--- title: Hewlett Packard HP-9830 categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1972' cpus: - 4-board CPU set params: name: HP-9830 image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9830_system_1.jpg company: /companies/hewlett-packard company_name: Hewlett Packard specs: - label: NAME value: HP-9830 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Hewlett Packard - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: December 1972 - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1977' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: HP BASIC Plus - label: KEYBOARD value: Full stroke 107 key with numeric keypad, Function and arrow keys - label: CPU value: 4-board CPU set, 16--bit microprogrammed processor - label: SPEED value: Unknown - label: RAM value: '3.5 KB up to 16 KB - 9830B: 16 KB' - label: ROM value: From 15 KB up to 62 KB (31 KB of 16-bit words) - label: TEXT MODES value: LED display. 1 line x 32 alphanumeric chars. - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: None - label: COLORS value: Red! - label: SOUND value: Built-in speaker and "BEEP" command in the Basic interpreter - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 46 (W) x 63.5 (D) x 15.2(H) cm / 21 kg - label: I/O PORTS value: 5 x ROM module slots, 4 x interface module slots - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: Cartridge tape drive (2 x 64 KB sides) - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in power supply unit - label: PERIPHERALS value: 'I/O modules: Serial, Parallel, BCD, external FDD, HDD, General I/O, AD/DA converter, etc...' - label: PRICE value: $6000 tabs: - photos - adverts - links forum_thread: 926 photos: - title: TOP VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9830_top_1.jpg - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9830_keyboard_1.jpg - title: LEFT SIDE subtitle: '' text: Five ROM cartridges could be plugged in by the user. Four internal slots for additional ROM firmware were also available. image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9830_leftside_1.jpg adverts: - title: 1976 ADVERT subtitle: '' text: for the 9815, 9835 and 9830 systems image: null - title: DECEMBER 1972 HP JOURNAL subtitle: '' text: Courtesy **Joe Rigdon** image: /media/museum/pubs/hp_9830_hpjournal_1.jpg links: - title: HP Museum url: http://www.hpmuseum.net text: The best place about old HP computers and calculators. - title: Joe Rigdon pages url: http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/9800.htm text: More information about HP 98xx series - title: The Old Calculators Web museum url: http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/hp9830a.html text: Complete page about the HP-9830 related: - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9810 - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9816 - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9825 - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9826 - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9836 oc_id: 950 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230405101234/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=950 date: '2023-04-05' --- The HP **9810**, **9820** and **9830** were all announced simultaneously by HP in the December 1972 HP Journal. They were all four bit machines and all of them used a serial bus internally. The 9830 was by far the most capable machine of this group and ran what HP called BASIC Plus. In many ways, it was one of the first true "Personal Computers" ever marketed. The 9830 was also significantly more expandable than the 9810/9820, with five user-accessable ROM cartridge slots. The **9830-B** was introduced four years later in the 1977 HP catalog. HP said that three things set the HP 9830 apart from the other desktop systems:\ • First, it's used of **BASIC Plus** with it's English like vocabulary and structure,\ • Second, the entire operating system and firmware were in ROM and did not take up any of the read/write memory space,\ • Third, the use of the cassette tape drive with features that they said were only found on large computers.\ The basic 9830 came with 1760 16 bit words of memory, a 32 character display, the cassette tape drive and a large well-featured keyboard. In addition to the ROM cartridge slots, the 9830 could hold three more ROMs internally. The internal ROMs were on cards instead of plug in cartridges and had to be installed by HP. When the internal ROMs or extra memory were installed, a sticker that listed the ROM or new memory size and option number was added to the outside ROM door. The **9830A** came with 3520 bytes (1760 words) of memory and could be expanded up to 15808 bytes (7904 words). The **9830B** came with 15808 bytes (7904 words) of memory and could be expanded up to 30144 bytes (15072 words). The Matrix and String Variables ROM cards were also standard in the 9830-B. The HP 9830 was commonly found with a special version of HP **9866 printer** (see picture) that sits on top of the calculator and looks like it's part of the original machine. The 9866 was a full width page printer that printed up to 80 columns of characters on thermal roll paper. It could print a full 80 character width using 5 x 7 dot matrix characters at 240 lines per minute. It could also print simple plots and tables or other formatted text. The "B" version of this printer was introduced in 1977 and it added the capability of printing both upper and lower case letters and vertical lines. The printer used a short cable that connected to a special socket on the back of the computer. The HP 9830 was dropped from the HP catalog after 1977 or 1978. But, in 2000, some companies still used it...since 1975! Thanks to [Joe](http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/joespage.htm) for most of the information. --- **Kevin Kost** specifies:\ The HP-9830a was the first machine I ever programmed (in high school). In addition to the things noted in your article...\ \- The machine was identified as "Desktop Calculator" on its label, not "Professional Computer".\ \- The version of HP BASIC in ROM included buit-in matrix manipulation commands... very rare in those computing days.\ \- Internally the machine used a serial bus architecture.\ \- The price you mention might be low. I remember hearing that our system (9830 + thermal printer + card reader) was purchased for \~$30k.