Clarification of Answer by
markj-ga
on
15 May 2004 11:25 PDT
drip --
Beyond the site that you found, I have been unable to come up with
information about a model designated "2171A" anywhere, including the
entire HP Web site and in Google Groups.
As for finding someone that might have information, you might try the
contact person for this site:
Hewlett Packard HP 2000
http://www.decodesystems.com/hp2000/
The site was updated within the last few weeks and seems to be a
source for lore on ancient HP computers. The contact person is Dan
Veeneman and an email link is at the bottom of the page.
Of course, you could also try the phone or email options on the HP Web
site, although it will likely me a frustrating process to get to the
right person:
HP: Contact Information
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html
Here are some hints that I have found that may or may not give you
leads to a positive identification and time frame of your computer.
First, at this site, at a different page on the site linked above, the
HP2100A is described as an "early 1970s general purpose computer."
Decode Systems: Classic Computers
http://www.decodesystems.com/classic-computers.html
The 2100A's technology is described here in some detail, and its
introduction is pegged at 1971:
"1971 The HP 2100A computer is introduced with these features:
First microprogrammable minicomputer in the industry
Memory expansion from 4K to 32K words
14 I/O channels, expandable to 45 with the I/O extender
Memory protect, dual-channel DMA, hardware multiply/divide
Optional hardware floating point processor
First switching power supply in a minicomputer. "
Interex: 25 Years of Real-Time Computing
http://www.interex.org/tech/csl/RTE/archive/poyner1.htm
The usefulness of this information is dependent on establishing that
the 2171A was one of this series, which seems likely, but which I
can't confirm.
Finally, I think I can demonstrate just how murky this history is by
reproducing a newsgroup posting that relates 1000 series history with
some 2100 series history:
"The oldest systems in the "1000" series are the M series. They
consisted of the 21mx 2112a, 21mx 2108a, and the 21mx 2105a. Later HP
introduced the E series with the new 21mxe 2113a and 21mxe 2109a
boxes. The E series did not replace the M series though. Then there
was a major revision to the power supplies used in the cpu which was
indicated by the B version (21mx 2112a became 21mxe 2112b, 21mxa 2108a
became 21mx 2108b, 21mxe 2113a went to 21mxe 2113b, and 21mxe 2109a
went to 21mxe 2109b). The 21mx 2105a stayed 21mx 2105a though. Finally
there was the introduction of the F series with the 1000F 2117f and
the 1000F 2111f. When the F series was introduced, all the systems
became known as 1000's model such and such, with different
designations. So finally there was the HP1000 F series 2117F, the
HP1000 F series 2111F, the 21mxe 2113b became the 1000E 2113e, the
21mxe 2109b became the 1000E 2109e, the 21mxe 2112b became 1000M
2112m, and the 21mx 2105a finally changed to 1000M 2105a. "
Decode Systems: Usenet Comments Related to HP-2000
http://www.decodesystems.com/hp2000/snippets.html
The bottom line is that I can't be much further nailing down the murky
history of the specific model number that you cite in your
clarification request. I suggest that you try the contacts I provided
above. If that fails, you might consider posting an additional new
question on Google Answers (probably priced a little higher) to see if
another researcher has the specialized knowledge that it probably
requires.
markj-ga
