X-no-Archive:yes
Oh crap, now I have to disagree with Wirt.  He could not have spent $165,000 on
a series 33 in 1977, or a million dollars, for the simple reason that in 1977,
the series 33 did not exist.  It came out in 1979.  The series 33 introduced
SOS technology (Silicon On Saphirre) and the HP-IB bus to the HP 3000 line.  It
also required MPE III release 1912 to run this stuff (note the release number,
1912.  This first two digits of this number represent the year, offset from
1960.)  The following MPE III release was 1918 which introduced moving
consoles, user logging and IMAGE logging.  1918 ran on both the series III and
the series 33.  I installed the first series 33 in Canada in the spring of 1979
and the thing cost about CND$145,000 at the time.  That included the console,
256KB of RAM, a 120MB disk and about 4 ADCC ports.  We added a 7970E Low Boy
tape drive almost immediately.  I do not remember what the rate of exchange was
at that time, but I think Wirt's estimate is somewhat high, unless he had lots
of other stuff on the order.

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com


-----Original Message-----
From:   Wirt Atmar [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Monday, 23 August, 1999 10:39 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: Information HP 3000

Gavin wrote:

> Stan wrote:
>  > If it's the size of a small refrigerator, then it's likely to be one of:
>  >
>  >    30, 33, 40, 42, 52
>
>  This sort of suggests that someone ought to setup a photographic history
>  of the HP3000 web site somewhere (obvious possibilities being us, AICS,
>  HP, Interex, or 3kworld.com).

To a small degree, that's already been done. The Series 33 that you see in:

     http://aics-research.com/hp3000/relperf.html

was our first HP3000.

Worst yet, we still have it! This machine cost me $165,000 in 1977 (about a
half-million in today's dollars). I'll be hornswaggolled if I'd ever
willingly throw away anything that cost that much that came out of my own
pocket.

Besides that sentimental attachment :-), the machine theoretically still
works, although it hasn't been turned on in about 10 years. The HP7925 disc
drive you see in the picture is currently being used as a printer stand, but
it would take nothing to roll it back over and reconnect it to the system.
Moreover, the formica top on the Series 33 is still in excellent condition
and the machine is used as a true working desk nowadays, perhaps the most
expensive desk in all of southern New Mexico.

Even worse, Dell Computer recently conducted a search for the "World's Oldest
PC" still in operation. Stan pointed the contest out to me. Because of that,
I went out and bought a digital camera just for the contest and took several
pictures.

Dell announced the contest winner last Thursday. We didn't win. The fellow
who did win won with an Altair 8800b that is actually a year younger than
ours, but the rules were that if you won, you had to give your machine to a
computer museum. I believe that we really do have the world's oldest PC still
in operation -- and odd as it may sound, we still depend on it and I
couldn't/won't give it up.

The pictures I took for the contest are at:

       http://aics-research.com/altair3.html

We won this Altair at the World's First Computer Fair in March, 1976, in
Albuquerque, for the best application of the new microcomputers (we built a
speech synthesizer than allowed our first Altair, an Altair 8800, to talk).
The machine you see in this picture was the first Altair 8800b delievered
outside of MITS itself.

Bill Gates mentions this Fair prominently in his resume at the Microsoft
site, stating that he gave the keynote address. I knew Bill fairly well at
the time, and of all of us that were there, none of us can remember that
speech. I am reticent to say that it is a case of resume padding, Bill owning
half of the world at the moment, but it was a somewhat momentous time,
looking back at it all.

Stan has lusted after the two Altairs we own for some time now. One of
private web pages I put up for Stan about a year ago is at:

       http://aics-research.com/altair2.html

I've promised Stan that if anything happens to me, he can have the Altairs,
although saying this publicly only makes me all the more nervous.

Wirt Atmar