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Notes |
Manufacturer |
Hewlett-Packard (US) |
Model |
71B |
Date Launched |
February 1984 |
Price |
Approx £300? ($525 in the USA) |
Microprocessor type |
HP Saturn @ 2? MHz |
ROM size |
64 kilobytes |
Standard RAM |
16 kilobytes available to user plus 1.5KB for the display |
Maximum RAM |
32 kilobytes for user (4KB in each of the expansion ports) |
Keyboard type |
Calculator style with separate QWERTY and numeric areas |
Supplied language |
Powerful BASIC. New commands could be defined and then used like built-in commands. |
Text resolution |
1 line of 22 characters, which acted as a window onto a 5 line by 96 character screen. |
Graphics resolution |
132 x 8 pixels |
Colours available |
Black on grey |
Example Screenshot |
|
Sound |
Single channel, variable pitch and duration |
Cassette load speed |
No cassette interface but the HP-IL interface could transfer data at 5000 bytes per second. |
Dimensions (mm) |
192 x 96 x 25 |
Special features |
Battery powered, running off 4 AAA cells. |
Good points |
Pocket-sized (or at least briefcase-sized) yet as powerful as some desktop computers of the time. |
Bad points |
The HP-71B was much pricier than other pocket computers from Casio and Sharp, which tended to cost around £100 to £200, though it was a far more versatile machine. |
How successful? |
Very popular with those who used it, and still worth about £100 secondhand today. |
Comments |
The HP-71B was an elegantly styled and very desirable machine in 1984. It could operate as either an advanced scientific calculator, processing expressions immediately, or as a BASIC-programmable computer, to give maximum flexibility in use. |
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