News

2009/11/19
What would be the world without computer games... Although (or because) the HP 9845 systems had been primarily designed for engineers and scientists, there were more than 70 games in total for this platform, not counting all those which were never published. Some of the most prominent representatives are introduced within the Software Section, also there is a new tutorial section on HP 9845 game design. More >...

2009/11/16
Dave Bryan has contributed HPDrive usage information for HP 64000 workstations and HP 1000 minis. Also, release 3.01 of HPDrive is available for download. The new release was mainly required for fixing a bug in the usage of the DlPortIo driver package. Also new presets have been added for the emulation of 79xx ICD drives. More >...

2009/10/22
Now also the HPDir and the Fdio utilities both have left beta status and also provide Windows7 support. See the appropriate sections for downloading the new versions including new Total Commander plugins. And don't forget to give me feedback. More >...

2009/10/19
The long awaited new release of the HPDrive mass storage emulator is now ready for download. Beyond numerous bug fixes, emulation has been functionally expanded much closer to the originals. Also, many new platforms have been added and (as far as possible) tested, like HP-UX, some measuring devices, HP 64000 workstations, HP 1000 minis and the Viper cards. NI's family of ISA or PCI based GPIB controllers is now almost completely supported. Emulation of CS/80 and SS/80 drives now includes floppy discs, hard discs and even tape drives. The custom TNT4882/TNT5004 driver now supports, of course, Windows7. Finally, due to the generic implementation and a new config file feature, you even can add your own devices. Many thanks to all those who supported this new release with their feedback, and very special thanks to Dave Bryan for his indefatigable testing and inestimable contributions. More >...

2009/10/13
Another step into the secrets of the HP 9845 operating system: We still don't have the commented OS source code, but at least we have the symbols - many with comments - for system constants and variables. Perfect opportunity to do an update on the assembly project Asm45 - we now can disassemble LPU & PPU code with much more information included.

Asm45 now supports creating ISOURCE compatible output if you like to feed the program code into the Assembler Execution & Development ROM. Also, the system ROM listings have been updated with new disassemblies with much better readability, so if you thought about doing some reverse engineering, this is the time. More >...

2009/07/31
Thanks to François (again) now the light pen schematics are available. So if you are a lucky owner of a 98780A enhanced monochrome or 98780A color monitor with light pen control board but don't own a light pen yet, this is the information you need to build a light pen on your own. More >...

2009/07/17
Ultimately, 9845A ROMs have been dumped and are now available for download, both for the operating system and option ROMs. Unfortunately, the 9845A Mass Storage ROM is still missing, so if you own such ROM, and like to contribute, you are welcome. More >...

2009/06/26
Finally, the site has been extended by the 9835 system, the smaller brother of the 9845B computer, where many of the 9845B features had been proved before they were implemented in the 9845B design, like Address Extension Chip, dual port memory access and assembly language development. Also known as 'baby' 9845. Site update for the 9835 also includes packaging information and dumps for OS ROMs and the most important Option ROMs. More >...

2009/02/22
First bunch of software packages for the 9845 uploaded! More to come, dump by dump.. See the Software Section for details & downloads. More >...

2009/01/03
Happy new year to all 9845 users!!

And the site keeps going:

The schematics section is growing. Now the original blueprints for the 98770A color monitor (main feature of the 9845C model) are available. Many thanks to François for providing the scans. More >...

Also, a couple of new 9845 binary programs are online, which are more than interesting for several reasons. And they have always been there in a special program from the exerciser tape for testing the enhanced monochrome monitor. New types of direct memory access are provided by the FTBIN and the WTMEMB binaries. Also new are the 79XX binary, the DEVSTA binary and the ODESSY binary. Again thanks to François for giving me the final hints. More >...

2008/11/29
New emulator for 9111A graphics tablet and HPGL pen plotters available. Digitizer and plotter are the most useful devices for vintage HP systems immediately after a mass storage device. Use the PC with selected GPIB interfaces for digitizing input or for capturing HPGL for output on standard printers. Works with HP 9845, Series 80 and Series 200. More >...

2008/11/23
Yes it's done! A major update of the HPDrive, HPDir and Fdio utilities now available, including support for NI PCI GPIB boards via a custom WDM driver. Now HPDrive and HPDir can comfortably be used with current PCI based GPIB boards (see the appropriate HPDrive and HPDir sections for information on which hardware is supported).

Other new features include:

Please also note that the licensing has changed (still free for non-commercial use). More >...

2008/11/12
Mouse driver & mouse demo now support enhanced & color graphics. The MSDEMO program also has been completely revised and now supports not only color but polygon drawing, too. Also learn how to produce digital screen shots from a running application in the Using Bitmaps Tutorial. See a couple of examples in the appropriate sections. More >...

2008/10/26
Added an article for the impressive 9845C demo within the Screen Arts section with lots of screenshots. More >...

2008/10/22
Little sensation: Original blueprints for 9845A, 9845B and standard monitor (including graphics) available for download! Thanks to Rudolf's donation, you now can have a closer look into the technical design of the 9845 series. Nice for repair, too. See the Documents Section for download. If you need a more functional analysis, we still recommend Tony Duell's reverse engineered schematics available from hpmuseum.net.

2008/10/20
Long awaited: U.S. keyboard ROM dumps available. All ROM packages have been updated, including the EEPROM images for all major configurations and the appropriate system ROM assembler listings. See here for downloading the new ROM dumps.

2008/05/10
Thanks to Jon from hpmuseum.net, we now have the service Test ROM and Test Tape contents online. More >...

2008/04/26
There is now a new section for 9845 screen art, starting with still pictures from the Wargames movie. More >...