24:45 -	2 x 1.42	185	35
9122D	3.5" Dual floppy 300 only	2 x 0.63	175	63
9122S	3.56" Single floppy 300 only	0.63	175	63
9127A	5.25" floppy 300 only	0.5	93	250
9153C-10	combined floppy & fixed 300 only	10/1.42	75/200	185/32
9153C-20	combined floppy & fixed 300 only	20/1.42	75/200	185/32
9153C-40	combined floppy & fixed 300 only	40/1.42	75/200	185/32
9262B	removable Winchester 300 only	152	28.4	875
9263B	removable Winchester Y	304	28.4	875

Software Installation & Backup Tape Drives

Model	Des	Series	I/O	density	mode	rate kB	Capacity MB
9144A	16-track tape cart	300 & 800	HP-IB	10,000 bpi	streaming	35	67
9145A	32-track tape cart	300 & 800	HP-IB	20,000 bpi	streaming	70	133
35401A	16-trck changer	300 & 800	HP-IB	10,000 bpi	streaming	35	8x67
C1511A	1300H tape drive	300	HP-IB	ns	ns	183	1,300
C1521A	1300S tape drive	300	SCSI	ns	ns	183	1,300
7979A	autoload 2400' tape	300 & 800	HP-IB	1600 cpi	streaming	200	40
7980A	autoload 2400' tape	300 & 800	HP-IB	6250/1600 cpi	streaming	781/200	140/40
7980XC	autoload tape	300 & 800	HP-IB	6250/1600 cpi	streaming	781/200	280-420
7974A	2400' tape	300 & 800	HP-IB	1600 cpi	start-stop	80/40/160/80	40
7978B	2400' tape	300 & 800	HP-IB	6250/1600 cpi	streaming	468/120	140/40

X-Y Pen Plotters

Note the resolution of a pen plotter depends on the line width of the pen, narrower lines make for higher resolution.  Modern laser printers can draw narrower lines and so have much higher resolution than any pen plotter.

HP 7440 Two Pen Plotter.  The X-axis movement is done by moving the pen left and right, the Y-axis movement is done by moving the paper.  Requires some rear paper clearance.
7445 -
7470 - HP-IB plotter holds two pens
7550 - HP-IB plotter with a carousal holding a number of different pens

Links

HP Series 80 Web Site - comprenshive coverage fo this series
HP Workstations - a number of photos
Technical Computers - description of the 16, 26 and 36
Old Computers - 9816, 9836,
The Chipmunk story - Gerbil (HP 9826), Chipmunks (HP 9836s and 9836Cs)
HP 9000 History - includes 200 and 300 series
Test & Measurement Systems (TAMS) - took over much of the HP T&M software and hardware -
360 Tech - Still selling RMB computers & related Equipment
eBay search for "HP (16,26,36*,216,226,236,2114,2115,2116,9816,9826,9836,318,340,360,380)" in Vintage Computers.
AccuMeasure Software - Functional Test Manager (FTM) for Windows - EZ -Transfer for RMB - using HP-IB
Using the GPIB port on test instruments -
John Miles, KE5FX - 7470 Plotter emulator, Phase Noise Measurement for the HP 8560, HP 8590, HP 70000, and Tektronix 490/2750 Spectrum Analyzers, Real-Time Spectrum Surveillance for the HP 8560, HP 8590, HP 70000, and Tektronix 490/2750 Spectrum Analyzers
The HP 9845 Porject - The HP-IB Interface - Links -

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