Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler
Why did people buy early-ish personal computers?
At HP i started doing real work on an HP 9810 desk top programmable calculator (inc thermal printer like a cash register width) It was on a trolley with a telescopic whip and flag so you could look around the lab and find it.
9820 was a step up. THe 9825 was getting good. Others hogged the 9835 for one project but I did get the use of a 9845 from time to time. I was writing stuff for control theory, analysing PLLs and doing circuit design. I wrote my own 'Matrix Masher' for the 9845.
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I prefer the HP9810 to the HP9820 (I have both, still operational) but then I prefer a stack-based calculator even though the HP9810 is like the HP9100 and doesn't have automatic lift and drop.
The real 'step up' in the family is the HP9830. Same processor [1] but with BASIC in ROM, a full QWERTY keyboard and 32-character alphanumeric display). OK, a fairly minimal BASIC (no strings, for example) but still BASIC. And there were add-on ROM modules to add strings, matrices, extended I/O commands, plotter commands, etc. In many ways it's a strong contender for the title 'first personal computer'
[1] 4 PCBs of TTL and PROMs (80 ICs total or thereabouts) making a bit-serial 16bit processor.