Wednesday, November 10, 2004

My very first programmable anything

HP-67 Programmable Calculator
My very first programmable device of any sort.


This was a great calculator, it is the card reader version of the HP-65. I used is for many years and cut my programming teeth on this. The internal memory was small enough that I had to learn how to keep code really tight. I especially liked the RPN systems, as it really is more efficient. Too bad the unwashed masses couldn't cope with RPN.  Eventually even HP caved in and went back to the Algebraic OS.
After the calculator I tried out my programming skills on a Heath kit H8, then a PDP-8 & PDP-11. There were a few things like In-Circuit Emulators (ICE) and then an AT&T PC 6300 (Olivetti) using a full blown 8086 processor running with an 8 MHz clock!!! I upgraded to the V-30 chip and used that machine for several years. Between then and now most of my programming has been in PCs.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by.