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From: vince@fluke.UUCP (Craig V. Johnson)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: New HP Computer
Message-ID: <429@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 12:24:30 EST
Article-I.D.: vax2.429
Posted: Tue Mar  5 12:24:30 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Mar-85 04:50:16 EST
References: <8800@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 53

> 
> 	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!	/