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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.sys.hp
Subject: HP 9825A (was Was *this* the first RISC chip?)
Keywords: Hewlett-Packard, microprocessor, RISC
Message-ID: <16274@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 89 07:24:42 GMT
References: <1068@cantuar.UUCP> <1532@ncar.ucar.edu>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 19

In article <1532@ncar.ucar.edu> cruff@ncar.ucar.edu (Craig Ruff) writes:
>Ah yes.  When I was a college student with nothing better to do,
>I wrote just such a simulator for the HP-41C ... on an HP 9825 desktop
>(one line display!) we had in the chem lab. ...  Too bad I didn't make
>copies of the articles and the code and data files.  I could have
>put it on much more powerful computers! :-)

Actually, the 9825A was, for its time, rather amazing.  As I recall,
it had a custom LSI 16-bit silicon-on-sapphire CPU.  The nastiest
limitation (aside from the `pushbutton' keyboards on the original
machines) was that there were only 4 slots for cartridge ROMs.  (You
could still squeeze in five options by using a `binary tape'.  We
needed that a few times to run the plotter off the HP3060A system....)

(HPL was weird.  Remember r-variables?  But at least with the A.P.
ROM, you got functions and local variables.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris