HP 9845C

Last updated
HP 9845C
HP 9845C.jpg
Developer Hewlett-Packard
Type Desktop computer
Release date1980 [1]
Introductory priceUS$39,500 (today $146,100) [1]
Discontinued1984 (being outcompeted by the 200 series) [2]
CPU Standard option 1xx:

2 x 16-bit (LPU, [3] PPU) 3-chip hybrid processor with BPC, IOC and EMC

Enhanced option 2xx:
1 x bit-slice processor (LPU)
1 x 16-bit hybrid (PPU)

@

Contents

5.7 MHz [1]
Memory64 - 1600 KB RAM
128 KB ROM [1]
Graphics560 x 455 pixels@ 3 bpp(8 color) [1]
PowerMainframe: 275 W (max),CRT display: 550 W (max) [1]
Weight48.1 kg (106 lb) [1]
HP 5061-3001 16-bit 4-chip hybrid processor used as the LPU & PPU processors in the HP 9845 series computers. Contains the BPC, IOC, EMC and AEC die. HP 5061-3001 16 bit Hybrib Processor.jpg
HP 5061-3001 16-bit 4-chip hybrid processor used as the LPU & PPU processors in the HP 9845 series computers. Contains the BPC, IOC, EMC and AEC die.

The HP 9845C from Hewlett-Packard was one of the first desktop computers to be equipped with a color display and light pen for design and illustration work. It was used to create the color war room graphics in the 1983 movie WarGames . [4] [5]

Features

The attached HP 98770A color display enabled the color graphics with its own CPU and separate power supply, a vector generator based on the AMD2900 bit-slice architecture, graphics memory with three planes of 32 KB each, the connection interface to the mainframe consists of a direct data bus attachment, and a light-pen logic. [1] 4913 colors were available. [1]

The system is a big-endian 16-bit architecture, the BPC, with roots in the HP 2116A which were one of the first 16-bit microprocessors created. [6]

The display showed 8 soft keys on the lower end of the screen, 39 alignment controllers behind a door enabled fine tuning of color convergence. [1]

The speed of the builtin BASIC language was accomplished by implementing time critical parts of it in CPU microcode. [1]

A builtin tape cartridge device with a capacity of 217 kB and transfer speed of 1440 bytes/s enabled storage of data. [1] Average access time for the unit is 6s and a rewind end to end takes 20s. The directory is stored in r/w memory to enable quick access. [7]

Graphics display speed (vectors/sec, overlapped and not clipped)
Option 1xxOption 2xx
For/Next~95~145
Matrix Plot~200~240
Absolute Plot~5 000~5 000
Circles/s not clipped~2~5

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "The 9845C". 2012-08-29. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  2. "HP Computer Museum" . Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  3. "The HP 9845 Assembler Project". 2010-02-21. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  4. Swartz, Jeffrey. "Making 'Wargames' computers compute required innovative programming" (PDF). Mini-Micro Systems (June 1984): 135–145.
  5. "Screen Art: War Games". hp9845.net.
  6. "The 9845 System Architecture". 2013-06-09. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  7. "9845B/C CE Handbook" (PDF). 2009-08-17. Retrieved 2013-06-30.