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I worked on the HP 8901B/8902A projects from 1979 to 1983, and hope you find this history interesting.? The first 2 of my 4 years on the projects were at Stanford Park Division (1501 Page Mill Rd, Palo Alto, CA) as an electrical engineer on a staff of several other EEs and MEs.? I ported the HP 436A power meter to a single board in the 8901B/2A and had responsibility for the 11722A Sensor Module, 11792A uWave Sensor Module, and their triple-shielded coax connection to the 8902A.? Then in 1981 the project transferred to the then-new Spokane Division (in Liberty Lake, WA) where only 2 of us on the project chose to move.? I was firmware and the other guy was hardware, for "about 6 months of clean-up before shipping".? That became 2 years, in which I transferred to being a firmware engineer and that role continued for the remainder of my 32 years with HP and Agilent.
The 8902A firmware was the work of about 10 electrical (not software) engineers, programming in F8 assembly language, all of us learning as we went.? The Fairchild F8 microprocessor was intended for applications like washing machines.? At the time our Fairchild rep said our program was far and away the largest and most complex program ever written for the F8.? 8901A firmware releases were stored on paper tape.? Near the end of the 8901B/2A project I was developing with a and an early-release that was the size of a small bookcase, only $15,000 retail, with a whopping 65 MBytes!!!? I was in heaven.
I can't find any computer files from those years, but do have a printed copy of the 77-page 10/7/1983 "8901B Modulation Analyzer / 8902A Measuring Receiver Software Specification" that I wrote.? It was written in on HP 3000 Unix computers.? I just pulled it off the bookshelf for the first time in decades.? It was much of the source documentation that led to the released end-user manual and pull-out cards.
I also have a printed release history: 167.1983 (6/16/1983, first release to end users, with a mail-in card for free replacement ROMs later); 272.1983 (9/29/1983, first production "no more free ROMs" release); 115.1984 (4/24/1984, bug fixes, ROM checksum 102 decimal, last release I was involved with).
If you have an 8902A can you help me here?? There is a way to get "nunGEStEr" (my last name in 7-segment displays) to scroll on the display of the 8902A.? But I don't have an 8902A, can't find any related notes, and my memory is fading.? As I recall, manually tune to 123.456789... (however many digits are echoed to the display and stop there) MHz.? Then it is one of these "unused" Service Special Functions: 51.9 or 58.9 or 59.9.? Re-start by entering the frequency before each Special Function attempt -- I think I made it so any other keystrokes between entering the frequency and the Special Function abort the process.? If those special functions don't work, continuing trying 51.0 or 58.0 or 59.0.? Also give your firmware release, from Special Function 42.0.
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Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?? I worked for Matt at Powerwave in the early 2000's after he had tranferred to HP Folsom Division and after Powerwave bought that division.? ? ? ? ? ? Jim Ford??
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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-------- Original message -------- From: Rick - WA6NDR <nungester@...> Date: 2/27/21 12:06 PM (GMT-08:00) Subject: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 8901B/8902A History
I worked on the HP 8901B/8902A projects from 1979 to 1983, and hope you find this history interesting.? The first 2 of my 4 years on the projects were at Stanford Park Division (1501 Page Mill Rd, Palo Alto, CA) as an electrical engineer on a staff of several other EEs and MEs.? I ported the HP 436A power meter to a single board in the 8901B/2A and had responsibility for the 11722A Sensor Module, 11792A uWave Sensor Module, and their triple-shielded coax connection to the 8902A.? Then in 1981 the project transferred to the then-new Spokane Division (in Liberty Lake, WA) where only 2 of us on the project chose to move.? I was firmware and the other guy was hardware, for "about 6 months of clean-up before shipping".? That became 2 years, in which I transferred to being a firmware engineer and that role continued for the remainder of my 32 years with HP and Agilent. The 8902A firmware was the work of about 10 electrical (not software) engineers, programming in F8 assembly language, all of us learning as we went.? The Fairchild F8 microprocessor was intended for applications like washing machines.? At the time our Fairchild rep said our program was far and away the largest and most complex program ever written for the F8.? 8901A firmware releases were stored on paper tape.? Near the end of the 8901B/2A project I was developing with a and an early-release that was the size of a small bookcase, only $15,000 retail, with a whopping 65 MBytes!!!? I was in heaven. I can't find any computer files from those years, but do have a printed copy of the 77-page 10/7/1983 "8901B Modulation Analyzer / 8902A Measuring Receiver Software Specification" that I wrote.? It was written in on HP 3000 Unix computers.? I just pulled it off the bookshelf for the first time in decades.? It was much of the source documentation that led to the released end-user manual and pull-out cards. I also have a printed release history: 167.1983 (6/16/1983, first release to end users, with a mail-in card for free replacement ROMs later); 272.1983 (9/29/1983, first production "no more free ROMs" release); 115.1984 (4/24/1984, bug fixes, ROM checksum 102 decimal, last release I was involved with). If you have an 8902A can you help me here?? There is a way to get "nunGEStEr" (my last name in 7-segment displays) to scroll on the display of the 8902A.? But I don't have an 8902A, can't find any related notes, and my memory is fading.? As I recall, manually tune to 123.456789... (however many digits are echoed to the display and stop there) MHz.? Then it is one of these "unused" Service Special Functions: 51.9 or 58.9 or 59.9.? Re-start by entering the frequency before each Special Function attempt -- I think I made it so any other keystrokes between entering the frequency and the Special Function abort the process.? If those special functions don't work, continuing trying 51.0 or 58.0 or 59.0.? Also give your firmware release, from Special Function 42.0.
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So I believe later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8, they used
another processor, not sure which one. Do you know anything about
that and did you have any involvement in "porting" the code ??
Cheers!
Quoting Jim Ford <james.ford@...>:
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Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?? I
worked for Matt at Powerwave in the early 2000's after he had
tranferred to HP Folsom Division and after Powerwave bought that
division.? ? ? ? ? ? Jim Ford??Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy
smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: Rick - WA6NDR
<nungester@...> Date: 2/27/21 12:06 PM (GMT-08:00) To:
[email protected] Subject:
[HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 8901B/8902A History I worked on
the HP 8901B/8902A projects from 1979 to 1983, and hope you find
this history interesting.? The first 2 of my 4 years on the projects
were at Stanford Park Division (1501 Page Mill Rd, Palo Alto, CA) as
an electrical engineer on a staff of several other EEs and MEs.? I ported the HP 436A power meter to a single board in the 8901B/2A and
had responsibility for the 11722A Sensor Module, 11792A uWave Sensor
Module, and their triple-shielded coax connection to the 8902A.?
Then in 1981 the project transferred to the then-new Spokane
Division (in Liberty Lake, WA) where only 2 of us on the project
chose to move.? I was firmware and the other guy was hardware, for "about 6 months of clean-up before shipping".? That became 2 years,
in which I transferred to being a firmware engineer and that role
continued for the remainder of my 32 years with HP and Agilent.The
8902A firmware was the work of about 10 electrical (not software)
engineers, programming in F8 assembly language, all of us learning
as we went.? The Fairchild F8 microprocessor was intended for
applications like washing machines.? At the time our Fairchild rep said our program was far and away the largest and most complex
program ever written for the F8.? 8901A firmware releases were
stored on paper tape.? Near the end of the 8901B/2A project I was
developing with a Fairchild Formulator and an early-release HP 7912P
Disk Drive that was the size of a small bookcase, only $15,000
retail, with a whopping 65 MBytes!!!? I was in heaven.I can't find any computer files from those years, but do have a printed copy of
the 77-page 10/7/1983 "8901B Modulation Analyzer / 8902A Measuring
Receiver Software Specification" that I wrote.? It was written in
nroff format on HP 3000 Unix computers.? I just pulled it off the
bookshelf for the first time in decades.? It was much of the source
documentation that led to the released end-user manual and pull-out
cards.I also have a printed release history: 167.1983 (6/16/1983,
first release to end users, with a mail-in card for free replacement
ROMs later); 272.1983 (9/29/1983, first production "no more free
ROMs" release); 115.1984 (4/24/1984, bug fixes, ROM checksum 102
decimal, last release I was involved with).If you have an 8902A can
you help me here?? There is a way to get "nunGEStEr" (my last name in 7-segment displays) to scroll on the display of the 8902A.? But I
don't have an 8902A, can't find any related notes, and my memory is
fading.? As I recall, manually tune to 123.456789... (however many digits are echoed to the display and stop there) MHz.? Then it is
one of these "unused" Service Special Functions: 51.9 or 58.9 or
59.9.? Re-start by entering the frequency before each Special
Function attempt -- I think I made it so any other keystrokes
between entering the frequency and the Special Function abort the
process.? If those special functions don't work, continuing trying 51.0 or 58.0 or 59.0.? Also give your firmware release, from Special
Function 42.0.
|
Hey Rick,
I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
If I could ask 1 question - I was looking at this document on the Keysight website??where it talks about the 11794A softpac and implies that you can enter frequencies on the 8902A keypad and then it will set the additional sig gen used as an LO to the right frequency for your tests.
Do you happen to remember how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard? I can't find anything in the manuals that enable me to use the HPIB port to get notified when the information is entered so that I can setup the system correctly.
Any suggestions appreciated.
TonyG
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> Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?
Sorry no, but it could just be me not remembering.
> ...later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8 ... Do you know anything about that ...
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
> I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
Thanks for trying. In 1983 I went on to other projects and had no idea HP production engineers were still doing firmware releases as late as 1991! Big surprise to me.
> ... the 11794A softpac ... how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard?
Sorry but no knowledge about that.
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Making the decision on a ¡°lifetime buy¡± can be treacherous! I know of one specific case because I was there (at HP Santa Clara) when it happened, sometime in the 1970s. Someone determined that a particular HP-made IC was used only in obsolete equipment and, after making a lifetime buy of that chip, obsoleted the design. We, in HP¡¯s photomask group, dutifully obsoleted the tooling for that mask set.?
Sometime later, a product surfaced, still in ¡°support life,¡± and using that IC. Inventory was soon reduced to zero with customers demanding parts to fix their instruments. Fortunately, we had not destroyed the artwork masters and were able to create a one-off set of stepmasters, just enough for one run through IC fab. The resulting parts worked out to $1,000 each and that is what they charged the customers!?
Jeremy?
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM Rick - WA6NDR < nungester@...> wrote: > Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?
Sorry no, but it could just be me not remembering.
> ...later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8 ... Do you know anything about that ...
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
> I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
Thanks for trying. In 1983 I went on to other projects and had no idea HP production engineers were still doing firmware releases as late as 1991! Big surprise to me.
> ... the 11794A softpac ... how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard?
Sorry but no knowledge about that.
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Any idea what quantity that run was ?
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:31 PM Jeremy Nichols < jn6wfo@...> wrote: Making the decision on a ¡°lifetime buy¡± can be treacherous! I know of one specific case because I was there (at HP Santa Clara) when it happened, sometime in the 1970s. Someone determined that a particular HP-made IC was used only in obsolete equipment and, after making a lifetime buy of that chip, obsoleted the design. We, in HP¡¯s photomask group, dutifully obsoleted the tooling for that mask set.?
Sometime later, a product surfaced, still in ¡°support life,¡± and using that IC. Inventory was soon reduced to zero with customers demanding parts to fix their instruments. Fortunately, we had not destroyed the artwork masters and were able to create a one-off set of stepmasters, just enough for one run through IC fab. The resulting parts worked out to $1,000 each and that is what they charged the customers!?
Jeremy?
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM Rick - WA6NDR < nungester@...> wrote: > Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?
Sorry no, but it could just be me not remembering.
> ...later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8 ... Do you know anything about that ...
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
> I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
Thanks for trying. In 1983 I went on to other projects and had no idea HP production engineers were still doing firmware releases as late as 1991! Big surprise to me.
> ... the 11794A softpac ... how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard?
Sorry but no knowledge about that.
Jeremy Nichols
6.
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¡°About 100¡± is what my memory says.?
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 1:58 PM Mike Vande Voort < mike@...> wrote: Any idea what quantity that run was ?
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:31 PM Jeremy Nichols < jn6wfo@...> wrote: Making the decision on a ¡°lifetime buy¡± can be treacherous! I know of one specific case because I was there (at HP Santa Clara) when it happened, sometime in the 1970s. Someone determined that a particular HP-made IC was used only in obsolete equipment and, after making a lifetime buy of that chip, obsoleted the design. We, in HP¡¯s photomask group, dutifully obsoleted the tooling for that mask set.?
Sometime later, a product surfaced, still in ¡°support life,¡± and using that IC. Inventory was soon reduced to zero with customers demanding parts to fix their instruments. Fortunately, we had not destroyed the artwork masters and were able to create a one-off set of stepmasters, just enough for one run through IC fab. The resulting parts worked out to $1,000 each and that is what they charged the customers!?
Jeremy?
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM Rick - WA6NDR < nungester@...> wrote: > Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?
Sorry no, but it could just be me not remembering.
> ...later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8 ... Do you know anything about that ...
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
> I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
Thanks for trying. In 1983 I went on to other projects and had no idea HP production engineers were still doing firmware releases as late as 1991! Big surprise to me.
> ... the 11794A softpac ... how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard?
Sorry but no knowledge about that.
Jeremy Nichols
6.
|
was this before FPGAs and the like ? ? a lot of steps to ¡°cook¡± up a batch of IC¡¯s I would expect, and not all of them survive the birthing process ?
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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jeremy Nichols
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2021 6:17 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 8901B/8902A History ? ¡°About 100¡± is what my memory says.? ? On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 1:58 PM Mike Vande Voort <mike@...> wrote: Any idea what quantity that run was ? ? On Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:31 PM Jeremy Nichols <jn6wfo@...> wrote: Making the decision on a ¡°lifetime buy¡± can be treacherous! I know of one specific case because I was there (at HP Santa Clara) when it happened, sometime in the 1970s. Someone determined that a particular HP-made IC was used only in obsolete equipment and, after making a lifetime buy of that chip, obsoleted the design. We, in HP¡¯s photomask group, dutifully obsoleted the tooling for that mask set.? Sometime later, a product surfaced, still in ¡°support life,¡± and using that IC. Inventory was soon reduced to zero with customers demanding parts to fix their instruments. Fortunately, we had not destroyed the artwork masters and were able to create a one-off set of stepmasters, just enough for one run through IC fab. The resulting parts worked out to $1,000 each and that is what they charged the customers!? ? On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM Rick - WA6NDR <nungester@...> wrote: > Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?
Sorry no, but it could just be me not remembering.
> ...later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8 ... Do you know anything about that ...
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
> I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
Thanks for trying. In 1983 I went on to other projects and had no idea HP production engineers were still doing firmware releases as late as 1991! Big surprise to me.
> ... the 11794A softpac ... how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard?
Sorry but no knowledge about that.
--
--
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Mike, this would have been in the mid-1970s and yes, it was a lot of work, a lot of money to do a run for just a few chips. That¡¯s why it stuck in my memory.?
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 7:16 AM Mike Vande Voort < mike@...> wrote: was this before FPGAs and the like ? ? a lot of steps to ¡°cook¡± up a batch of IC¡¯s I would expect, and not all of them survive the birthing process ? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jeremy Nichols
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2021 6:17 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 8901B/8902A History ? ¡°About 100¡± is what my memory says.? ? On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 1:58 PM Mike Vande Voort <mike@...> wrote: Any idea what quantity that run was ? ? On Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 2:31 PM Jeremy Nichols <jn6wfo@...> wrote: Making the decision on a ¡°lifetime buy¡± can be treacherous! I know of one specific case because I was there (at HP Santa Clara) when it happened, sometime in the 1970s. Someone determined that a particular HP-made IC was used only in obsolete equipment and, after making a lifetime buy of that chip, obsoleted the design. We, in HP¡¯s photomask group, dutifully obsoleted the tooling for that mask set.? Sometime later, a product surfaced, still in ¡°support life,¡± and using that IC. Inventory was soon reduced to zero with customers demanding parts to fix their instruments. Fortunately, we had not destroyed the artwork masters and were able to create a one-off set of stepmasters, just enough for one run through IC fab. The resulting parts worked out to $1,000 each and that is what they charged the customers!? ? On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM Rick - WA6NDR <nungester@...> wrote: > Say, Rick, did you know Matt Hunton at HP Spokane Division?
Sorry no, but it could just be me not remembering.
> ...later versions of the 8902A did not use the F8 ... Do you know anything about that ...
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
> I tried on mine with firmware 94.1991 and it didn't appear on any of those functions.
Thanks for trying. In 1983 I went on to other projects and had no idea HP production engineers were still doing firmware releases as late as 1991! Big surprise to me.
> ... the 11794A softpac ... how you can get the information from the 8902A keyboard?
Sorry but no knowledge about that.
--
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Isn't the 8566A/8568A F8 based and the 8566B/8568B Motorola 68000?
Maybe they did the same with the 8901B/8902A?
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On 1/03/21 6:32 am, Rick - WA6NDR wrote: Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
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The 8566A/8568A are based on the HP "cylinder head" CPU, a multi-chip VLSI implementation of the HP 2100 architecture, not the F8. The F8 is a great little chip, but has nowhere near the horsepower to run something like an 8566A/8568A.
-Dave
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On 3/2/21 3:50 AM, Andy ZL3AG via groups.io wrote: Isn't the 8566A/8568A F8 based and the 8566B/8568B Motorola 68000?
Maybe they did the same with the 8901B/8902A?
On 1/03/21 6:32 am, Rick - WA6NDR wrote:
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8 assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
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No wonder you could play lunar lander on the 8566, I didn't know the proc set was based on the 2100. That was a heck of a computer we just turned ours off at the end of last year!
steve
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-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] < [email protected]> On Behalf Of Dave McGuire Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 9:49 AM To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 8901B/8902A History The 8566A/8568A are based on the HP "cylinder head" CPU, a multi-chip VLSI implementation of the HP 2100 architecture, not the F8. The F8 is a great little chip, but has nowhere near the horsepower to run something like an 8566A/8568A. -Dave On 3/2/21 3:50 AM, Andy ZL3AG via groups.io wrote:
Isn't the 8566A/8568A F8 based and the 8566B/8568B Motorola 68000?
Maybe they did the same with the 8901B/8902A?
On 1/03/21 6:32 am, Rick - WA6NDR wrote:
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a
projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The
estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8
assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget
which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer
that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
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Yup, same as that used in the 3585A spectrum analyzer, the 9825/9845 computers, etc.
-Dave
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On 3/2/21 1:02 PM, Stephen Hanselman wrote: No wonder you could play lunar lander on the 8566, I didn't know the proc set was based on the 2100. That was a heck of a computer we just turned ours off at the end of last year!
steve
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dave McGuire
Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 9:49 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 8901B/8902A History
The 8566A/8568A are based on the HP "cylinder head" CPU, a multi-chip VLSI implementation of the HP 2100 architecture, not the F8. The F8 is a great little chip, but has nowhere near the horsepower to run something like an 8566A/8568A.
-Dave
On 3/2/21 3:50 AM, Andy ZL3AG via groups.io wrote:
Isn't the 8566A/8568A F8 based and the 8566B/8568B Motorola 68000?
Maybe they did the same with the 8901B/8902A?
On 1/03/21 6:32 am, Rick - WA6NDR wrote:
Fairchild announced the F8 would become obsolete and HP made a
projected lifetime purchase for all F8-based 890nx products. The
estimates ended up being low and we ran out of F8 haredare, so the F8
assembly code was program-translated to another CPU but I forget
which one. I wasn't involved in that effort but know the engineer
that did it, who likewise still lives in Spokane, WA.
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
|
Well, you learn something every day.
I have an 8566A but am yet to check it over for bad caps before firing it up.
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On 3/03/21 6:49 am, Dave McGuire wrote: ? The 8566A/8568A are based on the HP "cylinder head" CPU, a multi-chip VLSI implementation of the HP 2100 architecture, not the F8.? The F8 is a great little chip, but has nowhere near the horsepower to run something like an 8566A/8568A.
????????????? -Dave
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Ive an 8902A , I?ll try on monday. If I get your name I?ll send a picture to you.?
Regards , Patricio.?
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Hi Rick. I've read a lot of the discussion about the 8901B/8902A but can't find the answer to what is probably a dumb question:
Q.? Is there anything that the 8901B can do that the 8902A cannot do?
If not then there is no point having both on the bench at the same time.
regards
Charles Edmonds VK3CLE (Melbourne, Australia).
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the 8902A is essentially an enhanced 8901B ....the enhancement being the low level power measurements when used with the 11722A? ( and others )?
They run the same firmware and most of the parts are the same ...about 90%
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Rick - WA6NDR
Jeremy Nichols
Mike Vande Voort
Dave McGuire
Patricio A. Greco