>Magnetic-card programming of calculators was certainly around before
>then. My HP9100, for example, has a card reader/writer (though I've
>never used it - anybody have any cards compatible with this nearly
>3-decade-old classic?)
>
>Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
I recently sold my HP9100b. It had several cards with it, and even a
program library book! Hang on to your 9100 what ever you do! I got $750
for mine, I'm sure an origional 9100 would go for a few more! It was the
first desktop calculator HP made, way back in 1967-69 (somewhere around
there)
Josh M. Nutzman
+----------------------------------------------+
|"Life is like a river, you go with the flow...|
| but in the end you usually end up dammed." |
| -The Red Green Show |
+----------------------------------------------+
Whilst in a self-induced trance, Steven J. Feinsmith happened to blather:
>Susan M Johnson wrote:
>> Currently, the H/Z-100 can run 8", 5 1/4" (40 & 96 tpi), and 3 1/2" (96
>> & 135 tpi) floppy disk drives; MFM hard drives (also RLL, although not
>> common), tape drives, and SCSI drives. CD-ROM drives are also possible.
>
>During days of H/Z-110 and 120... there are only two floppy disk drives,
>5.25" and 8". The 8" system was short lived. There was never using
>3.5"
>but some people successful attempted this way when H/Z-100 were no
>longer
>in market. They have to write a special software included BIOS to work
>with 3.5" drive. SCSI system on H/Z-110 or 120 was very rarely. Those
>days it was called SASI. There was never using tape drive or CD-ROM
>drives
>because H/Z-110 or 120 never use with IDE or EIDE. But it can use with
>SCSI based interfaced.
I have a few comments on what each of you said:
Steven: Notice that Susan wrote "Currently," at the beginning of the
sentance. That means that altho the 3.5" disk drives weren't available at
the time of the machine's introduction, you can easily get any machine that
uses the standard 34-pin floppy interface to use a 3.5" disk drive. I
currently use 3.5" drives on both my Atari 800 and my Tandy Color Computer
3, neither of which had 3.5" drives available at the time of their
introduction. Provided you were replacing an 80TkDSDD 5.25" (or lesser)
drive with an 80TkDSDD 3.5" drive, you would not need a new BIOS, as the
drives are electrically equivilant.
Steven: Also, SASI and SCSI are *different*, SASI being the precursor of
SCSI. Altho they are *somewhat* compatible IIRC, SCSI did have extra
features that could not be used with a SASI interface.
Susan: You're sentance above is slightly misleading, however, as there were
no 96tpi 3.5" drives that I've ever heard of (and I own some *weird* ones!)
Everything from the 200K SSSD Tandy Portable Disk Drive 2 (used for Tandy's
*early* non-MSDOS laptops) right on up to the 2.88Meg ED drives are 135TPI.
Hope this helps!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.
> Hi, I saw the post on the old calculator so here's mine:
> A buddy of mine used to work at a Salvation Army so I got
> a lot of stuff that they threw out. One was an old TI
> calculator that had these strips you fed in one side and
> a motor pulled them through (almost like a credit card reader)
>
> What is it? How old is it?
>
> Probably a TI-59. I recall owning a TI-58c and TI-59 calculator back
> in high school. In fact, I think I still have the TI-59, books and
> cards for it buried somewhere. If anyone is interested, I don't have
> any desire to collect calculators.
In the movie _Sneakers_, Ben Kingsley plays an ex-hacker who is now the
financial data processing administrator for the Mob. He has a large
complex of systems including a very Cray-like central processor and all
sorts of fancy accessories. He's extolling the virtues of mob money to
Robert Redford's character, and to illustrate his point he turns on the
Cray's terminal... lo and behold, the Cray runs Microsoft Excel!
Since we were in a theater about 6 blocks from Microsoft corporate
campus, that scene was the biggest laugh of the film.
Kai
> ----------
> From: Brian L. Stuart[SMTP:stuart@colossus.mathcs.rhodes.edu]
> Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 1997 3:32 PM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Re: The List!
>
> Doug Spencer asks:
> >Actually, the III was visible for a second or so in Tron, wasn't it?
>
> I don't remember seeing an Apple III, but there was a glimps of
> a Cray 1. It wasn't in focus though )-:
>
> Brian L. Stuart
> Math/CS Dept, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
> stuartb(a)acm.org
> http://www.mathcs.rhodes.edu/~stuart/
>
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Mr. Self Destruct
said:
>Hi, I saw the post on the old calculator so here's mine:
>A buddy of mine used to work at a Salvation Army so I got
>a lot of stuff that they threw out. One was an old TI
>calculator that had these strips you fed in one side and
>a motor pulled them through (almost like a credit card reader)
>
>What is it? How old is it?
>
>Les
Sounds like you might be talking about the TI-59 (? did the TI-58 have this
capability also? I've never seen a 58). I used one in high school... really
neato once you got used to TI's programming practices. It also had a 32 or
40 column thermal printer that the calculator mounted to, and then the
printer served as the base.
The mag strip was mainly for data storage or user-created programs, as it
also had the capability to use pre-programmed ROM cartridges. They even had
a cartridge of games! ISTR a football game that printed out all the team
stats on the printer.
A very interesting piece of hardware. Hope this helps,
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.
Bill, it looks like I will have to unsubscribe then re-subscribe again.
I have not received any digest since May 1st.
Can you please reply with instructions?
Thanks!
Jeff R.
Hi Les,
In a message dated 97-05-08 07:54:21 EDT, you write:
<<
Hi, I saw the post on the old calculator so here's mine:
A buddy of mine used to work at a Salvation Army so I got
a lot of stuff that they threw out. One was an old TI
calculator that had these strips you fed in one side and
a motor pulled them through (almost like a credit card reader)
What is it? How old is it?
>>
It was either a SR-52 (1975) or TI-59 (1977). The first had a 100 step
memory, the latter a 960 step memory. You could store programs and data on
those tiny magnetic strips (guess they were like tiny floppies - except you
turned the card around to read the second track)!
Really great "micro-micro" computers. A terrific way to learn the thought
process of efficient programming (once wrote a Social Security retirement
program on the TI-59). What one could do when the bytes were few!
John Hamilton
hamijohn(a)aol.com
"Life would be much easier if I had the source code ..."
Hi, I saw the post on the old calculator so here's mine:
A buddy of mine used to work at a Salvation Army so I got
a lot of stuff that they threw out. One was an old TI
calculator that had these strips you fed in one side and
a motor pulled them through (almost like a credit card reader)
What is it? How old is it?
Les
Should be a simple one, but lets see... (and 'cause I can't get to that
section of my archives!)
Card from an Apple II, wondering if it might be the interface for a ProFile
HD.
Markings on card:
Xebec (now you know why I suspect a HD ctrlr)
FCC ID CF77KL103916APPLE
Assy 103916-04
Rev H-04
S/N 9-0733
What says the council?
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
