BRAIL@SEISMO.ARPA (03/01/85)
According to a recent InfoWorld and/or Byte (I get my magazines mixed up: all the information just clumps together), the new HP computer is a Unix portable. It has a 25 X 80 LCD screen, along with Unix "artfully compressed" into 256K of ROM. It comes with a 3.5 inch floppy, but no hard disk. Supposedly, there is some neat windowing software. Sounds wierd, but maybe good, although the ideas of Unix being compressed into 256K and having no hard disk scare me. ARPA: BRAIL@RU-BLUE.ARPA UUCP: ..(ihnp4!ut-sally, allegra!packard, seismo)!topaz!ru-blue!brail -------
vince@fluke.UUCP (Craig V. Johnson) (03/05/85)
> > According to a recent InfoWorld and/or Byte (I get my > magazines mixed up: all the information just clumps together), the new > HP computer is a Unix portable. It has a 25 X 80 LCD screen, along > with Unix "artfully compressed" into 256K of ROM. It comes with a 3.5 > inch floppy, but no hard disk. Supposedly, there is some neat > windowing software. Sounds wierd, but maybe good, although the ideas > of Unix being compressed into 256K and having no hard disk scare me. > > ARPA: BRAIL@RU-BLUE.ARPA > UUCP: ..(ihnp4!ut-sally, allegra!packard, seismo)!topaz!ru-blue!brail > ------- I had a chance to play with one of these (I'm assuming you're talking about the "Integral" computer) and was impressed with what I saw. The screen is not LCD, it is electroluminescent (EL). It is an amber color. The dot grid is identically spaced vertically and horizontially (rather than being compressed in the horizontal dimension as is a CRT) which results in an aspect ratio of about 3:1 instead of the usual 5:3 (?) of a CRT. At first the display seems small and strangely shaped, but as I began to use it I found that the clarity of the EL display made it very comfortable to use. The package is neat! The top is hinged to fold back exposing the think jet printer, the screen is hinged so that it may be adjusted up and down for the most comfortable viewing angle, and the detached keyboard latches in place to form a front cover. The whole thing is quite compact and easily transportable. Oh yes, it also has a mouse and comes with a visual shell called PAM (I think that was Personal Application Manager, or some such) and you can direct your commands by using the mouse. I found PAM to be a bother and I did not figure out how to defeat it so that I could just type in commands in the few minutes that I had to play with it. There was also a MacPaint-type program included which, while not as nice as MacPaint, did demonstrate that the machine has some powerful graphics capabilities. As for hard disk, there is a HPIB connector on the box and I'm sure that it knows how to talk to HP hard disks. I haven't any idea what it would cost to add one. I did notice that floppy access time was not unreasonable. The "Unix" version on this box is HPUX, HP's own, which is supposed to be a mix of the best of both Bell (ATT?) and Berkley. Overall, I was very impressed. I only spent about 15 minutes playing with the machine and I felt very good about it. I'd recommend that you check it out when you get the chance. Craig Johnson uw-beaver! \ John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. decvax!microsof! \ Everett, Washington ucbvax!lbl-csam! > fluke!vince allegra! / ssc-vax! /
dkatz@zaphod.UUCP (Dave Katz) (03/07/85)
> ........ It has a 25 X 80 LCD screen, along > with Unix "artfully compressed" into 256K of ROM. It comes with a 3.5 > inch floppy, but no hard disk. Supposedly, there is some neat > windowing software. Sounds wierd, but maybe good, although the ideas > of Unix being compressed into 256K and having no hard disk scare me. > Our local H-P Office has loaned us one of their new Integrated Personal Computers. This is the one with the unix based OS. The screen is "Electroluminescent" (Plasma Panel). I'm not sure of the exact number of pixels, but the resolution is incredibly fine. The unix version is supposedly system 3, which is layered under (or maybe around is a better word) the standard H-P micro OS, including P.A.M. and other goodies. Although I haven't tried them, I understand that the currently or soon to be released languages include C, Basic, Pascal, Fortran and others. The windowing features, from what I have seen are fairly powerful. One can have multiple simultaneous windows, and activate any, switch windows at will except where prohibited by specific sftw, etc. An interesting item to note is that the root filesystem is resident in ROM, device drivers, basic fonts, etc reside there also in appropriate directories. As diskettes are swapped, the system updates its knowledge of what is available and automatically "mounts" the new filesystem under /. Since / resides on the ROM, and since there is RAM-DISC, it is very easy to move applications from floppy into RAM. This means much greater flexibility and ease of use. One disappointment I had was that I managed to scrub one of the apllication diskettes provided with the demo. I think what happened was I wrote a file to /dev/internal since "internal" is the name used in other H-P products to identify the internal printer. In this system it means the built-in disk - probably as the raw device - so I likely wrote over the first few physical blocks of the diskette. This is conjecture based on what happened and what diagnostics would show. BTW, as you might guess from the above, the IPC has a built in Laserjet printer - tractor or friction feed. Re configuration, it is my understanding that the system has the single micro-floppy and 1 1/2 Meg RAM max. With external expansion ( I expect via HP-IB) this memory will go to 5 Meg and additional disks can be added. I saw no restrictions as to what kind of disk could be attached. ***************** Sorry for the number of "AS I UNDERSTAND IT's" in here, but a new product and therefore green salesmen always come out that way. Any additions or corrections from others are welcome. ***************** I wouldn't rush out to buy one tomorrow, but the product is definitely a comer and worth keeping your eye on. Dave Katz - Develcon Electronics Ltd.
jay@hp-pcd.UUCP (jay) (03/08/85)
The display is a 9" electro-luminescent display. The display is capable of 85 characters by 31 lines, but we use multiple windows, each containing 80 by 24 characters. The 256K of ROM you speak of contains only the kernel. The trick was not compressing the kernel calls to fit, but in compressing our drivers. The 3.5" disc holds approximately 700k of data. Our OS does not swap processes, so lack of a hard disc is not a problem. We do have a RAM disc that can be loaded with frequently used files for faster access. Hard discs are available in sizes from 15 Meg to 55 Meg. They attach to the built-in HPIB interface in the back of the machine. Jay Phillips, Hewlett-Packard Portable Computer Division ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!jay