A minicomputer on a desk with a indicator lights ans switches.

Screen capture from a video* by The Vintage Technology Association*, ca. 2011 – Note: This is a still image quotation of a published cinematographic or similar work and it is used as part of a historical commentary.

Hewlett-Packard HP2114B minicomputer

I used a similar HP2114B in the spring 1972 at my school, the Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu (SYK)* to experiment with Basic. The machine had 4K memory, HP Educational Basic, a teletype terminal, and an optical card reader. The cards were normal puched card format but designed for Basic programming. It was possible select the Basic statements by blacking out with a pen the appropriate boxes. Entering paramters and arithmetic statements was more trickier. I used the teletype.