The HP-150, a "compact, powerful and innovate" computer made by Hewlett-Packard in 1983 and based on Intel 8088, was one of the world's earliest commercialized touch screen computers. Running MS-DOS, the machine was nevertheless non-IBM PC compatible. Its 8088, rated at 8 MHz, was much faster than the 4.77 MHz ones used by many other computers of that period. However, its mainboard did not have a slot for the optional Intel 8087 math coprocessor due to space constraints.

The screen is actually not a touch screen in the strict sense, but a 9" Sony CRT surrounded by infrared transmitters and receivers which detect the position of any non-transparent object on the screen. The HP-150's use of 3½-inch "microfloppies" predates the Macintosh 128K. Its use of two internal 3½-inch drives was also more practical than Apple's merely one.

• Removable storage:
  • 8-inch floppy drive
  • 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
  • 3½-inch floppy drive
• Mass storage:
  • Winchester hard disk
• Display resolutions:
  • Text: 80 columns x 27 lines (720 pixel x 378 pixel)
    • Character size: 7 pixel x 10 pixel
    • Character cell size: 9 pixel x 14 pixel
  • Bit-map: 512 pixel x 390 pixel
• Monitor sensor grid: 40 (h) x 24 (v)
• Communication ports:
  • RS-232 x 2 (one of them supported RS-422)
  • HPIP

HP-150's touch screen sensor grid is quite coarse. Its resolution is only two characters wide. It cannot be used to draw pictures.

See also: List of Hewlett-Packard products

Reference

• Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson, "Product Review: The HP 150," BYTE October 1983, pp. 36-50.
• Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson, "An Interview: The HP 150's Design-team Leaders," BYTE October 1983, pp. 51-58.

External links

• HP-150 (http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/hp150.html)
• The Machine Room :: Hewlett-Packard :: HP-150 :: Quick view (http://www.machine-room.org/computers/1004/)
• Hewlett-Packard HP-150 (http://www.alfonsomartone.itb.it/ttezkn.html)