This computer was donated by Leslee Sorensen in memory of her husband Jerome Sorensen.
Jerome loved science of all kinds, mathematics, physics, and geology. He volunteered as a math tutor at a shelter for battered and homeless women and children. His career involved computers and math, as he was a wire line engineer in the oilfield, a geologist, and then a senior environmental scientist with the EPA.

NAME  

HP-86

MANUFACTURER  

Hewlett Packard

TYPE  

Professional Computer

ORIGIN  

U.S.A.

YEAR  

July 1982

END OF PRODUCTION 

Unknown

BUILT IN LANGUAGE 

HP Basic interpreter

KEYBOARD  

Full stroke 91 keys with 7 function and arrow keys

CPU  

'Capricorn' custom HP 8-bit CPU

SPEED  

0.625 MHz

COPROCESSOR  

Custom HP I/O circuits

RAM  

64 KB, expandable to 640 KB

VRAM  

16 KB

ROM  

48 KB

TEXT MODES 

80 chars x 24 lines

GRAPHIC MODES 

544 x 240 dots

COLORS  

Monochrome

SOUND  

Built-in speaker

I/O PORTS 

Centronics, 2 x FDD (86A), HP- IB (86B)

BUILT IN MEDIA 

None

OS  

Built-in BASIC

POWER SUPPLY 

Built-in power supply unit 110V - 240V switchable

PERIPHERALS  

External FDD, printers, HP expansion cards, all HP-IB compatible peripherals

SIZE / WEIGHT 

42 (W) x 45.5 (D) x 13 (H) cm

PRICE  

Unknown

 

HP-86

HP-86

 The HP-86 series was the same machines as the HP-87 but used a 9" or 13" external monochrome monitor.

The built-in BASIC language derived from the HP-85's but featured about 20 additional graphics commands. It also allowed to directly address the ports of external modules.

Two versions og the HP-86 were successively released: The 86-A had 64 KB of RAM and was fully compatible with the 87-A. It had built-in interfaces for a printer and dual floppy drives. Internally, these interfaces were seen as HP-IB
devices.

The 86-B had 128 KB of RAM and an HP-IB port instead of the printer/FDD interfaces. It was the same machine as the HP-87XM, but with an external monitor.


There was no special operating system. The Basic interpreter provided all the necessary commands for I/O and peripherals management.

The HP-IB interface found on almost all HP computers - from micro to mini - is a special version of the well-known IEEE 488 interface.