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HP Forum Archive 11

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what is this?
Message #1 Posted by Christof on 1 Mar 2003, 3:36 a.m.

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403375066&category=1247"> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403375066&category=1247 </a>

It has RUP and RDN keys, other fun bits (clear display points to a certian era, as does the range of speed setting on the modem control), but I'm not recognizing anything else about it.

      
Re: what is this?
Message #2 Posted by Emmanuel, Normandy on 1 Mar 2003, 6:02 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Christof

Hi Christof,
May be a keyboard from a station?!
Really curious indeed.
Yours.
      
Re: what is this?
Message #3 Posted by Gordon Dyer on 1 Mar 2003, 6:55 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Christof

A 1977 date code?
The key style is identical to the HP9836 computer I used to use, but that didnt have the modem controls and I think the 9836 was released in about 1982?
If anyone has an old HP catalog they could look for this keyboard.

            
Re: what is this?
Message #4 Posted by Gordon Dyer on 1 Mar 2003, 6:57 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Gordon Dyer

On second thoughts it must be 1987 to have a 9600 baud modem....

                  
Re: what is this?
Message #5 Posted by Wayne Brown on 1 Mar 2003, 7:52 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by Gordon Dyer

It's from an HP 2645 terminal, which was used with HP 3000 series minicomputers. This was an intelligent terminal (it had an 8080 microprocessor built in) and could run programs; some models had a built-in cartidge tape drive (hence the tape controls on the keyboard). HP used to distribute tapes with games, like Pong, that could be loaded and run on these terminals. A company called AICS Research used these terminals to build a word processing system that they called "The System 2000 Word Processing Terminal." You can go to http://www.aics-research.com/emulate.html to see a picture of one of these.

The date code should be 1977; the baud rate settings are not for a modem, but for a direct connection to an HP 3000 computer. The "Roll Up" and "Roll Down" keys are for scrolling the screen display up and down.

      
Re: what is this?
Message #6 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 1 Mar 2003, 7:57 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Christof

Hi;

I have a 1978 Measurement/Computation Catalogue and in page 588 we can find information about the 264x Interactive Display Terminal Family. The keyboard is detacheable, customizeable and it has many types: 2640C (Cyrilic), N (Danish/Norwegean) ,S and 2645A/S/R (Arabic). The one in the photo seems to be the basic but it is, indeed, this family's kbd.

Cheers.

            
Wayne beated me...
Message #7 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 1 Mar 2003, 7:58 a.m.,
in response to message #6 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

...while I was researching.

Cheers.

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