25 Jan
2005
25 Jan
'05
3:01 p.m.
On Tue, 25 Jan 2005, Tony Duell wrote:
The HP9830 is certainly a nice machine. I've got one, and considering it
has almost all the same features as the Tek 4051 (substitute a
40-character, 1-line LED display for the CRT) but came out 3 years earlier
it's definitely comparable overall. I've never had a chance to play with
my 9830B but I wonder how the BASIC compares to that in the 4051.
The Tektronix
4051 was more advanced than any other microcomputer on the
market circa 1976 by a longshot. It had excellent graphics generating
capability, built-in screen, a fast, high capacity tape drive, and a very
advanced built-in BASIC interpreter. Compare this against what was
contemporary for the time: The Altair/IMSAI, Apple-1, etc.
Not to belittle Tektronix, but HP were making some good stuff at that
time too. I am not sure if you'd call the 9830 (1973 vintage) a
microcomputer -- IMHO it wasn't, since the CPU is not a single chip --
but it was a desktop machine that ran a very nice BASIC. Although it
didn't have graphics as stnadrd (the display was a 1-line alphanumeric
thing), you could add an external 'graphics translator' via an HPIB
interface. About the stame time as the Tke 4051 was the HP9825.
That was certainly a
micro. Again, graphics was external, using the same units as for the 9830...
True, true. The keyboard leaves a lot to be desired on some models of the
9825 though.
Of course both HP and Tektronix were not trying to
sell to hobbyists, and
their machines were far to expensive for most homes...
Indeed. But my point was that people marvel over the early micros like
the Altair, etc., touting features such as "first with graphics display",
"first with mass storage", "first with integrated CRT", etc., and fail
to
realize that there were much more powerful systems available that were
years ahead of the hobbyist micros. Sure, they were thousands of dollars
more, but there they were. It offers a much different perspective on the
hobbyist machines of that era.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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