Identification of an HP minicomputer

[Curious Marc]

I found Brent Hilpert’s site most useful in getting a quick meaning for these numbers:
http://madrona.ca/e/HP21xx/index.html
http://madrona.ca/e/HP21xx/iointerfaces.html
There is also a very useful series 1000 reference manual that lists most of the configs and options and cards, I will get to it when I am home and try to send you a link.

My experience is that you absolutely have to open them up to figure out what they actually are. They are so modular and upgradable and interchangeable that the original config sticker rarely matches what’s inside. Actually, I have yet to see one that has a config that matches the factory sticker. Sometimes the motherboard isn’t even the series that the front panel says!

Also you need to find out what optional microcode ROMs they are fitted with (extended/virtual memory, fast fortran, vector, scientific, etc...) to know what version of RTE they can actually run, and which boot ROMs are installed. That said they are very easy to take apart, just open front and back, slide out top and bottom covers, slide the cards out, and admire the modular design. They are also very well documented.

Marc

> On Aug 12, 2019, at 3:21 PM, Norman Jaffe via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> Perhaps these will help? 
> https://www.hpmuseum.net/exhibit.php?hwimg=108 
> http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/hewlett-packard/hp-21mx 
> 
> 
> From: "Guy Sotomayor Jr" <ggs at shiresoft.com> 
> To: "myself" <turing at shaw.ca>, "cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> 
> Sent: Monday, August 12, 2019 3:04:31 PM 
> Subject: Re: Identification of an HP minicomputer 
> 
> It’s a 9-slot variant that says HP-1000 M-Series on the front panel. From what I can tell the front panel appears to be the same as any of the other HP-1000 series. 
> 
> What I’m trying to figure out is what the actual CPU configuration is without disassembly (which I still need to figure out) so that I can actually examine the boards. 
> 
> Thanks. 
> 
> TTFN - Guy 
> 
>> On Aug 12, 2019, at 2:59 PM, Norman Jaffe via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: 
>> 
>> Can you provide a picture of the front panel? 
>> 2113 implies a 21MX-E; the nine-slot version is a 2109 while the fourteen-slot would be a 2113. 
>> This might help - https://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=109 . 
>> 
>> From: "cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> 
>> To: "cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> 
>> Sent: Monday, August 12, 2019 2:52:18 PM 
>> Subject: Identification of an HP minicomputer 
>> 
>> Hi, 
>> 
>> I have sitting in my pile of stuff an HP minicomputer that I’m trying to identify (at least in terms of exactly what it is and what sort of configuration it might have). 
>> 
>> As far as I can tell, it’s an HP-1000 M-Series minicomputer (that should hopefully get us *some* details). The “asset tag” lists the part number as 2113023-108. Looking at the back there’s space for 9 I/O cards (5 are occupied). 
>> 
>> So my question is which of the several CPUs could this be and how do I tell (for example) what the configuration is (e.g. how much memory, etc). 
>> 
>> Yes, I have looked on bitsavers, but short of disassembling the box to look at the (at least) 2 boards that are below the I/O slots, I can’t tell what’s there and I’d like to see if there’s a way to determine what this is without resorting to disassembly. 
>> 
>> Thanks. 
>> 
>> TTFN - Guy