HP 300

The HP 300 "Amigo" was a computer produced by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the late 1970s based loosely on the stack-based HP 3000, but with virtual memory for both code and data. The HP300 was cut-short from being a commercial success despite the huge engineering effort, which included HP-developed and -manufactured silicon on sapphire (SOS) processor and I/O chips.

The HP300 was initially designed as a single-user workstation by a totally separate program within the General Systems Division (GSD), the Cupertino, California home of the HP 3000 business computers (the division was later renamed Computer Systems Division CSY). Later, the HP300 design team developed multi-user abilities, and an ahead of its time inter-unit processor interconnect that let one HP300 change registers in other inter-connected HP300's system.

The circuit boards were in a floor pedestal box, with CRT on top with built-in soft keys, and fixed keyboard protruding in front. It pioneered such ideas as built-in networking, automatic spelling correction, multiple windows (on a character based screen), and labels adjacent to vertically stacked user function keys, now used on ATMs and gas pumps. The HP300 featured HP-IB (later IEEE-488) interface (IF) as the I/O bus, an 8" floppy disk, and a built-in fixed 12M hard drive. Later drivers for HP7970E tape drive allowed for easier HP300 system back ups. It also had a native system programming language, a database, BASIC, and featured screen editing for RPG.

HP Computer Systems Division General Manager (GM), Doug Spreng, decided the file system differences between the division's money making HP3000 line and the burgeoning HP300 would keep the HP300 from being successful and killed the product. HP built two semi-truck loads of units before shutting down the HP300 production line to meet customer contractual agreements (i.e.: in case LLNL wanted more Amigos).

HP commonly reused the work of killed products in other product designs to save money and keep design-team morale up. The processor board and I/O boards were used in later HP 3000 systems that used the HP300's advanced designs: HP3000 model 30 (project name: Koala - a single card bay stand-alone box) and model 33 (project name: Toothpick - a double card bay table design) reused many of HP300's designs. The HP300 diagnostics (DUS) were ported over and used in these and future HP3000 models.

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