HP9831 operating manual

[Tony Duell]

It sounds like my house is similar to others on this list....

Anyway, while extracting an off-topic device, I came across a ring 
binder that I had labelled 'HP9831 Manual' Inside were the 2 volumes of 
user documentation for that machine -- the Operating/Programming Manual 
and the I/O Manual.

[The HP9831 has similar hardware to the 9825, but has BASIC, not HPL, in ROM]

A couple of things struck me from reading said documentation

1) There were 2 ROM modules made for the 9831 -- a Matrix/Plotter ROM 
(which came in 2 versions to support either the 9862 or 9872 plotters) 
and a Flexible Disk ROM. I have neither, alas. Has anyone ever seen them?

2) The I/O manual describes all the peripherals available for the machine 
_including the 9877 External Tape Memory_. It appears that the 9831 
firmware supports this device for loading/saving BASIC programs and data 
files (although not for doing bit-level copies of tapes, etc).

Unfortunately it says nothing about the actually interface for the 9877 
-- for all other peripherals (printers, card reader, paper tape punch, 
paper tape reader), it says that the interface is a 98032 16 bit parallel 
module with the approriate 'option' (cable and link settings). Does 
anyone know if the 9877 _definietly_ connected via a 98032 as well? Even 
better, does anyone know the wiring?

-tony