COLE@USC-ISIB.ARPA (09/22/84)
From: Randy Cole <COLE@USC-ISIB.ARPA>
The HP110 ("The Portable") has been available for a few months and I
recently purchased one. One nice thing about it is something that HP
hadn't said too much about until recently -- the way it works with
an IBM PC (or compatible). So I thought I'd relay my experiences
for Info-IBMPC readers.
For $150 (list) HP sells a board for the IBM PC which is in fact an
HP-IL (not to be confused with HP-IB) interface, along with a 5 1/4"
diskette of software for the PC. The software allows the 110 to
access the PC's disks and printer as if they were directly connected to the
110 itself. My PC's hard disk becomes Drive E on the 110, for example,
and I can copy to and from it and execute programs from it just as if
it were on the 110. Access times are somewhat longer, though, since the
HP-IL is a simple serial interface.
The printer on the PC acts just as if it were on the 110, with no problems
I know of so far. You have to tell the program on the PC whether you
are setting it up to access the printer or the disks (you can also print
to the PC's display), but you have to switch between the two -- you can't
spool to the printer and use the disks at the same time. You can easily
switch back and forth, though. The program does take over the PC -- you
can't do anything else on the PC while it is running.
Thus you can use the 110 strictly as a portable, and not have to buy
disks or a printer for it, and still be able to upload and download
text and programs quickly and conveniently. For someone with a PC in
the office who wants a machine at home, it would probably be a better
choice than a PCjr, for example. I think it would be especially nice for a
person who uses 123 a lot.
The interface board is a short board, and I believe it should fit in the
short slot of an XT.
Some miscellaneous comments about the 110:
1. HP must think their business is going to mushroom, because they keep
their customers and dealers in the dark and feed them BS. It took me 4
days to find out whether a Technical Reference manual was available (it
isn't yet, but something called a Programmer's Tool Kit is, but nobody
is sure what all it has in it, because HP dealers don't stock much
software they're not going to sell that day). For this I had to call
800-HPCOACH (cute, huh) and wait 4 days till they called me back... none
of the dealers knew or was told much except the name and stock #.
HP has an awful lot to learn about marketing computers and supporting
them after they're sold. It may not be too hard to get answers to
questions about business-type software, but HP apparently didn't intend
for anyone else to actually (yuck) PROGRAM one, at least not till they
get their manuals done.
This situation may be temporary.... I've seen the Tech Ref manual
for the HP150 and it is very good. It has hardware timing diagrams, complete
schematics, how to use DOS and the BIOS (called AGIOS) correctly, etc.
2. The built-in editor (called Memo-Maker) is aptly titled, since that's about
all it is good for. It is a Word!@#$ clone. I hacked up Mince and that's what
I am using.
3. Anyone who knows me knows that eyesight isn't my long suit, and I often
find the display hard to see.
4. It simply isn't a hacker's machine. The internal RAM disk is too small
for several passes of a compiler and a linker. Maybe if they took out 123
and their editor and replaced them with RAM.....
On the positive side:
1. Well-behaved IBM PC software (that which doesn't call the BIOS
directly) almost always works fine. The linker doesn't seem to work,
though. DEBUG works, and it DOES use BIOS calls.
2. The terminal emulator is well done, and the built-in modem has autodial
and autoanswer capability.
3. Battery consumption is as specified -- 16 to 20 hours running time
per charge.
4. Since it has a real 8086 and uses RAM disk, it is faster than a PC.
It runs the infamous sieve in 7.7 sec, compared to 11.7 sec on my PC
with an electronic disk.
Is there anyone else out there with one? Let me know and we can trade
stories, and set up a special interest group under Info-IBMPC if there
is enough interest. Anyone know where I can get a (maybe preliminary)
tech ref manual without buying the $295 Programmer's Tool Kit (I finally
found out: it contains an assembler, linker, debugger, all which I don't
really need, since I have the PC, and some documentation).
Randy Cole (Cole@ISIB)
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