Talking to the original HP 9825 engineers

Probably the most rewarding moments of these restorations is when we actually get to meet design engineers of the superlative hardware we are working on. I still have goose bumps from meeting the original Apollo Guidance Computer engineers and the inventors of the Xerox Alto. 

Thanks to the help of former HP 9825 engineer Steve Leibson (who created the http://www.hp9825.com/ website), we were able to get in touch with some of the original HP engineers that worked on the HP 9825T. We just had a delightful talk with Rick Dow, the young engineer in the blue DCD shirt in the photo above, also provided by Rick. 

This is a photo of the team that designed the 9825T update to the original 9825A, which mainly consisted of the two boards we have been working on, the Ebenezer ROM/RAM board with the RAM refresh "noodle logic", which we just repaired in episode 8, and the Skoal 32k RAM expansion top board which we are reviving right now.

Rick implemented the Skoal board. His name appears at the bottom of the very schematics we are using!

He explained how he implemented the board, drawing schematics by hand and laying the PCB by hand too. In fact, he still had the first prototype, complete with bodge wires!

We are also in touch with Richard Herrington, the gentleman at the very right of the group photo, the main architect of the Skoal board, but he is not yet comfortable with the idea of appearing on YouTube. Unfortunately, Bob Tinnen, the architect of the mysterious and noodely RAM refresh logic, just passed away last year.

Talking about camera shy people, I have a newsflash. Mr. Fancy Pants has been found! He is alive and well, and happens to be one of the very top engineers at Keysight: he has both Principal and Emeritus in his title! I had no idea, I would have thought they just hired a good looking model with a sense of style for the picture. But not at all, he was a real HP engineer. Understandably, he is a bit weary of having been transformed into an internet meme. We'll see if I can mollify him a little and get him to appear on the channel. From now on though, he is no Ionger Mr. Fancy Pants. He is Bob, the great (and stylish) Keysight principal engineer. 

Marc