HP Integral PC

{{Short description|Portable UNIX workstation computer system}}

File:HP Integral PC.jpg

The HP Integral PC (or HP 9807A) is a portable UNIX workstation computer system produced by Hewlett-Packard, launched in 1985 at a price of £5450.{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorld1985-03/page/99/mode/1up | last1=Kewney | first1=Guy | title=Newsprint | work=Personal Computer World | date=March 1985 | accessdate=21 November 2020 | pages=99 }} It utilizes the Motorola 68000 microprocessor (running at 8 MHz) and ran the HP-UX 1.0 operating system.{{ cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/Hewlett-Packard_Journal_Vol._36_No._10_1985-10_Hewlett-Packard/page/n21/mode/2up | journal=Hewlett-Packard Journal | title=A UNIX Operating System Adapted for a Technical Personal Computer | last1=Fajardo | first1=Ray M. | last2=Rood | first2=Andrew L. | last3=Andreas | first3=James R. | last4=Cline | first4=Robert C. | date=October 1985 | accessdate=4 October 2020 | volume=36 | issue=10 | pages=22–28 }}

Hardware

File:HP Integral PC Display.jpg

File:HP Integral PC (HP 9807A) -- Retrocomputing on the green - 13506766065.jpg]]

The Integral PC is a mains-powered portable computer with a 9-inch amber electroluminescent display with a resolution of 512×255 pixels or 80×25 characters (the 256th line of the display is not used). It also incorporated a 710 kB 3.5" floppy disk drive and an HP ThinkJet ink-jet printer. Standard memory capacity was 256 KB ROM plus 512 KB RAM, expandable to 7.5 MB. Expansion slots and an HP-IB bus were also included. The mechanical design was based on the ideas of the de facto standard HP-85.

Within the Integral PC CPU, RAM, ROM, memory management, I/O buffering, system timing and keyboard interface are integrated on a single logic-board. All peripheral units and the 14 connections are built using independent boards. Each board is smaller than a letter sized sheet. To make it easier to check the boards, each board contains an own timer. The I/O-board (with two connections for optional addons), the keyboard-interface, the "Human Interface Link" HP-HIL and the power supply can be checked and tested independently.

The graphics processor of the Integral PC (GPU) was custom made and could drive an electroluminescence display or nearly every kind of monitor. The processor provides a graphical subsystem which is simple to use to drive a bitmapped display (32 KB display memory). The GPU is able to draw lines, rectangles and alphanumerical characters by hardware. Additionally it provides a hardware cursor and the display-RAM-interface.{{ cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/Hewlett-Packard_Journal_Vol._36_No._10_1985-10_Hewlett-Packard/page/n21/mode/2up | journal=Hewlett-Packard Journal | title=Custom Graphics Processor Unit for the Integral PC | last1=Heath | first1=Dean M. | date=October 1985 | accessdate=4 October 2020 | volume=36 | issue=10 | pages=10–12 }}

The electroluminescence-display was based on thin-film-technique developed by HP and other companies.{{ cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/Hewlett-Packard_Journal_Vol._36_No._10_1985-10_Hewlett-Packard/page/n11/mode/2up | journal=Hewlett-Packard Journal | title=High-Quality Electroluminescent Display for a Personal Workstation | last1=Higgins | first1 = Marvin L. | date=October 1985 | accessdate=4 October 2020 | volume=36 | issue=10 | pages=12–17 }}

Software

The Integral PC is unusual in that the HP-UX operating system kernel resided in the ROM, which also included the HP Windows graphical user interface and the Personal Applications Manager (PAM).{{ cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/Hewlett-Packard_Journal_Vol._36_No._10_1985-10_Hewlett-Packard/page/n27/mode/2up | journal=Hewlett-Packard Journal | title=A Friendly UNIX Operating System User Interface | last1=Brewster | first1=Jon A. | last2=Helt | first2=Karen S. | last3=Phillips | first3=James N. | date=October 1985 | accessdate=4 October 2020 | volume=36 | issue=10 | pages=28–35 }} HP-UX commands and utilities were supplied separately on floppy disk, with separate disks for standard Unix commands (including the C shell), utilities, diagnostics and system programming resources.{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorld1985-06/page/144/mode/2up | title=Hewlett-Packard Integral PC | work=Personal Computer World | date=June 1985 | accessdate=12 October 2020 | last1=Walker | first1=Nick | pages=144-146,148,150 }} There was an add on ROM that provides HP-BASIC. Using the ROM, the Integral PC was ready to run BASIC simply by switching on the system.

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

  • {{cite journal|title=HP Introduces Unix Portable|journal=InfoWorld|last=Chin|first=Kathy|date=21 January 1985|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9y4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15|accessdate=2011-02-17}}
  • {{cite newsgroup |title=HP Integral PC specs |author=jim |date=18 March 1985 |newsgroup=net.micro.hp |message-id=77900002@hp-pcd.UUCP |url=https://groups.google.com/group/net.micro.hp/msg/7c1753851bbc6e08?hl=en&dmode=source |accessdate=2011-02-17}}

Integral PC

Category:68k-based computers

{{compu-hardware-stub}}