website/content/museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9825.md

---
title: Hewlett Packard HP-9825
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1976'
cpus:
- HP 5061 16-bit
params:
  name: HP-9825
  image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9825_system_1.jpg
  company: /companies/hewlett-packard
  company_name: Hewlett Packard
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: HP-9825
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Hewlett Packard
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1976'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: HPL
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: 98 keys with 18 fuction keys, numeric and cursor keypads
  - label: CPU
    value: HP 5061 16-bit
  - label: SPEED
    value: Unknown
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: Math coprocessor
  - label: RAM
    value: 8 KB up to 32 KB
  - label: ROM
    value: 8 KB up to 24 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 32 characters x 1 line
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: None
  - label: COLORS
    value: Red
  - label: SOUND
    value: Simple beep through a built-in tiny speaker
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 49,5 (W) x 38,4 (D) x 13 (H) cm / 11.8 Kg
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: 4 x ROM pack, 3 x expansion slots
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: 250 KB DC-100 cartridge drive
  - label: OS
    value: HP
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PRICE
    value: $5900
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - links
  photos:
  - title: TOP VIEW
    subtitle: ''
    text: The DC-100 cartridge drive is at the left side of the LED display, the thermal printer at the right.
    image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9825_topview_1.jpg
  - title: 9825B
    subtitle: ''
    text: With true typewriter keyboard.
    image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9825_bversion_1.jpg
  - title: 4 ROM-PACKS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      • String ADV. Programming - added advanced string commands to the HPL language\
      • Plotter\
      • GEN I/O, Extended I/O\
      • Systems Programming
    image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9825_cartridges_1.jpg
  - title: TERMINAL ROM PACKS MANUAL
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/hp_9825_manual_1.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: 1976 ADVERT
    subtitle: ''
    text: for the 9815, 9835 and 9830 systems
    image: null
  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
  comments:
  - author: Victor Santiago (United States)
    date: Wednesday 7th September 2022
    text: We had several 9825Bs used in test stations at a resistor manufacturer in Texas. These were used until the mid-1990s. In those 15 to 20 years they never failed to work.
  - author: Chris Parent (United States)
    date: Thursday 28th May 2020
    text: |-
      my first engineering job was at AMBAC working on fuel injection pumps!\
      it took me three proposals to get my 9825 but then I used it to computerizing engine sell changing load factors and speeds well taking fuel measurements and plotting the results… Everyone loved it! it took me three proposals to get my 9825 but then I used it to computerize an engine cell changing load factors and speeds while taking full measurements and plotting the results… Everyone loved it\
      but it would shut off because of electromagnetic interference so I had to put it in a cage of wire and ground it...The salesman took that info back to HP
  - author: Adrian Georgescu (Romania-Bucuresti)
    date: Sunday 21st December 2014
    text: I worked on HP 9825 in 1980 for AGIE-CUT
  - author: Adrian Georgescu (Romania-Bucuresti)
    date: Sunday 21st December 2014
    text: I worked on HP 9825 in 1980 for AGIE-CUT
  - author: Jan Pieter Mulder (Brasil)
    date: Wednesday 7th December 2011
    text: This was the first computer I worked with... in 1982! AND I wrote my first basic programs (calculations) for it!
  - author: Jan Pieter Mulder (Brasil)
    date: Wednesday 7th December 2011
    text: This was the first computer I worked with... in 1982! AND I wrote my first basic programs (calculations) for it!
  - author: Dale Zimmerman
    date: Tuesday 5th April 2011
    text: My high school got an HP-9825B when it first came out. My mom used one of it in a computer class the very same year (taught by a man that would later be my math teacher). 30 years later, the computer is still there, and functioning. I know because I used it! The magnetic tape reader and printer are both what would generally be considered irrepairable. However, the plotter and punch card reader both still work just fine!
  - author: Isleif (Bayamón Puerto Rico)
    date: Tuesday 8th June 2010
    text: |-
      The HP9825 has a feature that HP called Live Keyboard on which one could do calculations or check the contents of the variables in programme whilst it is running.\
      It has a 16 bit proprietary hybrid processor and for it''s day was a very fast machine.
  related:
  - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9810
  - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9816
  - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9826
  - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9830
  - /museum/hewlett-packard-hp-9836
  oc_id: 930
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230210082325/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=930
    date: '2023-02-10'
---

Although the HP-9825 was presented by HP as a desktop calculator with some computer features, it was really a desktop computer, in fact the first all-in-one computer everyone could use without being a computers guru.

This system was lauched quite at the same time as the first personal systems ([Altair 8800](/museum/mits-altair-8800/), [Imsai 8080](/museum/imsai-8080/)), however, its concepts and features were much more advanced but its price was about ten times the one of an Imsai, it thus wasn't intended to hobbyists market.

Inside the portable case, one found:\
• a full HP 16-bit CPU called 5061 with math coprocessor,\
• 8 KB to 32 KB of RAM,\
• HPL, an advanced high-level programming language close to BASIC,\
• a complete standard low-profile keyboard,\
• a 32 character alphanumeric LED display,\
• a built-in 16 column thermal printer,\
• a magnetic DC-100 cartridge tape drive.

Furthermore, four ROM-pack housings allowed to extand HPL capabilities or run specialized software, and three expansion slots provided communication capabilities with any type of peripherals: measuring instruments, printers, plotters, mass storage devices. The expansions operating system was developed by **Joe Beyers** who will become later Vice President of HP Computer Systems Business.

Two additional versions of the 9825 were manufactured, the **9825S** included a set of ROM packs and the **9825B** featured a true typewriter keyboard instead of the low-profile version.

---

**David Botkin** remembers:\
In 1982, I worked with a model 9825B, connected to a flatbed plotter through the built-in HPIB interface. At the time, the 9825B had the only hidden-line plotting software available commercially (as opposed to military applications). In this case, the application was a graphical representation of optical diffraction patterns, which were later used in a college-level textbook on optics. A single plot could take several days to complete!

The HPL language was indeed very close to BASIC, but with some interesting extensions, such as the ability to read and write data directly to/from HPIB ports. I used this ability to write several small programs that digitised points on completed plots (using the digitisation feature of the plotter; the pen could be replaced with a crosshair!), and then drew 3-dimensional correct-perspective axes to label the plots, as the plotting software itself had no such function.

9825 and weather reconnaisance, by **Mark Christoph**:\
We used the 9825B in our WC-130 aircraft to run our dropsonde weather data gathering equipment used in weather reconnaisance (Hurricane Hunters). The dropsonde (essentially a weather ballon-type radio device that decends via parachute rather than rising by ballon) would gather temperature/pressure/humidity data and transmit it via radio transmitter to a receiver and frequency counter, which in turn sent it to the 9825B for processing.\
Our computer program would number crunch for about 20 minutes and then spit out the weather code that we could plot and transmit back to surface stations for world-wide dissemination. It also served double duty playing crude games for us to pass the time during long transits to and from the storms. The last I used one was in 1987, and were pulled from service best to my recollection around 1988-89.\
A previous writer mentions that the language was very close to BASIC, which I also recall; most of the commands were the same as BASIC with the same line number/program flow.