As part of my quest to upgrade my HP 16500A logic analyser’s memory, I’ve found out more than I ever expected about the various versions of the 16500A CPU board. I’ve been fortunate to have the help of the good people of the [hp_agilent_equipment] Yahoo! group. My most recent stumbling block has been that installing ROM version 00.02 in my (early) 16500A stops the floppy disc drives working.

Glen Slick, from the above group, was kind enough to send me high-resolution scans of the two 16500A CPU boards he has. That makes three known versions, and here I’ll post pictures of them and attempt a description of the differences.

16500-66503 with 1MB RAM

This is the board from my machine. It has 1MB RAM in 8 TMS44C256-12N DIL chips, and the floppy disc controller is a Standard Microsystems FDC9793. The ROMs contain software version 00.00. For completists, I have put images of the V00.00 16500A ROMs here.

16500-66507 with 2.5MB RAM

This is one of Glen’s boards. It has 2.5MB RAM fitted as 20 off TC514256AZ-10 1Mbit ZIP chips, and the floppy disc controller is a Zilog Z0765A (which seems to be compatible with the very common uPD765 as found in the original IBM PC). The ROMs contain software version 00.02. It also has three extra programmable devices with labels on them. The details of their encapsulation mouldings look very similar to PALs elsewhere on the board, but why don’t all the PALs have labels on them? The labelled ones are:

• 16500-80006, U86, by the floppy drive connector at the bottom
• 16500-80007, U104, top right
• 16500-80008, no designator visible, next to the floppy controller IC

16500-66510 with 4MB RAM

This is another of Glen’s boards. The part number (66510) seems to be on a sticker. The only noticeable difference, other than the RAM chip complement, from the 66507 board is that the chip top right is labelled 16500-80013. It has 4MB of RAM as 8 off TC514400AZ-80 4Mbit ZIP chips. The ROMs contain software version 00.02.