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The Hewlett-Packard HP 9831 is a BASIC-language desktop computer introduced in mid-1977.
I am interested in finding any 9831 machines, ROMs, manuals, documents or other material, including information on the BPC processor. If you have any such equipment or documentation, please send me an e-mail! The 9831 is very similar in mechanical and electrical design to the 9825 and nearly identical software-wise to the 9830 desktop computer. In fact, most of the internal parts are prefixed with 09825, meaning they were originally designed for the 9825 computer. For instance, the keyboard assembly is 09825-66537. |
The 9831 (and 9825) use a three-chip central processing unit.
The three chips are:
The processor is discussed in the June 1976 issue of the Hewlett-Packard Journal.
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The HP 9831A is a desktop computer that can be used as either a stand-alone device
or with peripherals in an integrated computing system for industrial, commercial
and scientific applications.
One of the main features of the 9831A is its programming language, the powerful BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). Because BASIC is a commonly known computer language and is similar to English, it's easy to learn and apply to programming skills. To increase the 9831A's capabilities, certain commands have been built in to handle alphanumeric string variables, advanced programming techniques, and input/output operations. In addition, you can work with up to 286 simple variables, 26 one- or two-dimensional arrays, and string variables which are limited only by the available memory space. Extra features like these provide you with greater programming flexibility. To further enhance the 9831A's capability and at the same time simplify programming even more, you are provided with 24 user-definable Special Function keys (12, plus shift) which can be used to represent text, functions, or entire programs. Three line editing keys and 4 character editing keys allow you to insert, change, and delete characters and lines as well as provide other programming debugging aids. Another special feature of the 9831A is the error message. If you make a mistake, such as mistyping a statement while programming, the word ERROR, a specified error number, and the line number in which the error occurred will appear on the light-emitting diode (LED) display. Each error message is also accompanied by a "beep". Built into the 9831A is a 2-track tape cartridge drive. The storage medium, a high-density rapid-access tape cartridge, records up to 250,000 bytes of information and also features automatic verification after recording. Other physical features of the 9831A include a 32-character LED display, a typewriter-link keyboard with upper- and lower-case alphanumerics, 3 input/output (I/O) slots for peripheral interfaces, and 4 read-only memory (ROM) slots. The 9831A comes standard with 7162 bytes of read/write memory all of which are available for your use because the BASIC language interpreter is hardwired into the machine. In addition, the memory can be expanded up to 31,738 bytes.
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The 9831A also allows flexible system expansion to meet your application's needs.
You can choose from a variety of peripherals and software packs to configure a
truly personalized desktop computing system.
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To increase its fundamental capabilities, specific commands have been built into
the 9831A, as previously mentioned. But, to further extend language capability
and peripheral control even further, 2 plug-in ROMs have been designed for use
with the 9831A - the 98218A Flexible Disk ROM and the 98223A/B Matrix/Plotter ROM.
The 98218A ROM contains statements and functions to fully regulate the 9885M Flexible Disk Drive. The 98223A/B ROM provides statements for matrix and array operations and for graphic output. The A version of the 98223 contains statements necessary to control the 9862A Plotter, whereas the B version of the 98223 includes statements for the 9872A Plotter. |
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The 9831 only appeared in the 1978 catalog. The catalog copy read:
The HP 9831A is a destop computer that can be used as either a stand-alone device or with peripherals in an integrated computing system for industrial, commercial and scientific applications.
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One publication that carried the announcement of the 9831 was
the May 1977 issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine.
Desktop Basic computer has 8k bytes of memory |
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