Prices to pay for old computers... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

23 May 1998

I wrote:
...
  Except...on a peculiar ISA dual-port serial card that
HP made
 for the early HP Vectras.  One D?-9S like a PC/AT serial
 port, one DB-25S.  To be fair, HP put a plastic tag out one side
 of the slot to remind you that this was a serial port. 
Doggone it, I screwed up.  The 9-pin connector is male, the 25-pin
connector is female.  So what you had sticking through the back
plate was a 9-pin connector on top, a 25-pin connector on bottom,
and a little plastic tag with orange print to one side of the 
25-pin connector reminding you that this was a serial port.

Thinking about it this morning I think I also remember an HP 
serial/parallel card with male 9-pin serial connector on top and
25-pin female connector on bottom...and a little plastic tag with
black print to one side of the 25-pin connector reminding you that
this was a parallel port.  

Good thing we didn't have many of those latter ones around in my
shop, I was (still am, actually) in the habit of feeling out connectors
with my fingertips to work out where the plug is supposed to go.

How did things get this way?  Well, HP was in the habit of putting
female connectors on everything except cables and making their 
minis look sort of like modems.  I once heard this referred to as
"DTE in DCE drag" w/r/t the HP3000.

-Frank McConnell