HP 87: PLOT ROM B 00087-60929

[Michael Fehlhammer]

My recently acquired HP 86B is equipped with a version of the plotter rom I never have heard of.
A case of an HP 00087-15002 Version B module has a sticker on it, overwriting the original label and saying:
00087-60929 PLOT ROM B.

Google doesn't find anything related to the given product number.
Maybe this plotter rom was released very late in the life cycle of the 86B, to support some new plotter models? That would explain that it is so rare. But I'm just guessing.
Does anyone know anything about that rom module?

[rprosperi]

(06-14-2018 11:41 AM)Michael Fehlhammer Wrote:  My recently acquired HP 86B is equipped with a version of the plotter rom I never have heard of.
A case of an HP 00087-15002 Version B module has a sticker on it, overwriting the original label and saying:
00087-60929 PLOT ROM B.

Google doesn't find anything related to the given product number.
Maybe this plotter rom was released very late in the life cycle of the 86B, to support some new plotter models? That would explain that it is so rare. But I'm just guessing.
Does anyone know anything about that rom module?

Have you examined the contents to see if it really is different, perhaps the sticker is the mystery here?

[Michael Fehlhammer]

Hello Bob,
no, I didn't compare the contents yet.
I am not so familiar with the series 80; what is the quickest way to compare the contents? Can you provide instructions? I have got the assembler rom, maybe that helps.

[rprosperi]

(06-14-2018 12:52 PM)Michael Fehlhammer Wrote:  Hello Bob,
no, I didn't compare the contents yet.
I am not so familiar with the series 80; what is the quickest way to compare the contents? Can you provide instructions? I have got the assembler rom, maybe that helps.

Use Martin Heperle's very useful and easy to use System Inventory tool (https://groups.io/g/hpseries80/files/Sof...6TOOLS.zip) which is the best way I know of to list the keywords provided by each ROM. I would run it with the 'normal' PLotter ROM first for a baseline, then swap ROM modules and run it again. If it is a different ROM, more than likely it would have a different ROM ID so a detailed comparison of the keywords is not even necessary, but it's easy to do, so why not capture that info.

Edit: Some additional files on the Series-80 Group Files\Software page (https://groups.io/g/hpseries80/files/Software) may also help, e.g. there is a LIF file containing the BPRGMs which can be copied to a diskette with FDIO.

[J-F Garnier]

(06-14-2018 12:52 PM)Michael Fehlhammer Wrote:  I am not so familiar with the series 80; what is the quickest way to compare the contents? Can you provide instructions? I have got the assembler rom, maybe that helps.

With the MEM command of the assembler ROM, you can have a look at the content of the ROM, and maybe check if it's a different version.
Do MEM 60000:360 [ 60000 is the (octal) address of the beginning of the plugged-in ROM area and 360 is the octal id of the plotter ROM]
You should get something like (the first two bytes identify the ROM):
360 020 012 140 360 140 174 140 p `p`|`
077 141 247 141 000 000 000 000 ?a'a
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

Now, if you do
MEM 77700:360
you can check the last bytes of the ROM, that are probably kind of checksum bytes. Here is what is in the standard plotter ROM (checked in the excellent HP80 series emulator from Everett Kaser):
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000 000 000 000 130 224 326 250 X V(

J-F

[Martin Hepperle]

(06-14-2018 11:41 AM)Michael Fehlhammer Wrote:  My recently acquired HP 86B is equipped with a version of the plotter rom I never have heard of.
A case of an HP 00087-15002 Version B module has a sticker on it, overwriting the original label and saying:
00087-60929 PLOT ROM B.
[...]

The module was very likely part of a hardware/software bundle e.g. of a data acquisition package.
I have one picture in the "/Serie-80 Parts" section of the groups.io Serie-80 photo album which is (I/O-ROM 00085-60946)

These ROMs were part of packages like the disc exerciser kit and similar. They are regular ROMs just with an additional sticker.
HP seems to have created specific part numbers for such packages so that buyers could order replacement parts using this number liked to the package.
You would have to read through the packaging lists for e.g. SCSI disk exerciser, SS80 disk exerciser etc. to discover such part numbers.
Guessing I would expect some test equipment system bundle which required plotting using an HP 85. Maybe one including a spectrum analyzer or some medical devices?

Martin

[Michael Fehlhammer]

Thank you Bob, J-F and Martin!
@ Bob: I found Martin's System Inventory Tool and FDIO and will try to build a floppy disk with my old PC.
Following J-F's suggested procedure, I did a MEM dump with both the "strange" PLOT ROM B 00087-60929 and the "normal" Plotter Rom Rev. B.
In both cases the resulting byte sequence is exactly the same as the one J-F got from the emulator!
So we can be pretty sure that the plotter rom 00087-60929 is identical to 00087-15002. The reason for the existence of a separate order number has been well explained by Martin.

[rprosperi]

(06-19-2018 06:35 PM)Michael Fehlhammer Wrote:  Thank you Bob, J-F and Martin!
@ Bob: I found Martin's System Inventory Tool and FDIO and will try to build a floppy disk with my old PC.
Following J-F's suggested procedure, I did a MEM dump with both the "strange" PLOT ROM B 00087-60929 and the "normal" Plotter Rom Rev. B.
In both cases the resulting byte sequence is exactly the same as the one J-F got from the emulator!
So we can be pretty sure that the plotter rom 00087-60929 is identical to 00087-15002. The reason for the existence of a separate order number has been well explained by Martin.

Michael,

Good news - you now know that it's a clone of the standard Plotter ROM

Bad news - now you can't sell it for as much, since it's now clear what it is...

But I suggest you get a copy of Martin's very useful utility working anyhow. It is quite helpful when you need to explore unknown ROMs and/or need to identify the keywords in a ROM.

Good luck!