Welcome to the HP 9845 preservation project. This site is dedicated to one of the most
fascinating pieces in computing history, the Hewlett Packard 9845 computer. The HP 9845 opened
a complete new line of dedicated computers, based on one single philosophy: to bring as much
computing power as possible to the desktop. This type of computer was later given the label
workstation, and was primarily intended for scientists and engineers, who needed as
much unshared computing power as possible in their own hand: capable of scientific
calculations, equipped with a state-of-the-art graphics system, and with connections into the
mainframe world with all its shared resources. The role of the workstations was to provide
high-end technology (at a high price, of course) years before it would be transferred into the
mainstream market.
The HP 9845 was the first in a famous line of workstation systems developed by Hewlett Packard. Other manufacturers like Apollo and Sun Microsystems (they were the ones who first transferred the Xerox Parc graphical user interfaces to commercial workstations), Silicon Graphics (who developed workstations with 3D-real-time-rendering capabilities) and Digital Equipment (who top-ranked the MHz-race with their Alpha processor) did a lot to serve the market with brilliant systems at a time, when the IBM PCs - compared to the workstations - were not much more than typewriters with CRT and mass storage. But the HP 9845 was the very first one, which could justifiably be called a 'workstation'.
However, some time has passed since the workstation years. Today, the average discount PC provides almost everything a scientist or engineer needs. Capabilities are much more a matter of software, and there is no need any more for something very special on desktop level. So workstations, as we used to know them, have gone. But the memory and the respect for engineering fun and perfection of that time still remains.
This site tries to preserve and provide as much knowledge as possible around the HP 9845 series. For now it starts with a couple of hopefully useful hints, but it is intended to grow. If you have own experiences with those systems, please use the contact feature and share them with others. It shows that there are more people around who share the fascination of the HP 9845 series than you might expect.
This site is in no way associated with the Hewlett-Packard Company. Hewlett-Packard, HP, the HP logos and all HP product numbers are in case of doubt trademarks of the Hewlett-Packard Company. As far as material is derived from the HP Journal, this is done by permission of the Hewlett-Packard Company.
This site is for educational and preservation purposes only.
