I found this computer on a general book cover. It looks like the HP-87 but has a different keyboard. 9" display 80x16 (256x128 and other resolutions).
And where can I find a computer online with this or other specifications? Isn’t there a database (if possible with a table) about computers? I tried Google and also searched on old-computers.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/pic_disp.php?id=68556
2. I found this high res pic of a control room. Looks like a NASA museum, There’s a NASA logo on top, a round dome in the background and a PDP-11 on right. What is the brand of the keyboard and stick and what is the location?
Thanks in advance.
Searching for NASA computers, I found this site with interesting photos
Looks like an HP 2640A [Edit: ahem, the photo is a 2645A, as noted downthread…]
The 2640A was successful from the very beginning. In December of 1974, HP received 151 orders valued at $500,000, about eight percent ot the total value of orders received by all of the Data Systems Division that month. HP received 317 orders for the 2640A the following month, accounting for twenty percent of the division’s total business. HP shipped 3000 of the 2640A terminals in the first year.
(Found by searching for [retro widescreen hp text terminal] as HP seemed pretty likely)
Another possible resource, for searching or even for posting a question, is
The logo looks like Techtronix, but I can’t seem to find a keyboard that matches that style. It might have been a custom keyboard. Strangely enough I’m not able to source any other photos in that set because that might help with a different angle.
This is a shell of a control and display unit for the International Ultraviolet explorer (IUE) satellite, which operated from 1978 to 1996. The unit was the first of five engineering control consoles designed and built by the Bendix Corporation for NASA and the European space Agency.
The center section is a typical instrument console with two monitors, a keyboard, and a joystick. Facades simulating a minicomputer and disk drive are attached to the right. The unit was refurbished in 1982 for diplsay in the National Air and Space Museum’s “Stars” gallery. Instrument facades, a keyboard, a teleprinter, and a working CRT were added to simulate a working IUE console.
Trasferred from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center A19830025000
So the keyboard, stick and monitor are from Videotek, looking much newer than the rest.
And I haven’t assumed HP as the keyboard was so different.
Thanks!
Yeah, that makes sense. The display up-top is a Roland Character Display, which wouldn’t have been possible during the Apollo period, and the “central” display had a Trinitron-style tube. So this thing has been updated several times.
And that keyboard being special-purpose makes sense. It almost looks like the special-purpose keyboards for TV character generation.
I thought that might be a clue, that the tube was cylindrical. And then I thought it might be an anachronism. But it turns out Trinitron dates from 1968…
Oh, good spot! Let me make an edit… and let me quote a bit from the page:
The 2640A was the first of the 264X terminals from HP. Like the 2615A, it displayed 25 lines of text (80 columns) on its five by ten inch rectangular screen. The resolution of the character cell was 7 x 9 dots. The 264X terminals had detachable keyboards.
…
The 2644A was introduced in 1975 for $5000 and included two mini cartridge tape drives. The 2644A was replaced by the 2645A ($3,500 without tape drives, $5,100 with two tape drives) in 1976. The 2645A was the most common of the 264X terminals.
