Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!lanl!tss
From: tss@lanl.gov (Timothy S Sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: hp9000/217, what can it do?
Keywords: hp9000/217, unix, c compiler, request for info
Message-ID: <43426@lanl.gov>
Date: 11 Feb 90 01:06:12 GMT
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 44


	I just inherited an HP9000/217 without much in the
way of documentation and I need to evaluate its potential
usefulness for data acquisition and control. In addition to
the system unit there is a 9122 unit with two 3 1/2 in floppy
drives in the front, and a HP35721A monitor. I connected all
this up in what looked like the obvious way (the only not-totally-
obvious connection was using HP-IB to connect the sytem unit to the
9122). Powered everything up and was rewarded with:

	9817A 2420A01969
	Copyright 1984,
	Hewlett Packard Company
	All Rights Reserved

	Bootrom 4.0
	MC68010 Processor
	Keyboard
	Graphics
	HP-IB
	HP98626 at 9
	524128 Bytes

So a lot of this information seems obvious, it has a 68010 CPU
and 524kB of RAM, the keyboard is connected and it found the
graphics controller and the HP-IB controller. It then hung looking
for a system.

Now the questions:

1) Is it safe to conclude that this machine does not have a hard disk
since it couldn't find the system?

2) What (besides two 3 1/2 inch floppies) is in a 9122? Will the
3 1/2 inch floppies use industry standard floppy disks? If so,
what flavor?

3) What is an HP98626 mentioned as being at 9?

4) The video output is labelled as "composite video". Is this
really NTSC video?

5) What operating systems will this machine run and is there a
C compiler for it?