20 Aug
1998
20 Aug
'98
10:20 p.m.
At 05:41 PM 8/19/98 -0500, you wrote:
Light-weight!!!!!!!!!! I have both an Altair and a 9830 and the 9830 is
at least three times as heavy as the Altair! It's also probably 5 times
stronger. I have used my 9830 as a step stool (after it died of other
causes). I wouldn't even think of doing that with the Altair.
desktop computer with full alphanumeric keyboard,
Another "crossover" machine that I have
a little info
(mainly pictures) of is the HP 9830, called a calculator
but in fact a computer with BASIC.
The 9830 doesn't get discussed much, but it's one of my favorites.
There's a lot of noise on this list about the Altair, a "PC" from 1975
that was just a big box with lights and toggles. In 1972, the HP 9830 was
an elegant light-weight built-in secondary storage, built-in display,
One line LED. Whoppee!
built-in BASIC,
Yes, and ONLY BASIC! The Altair was a general purpose machine.
and it just
plain works. There was nothing else remotely like it
at the time, and it
was even reasonably priced (around $5000, I think).
That's what, 12 times the price of the Altair? The two machines aren't
comparable. They're completely different. Have you ever tried to generate
music or word process on a 9830? You can't do it. You could on an
Altair. The 9830 is a sophisticated programmable calcualtor. The Altair is
a striped down general purpose computer.
Joe
-- Doug