Definition of "Fully Blown"

[John W Kercheval]

Definition of Fully Blown ™

I have been asked about this on this board so here is the reply.

I coined this phrase back in 1983 when I doubled the speed of my HP41CV with the capacitor switch. I was too broke to have a phone inside my house so I used the pay phone outside my house at the intersection of Grove & Virginia Streets in Berkeley to announce it to my college buddies.

Those were the heady days of early PC development, the “Halt & Catch Fire” days. Post the Cap’n Crunch era, Woz was at Berkeley himself finally earning that EECS degree, awarded in 1986.

Basically what it means is:

You have taken the existing machine (whatever it is) to its maximum, or a greatly enhanced power version, and the next step up is to change machines entirely.

The computer industry home high power enthusiasts started using it in the late 1980s to describe maximizing chip strength by using memory cache which was getting in vogue back then. A 386-16 with some on chip cache was a lot faster that one that did not have it. So the machine was said to be “fully blown” if it maxed out that plus RAM plus maybe an S3 graphics chip, etc.

I think the ultimate fully blown machine would be that 41CL thing by Monte unless you count the giant improvements to be an entirely new machine. Your call. I would call it an entirely new machine. Ergo, not blown.

Also, blowing involves under the hood/case mods, simply plugging in more stuff is not alone sufficient.

I call my HP71b fully blown but that really isn’t true. I have not removed the back of the case and modified the inside- I would like to but cannot think of anything to do.

BTW, I am big into blowing. I removed the 6.0L V12 engine from my car, bored and stroked it out to 7.2L and reinserted it into the vehicle. 7.2L,12 cyl. 690HP. It had 389 HP going in. Numerous other mods as well.

[rprosperi]

(01-10-2015 01:11 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Definition of Fully Blown ™

I have been asked about this on this board so here is the reply.

I coined this phrase back in 1983 when I doubled the speed of my HP41CV with the capacitor switch. I was too broke to have a phone inside my house so I used the pay phone outside my house at the intersection of Grove & Virginia Streets in Berkeley to announce it to my college buddies.

Those were the heady days of early PC development, the “Halt & Catch Fire” days. Post the Cap’n Crunch era, Woz was at Berkeley himself finally earning that EECS degree, awarded in 1986.

Basically what it means is:

You have taken the existing machine (whatever it is) to its maximum, or a greatly enhanced power version, and the next step up is to change machines entirely.

The computer industry home high power enthusiasts started using it in the late 1980s to describe maximizing chip strength by using memory cache which was getting in vogue back then. A 386-16 with some on chip cache was a lot faster that one that did not have it. So the machine was said to be “fully blown” if it maxed out that plus RAM plus maybe an S3 graphics chip, etc.

I think the ultimate fully blown machine would be that 41CL thing by Monte unless you count the giant improvements to be an entirely new machine. Your call. I would call it an entirely new machine. Ergo, not blown.

Also, blowing involves under the hood/case mods, simply plugging in more stuff is not alone sufficient.

I call my HP71b fully blown but that really isn’t true. I have not removed the back of the case and modified the inside- I would like to but cannot think of anything to do.

BTW, I am big into blowing. I removed the 6.0L V12 engine from my car, bored and stroked it out to 7.2L and reinserted it into the vehicle. 7.2L,12 cyl. 690HP. It had 389 HP going in. Numerous other mods as well.

John - to take your 71B to the true max, get a FRAM71 from Hans; I think he is accepting orders for more items coming later this year. FRAM71 will let you use nearly every possible byte in the 71B address space, plus it will let you load the latest version of ROM OS, and any application ROM modules.

[John W Kercheval]

COOL I did not know that I have four 71s and can send him my non service one.

I LOVE MODS OF ALL KINDS!!!

[Dave Frederickson]

By your definition I believe there are some truely "fully blown" 71's out there with under-the-hood 448K memory upgrades and 2x speedups. FRAM71 changes the game. With the theortical limit of 512K plus the capability of being able to load multiple ROM images and the ability to replace the 71 system ROM with a different version or the infamous 71 Diag ROM, I believe the bar has been raised. The caveat is that FRAM71 won't work with speedups greater than 790 kHz.
So a revised definition of "fully blown" might mean maximum speed or maximum memory. In either case, FRAM71 brings to the 71 capabilities previously only found in the emulators. And no 71 system is "fully blown" unless it's paired with a PIL-Box.

Dave

[John W Kercheval]

Ok but the FRAM thing involves opening the case?

[Dave Frederickson]

Like plugging in the card reader. Checkout the manual here in the main thread.

Dave

[PANAMATIK]

Perhaps I may add another "Fully Blown" piece here.

I have fully blown my HP-25/HP-25C with new ACT chip to 5439 program steps, 88 registers, undo functionality, double speed, smart insert delete program steps, stopwatch timer function.

The manual with complete description of all functions will be posted here next week.

Bernhard

[Les Bell]

(01-11-2015 07:51 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  I have fully blown my HP-25/HP-25C with new ACT chip to 5439 program steps, 88 registers, undo functionality, double speed, smart insert delete program steps, stopwatch timer function.

Mind.

Blown.

[John W Kercheval]

Panamatik yes that is s blown as thru get. Modifying the simple calcs is very hard. Congrats.

[walter b]

(01-11-2015 07:51 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  I have fully blown my HP-25/HP-25C with new ACT chip to 5439 program steps, 88 registers, undo functionality, double speed, smart insert delete program steps, stopwatch timer function.

The manual with complete description of all functions will be posted here next week.

Appreciate that.

d:-)

[John W Kercheval]

Panamatik yes that is s blown as they get. Modifying the simple calcs is very hard. Congrats.

Blowing simple calcs is really impressive.

[walter b]

John, there are three buttons you might not know sufficiently on this forum:

1. Edit: You can edit your post(s) to correct typos, add remarks, or whatever you find out that should be modified before anybody responds.
2. Delete: You may delete obsolete posts you wrote.
3. Quote: This allows you to respond to a particular post.
   

And there's one button I ask you to forget: New Reply. It doesn't do anything good but confuses the thread.

TIA,
d:-)

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(01-11-2015 03:20 PM)walter b Wrote:  [/list]And there's one button I ask you to forget: New Reply. It doesn't do anything good but confuses the thread.

I haven't been reading this reminder since so long that I almost forgot about it.

Eheheheheh... :D

[Katie Wasserman]

Can everyone participating in this thread please stop the nasty sarcasm. We (the moderators) have received several complaints about this. Sarcasm and humor are fine on this forum but only when its not mean spirited nor "dirty".

Thanks!

[walter b]

(01-11-2015 04:21 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  Can everyone participating in this thread please stop the nasty sarcasm.

If you address a particular person in this thread, I respectfully ask you to contact him directly. If you address more than one I've problems to find them.

d:-?

[PANAMATIK]

(01-11-2015 04:21 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  Thanks!

Hello Katie

I actually wanted to quote not your text but your icon. Can any moderator tell how this is done?

Anyway, I found another HP hommage to itself in the woodstock series.

The segment driver chips are able to show only the 10 numbers and five letters. In the HP-21 calculator the letters H and P are coded and could be displayed, but they never appear.

In the HP-25 the segment driver was changed, because they wanted to show the "OF" message when overflow occured, and replaced the letter H by F, much to the displeasure of Mr. Hewlett.

Later in the HP-97 They needed another letter C for displaying "Crd", made again a redesign of the segment driver, and sacrificed the letter P, which now Mr.Packard maybe should have disliked.

So gradually and calmly, the engineers removed their masters from their products.

Bernhard

[Katie Wasserman]

(01-11-2015 11:10 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  

(01-11-2015 04:21 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  Thanks!

Hello Katie

I actually wanted to quote not your text but your icon. Can any moderator tell how this is done?

Bernhard

If you want to add an icon (aka avatar) to your profile, it's under User CP (top of page in the middle) --> Change Avatar.

If you want to "steal" my icon, just right click on it and save the image.

If you want to create your own, similar avatar: I used a 15x magnifying lens positioned the right distance from my 19C, took a picture and did just a little editing.

[Thomas Klemm]

(01-11-2015 11:35 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  I used a 15x magnifying lens positioned the right distance from my 19C, took a picture and did just a little editing.

I guess this was the source:


Cheers
Thomas

[toml_12953]

(01-10-2015 01:11 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Definition of Fully Blown ™

I have been asked about this on this board so here is the reply.

I coined this phrase back in 1983 when I doubled the speed of my HP41CV with the capacitor switch. I was too broke to have a phone inside my house so I used the pay phone outside my house at the intersection of Grove & Virginia Streets in Berkeley to announce it to my college buddies.

We used to use that phrase back in the '50s when working on our hot rods.
1983 is way too late for you to have come up with it!

Tom L

[Mark Hardman]

(01-12-2015 01:54 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  

(01-10-2015 01:11 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Definition of Fully Blown ™

I have been asked about this on this board so here is the reply.

I coined this phrase back in 1983 when I doubled the speed of my HP41CV with the capacitor switch. I was too broke to have a phone inside my house so I used the pay phone outside my house at the intersection of Grove & Virginia Streets in Berkeley to announce it to my college buddies.

We used to use that phrase back in the '50s when working on our hot rods.
1983 is way too late for you to have come up with it!

Tom L

I'd say.

According to Merriam-Webster.com the "First Known Use of FULL-BLOWN" was in 1601!