HP 9000/E-Class
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| CPU | 1 PA-7100LC 48-96 MHz |
| Caches | 64 KB-1 MB L1 |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| Drives | 5 SCSI |
| Expansion | 2 HP-PB |
| Bandwidth | System 128 MB/s I/O 32 MB/s |
| I/O | 10E SCSI MUX parallel |
Overview
The E-Class Wright Brothers
are low-cost PA-RISC servers from the mid-1990s and the
replacements for the older F and G-Class Nova servers.
Designed for reduced manufacturing cost they were developed
in parallel to the HP 9000/712 workstations.
The case was taken over almost unchanged from the F-Class, with the CPU/memory and part of the I/O systems being new
designs.
From the integrated LASI chipset only
the networking and several other functions were used — due to time constraints a modified version
of the F-Class HP-PB Personality boards
was used for SCSI, serial MUX and parallel.
Model numbers, introductions dates and prices:
| System | Model number | Introduced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| E25 | HP 9000/806 | 1994 | $6,000 |
| E35 | HP 9000/816 | 1994 | |
| E45 | HP 9000/826 | 1994 | $11,320 |
| E55 | HP 9000/856 | 1995? |
Internals
CPU
- E25: PA-7100LC 48 MHz with 1 KB on-chip I L1 and 64 KB off-chip unified I/D L1 cache
- E35: PA-7100LC 64 MHz with 1 KB on-chip I L1 and 256 KB off-chip unified I/D L1 cache
- E45: PA-7100LC 80 MHz with 1 KB on-chip I L1 and 256 KB off-chip unified I/D L1 cache
- E55: PA-7100LC 96 MHz with 1 KB on-chip I L1 and 1024 KB off-chip unified I/D L1 cache
- The 1 KB on-chip L1 cache is not really a true cache.
Chipset
- LASI as central I/O chipset (not all functions are used)
- Wax ASIC
- HP-PB bus converter
- 8 MHz HP-PB frequency
- Implemented from the HP_PB converter of the old HP 9000 F and G servers
- GSC to HP-PB clock ratio from 3:1 to 5:1 synchronous with 32 MHz GSC frequency
- GSC to HP-PB clock ratio asynchronous with GSC frequency between 32 to 40 MHz
- 0.8µ in 208-pin MQFP
- Several HP ASICs, controlling the HP-PB SCSI and MUX port
Buses
- GSC system level I/O bus (128 MB/s)
- HP-PB additional I/O bus (32 MB/s)
- SCSI-2 Fast-Narrow single-ended bus; main storage I/O
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs
- Takes 8-64 MB modules
- Eight slots
- 16 MB (2×8) minimum, 512 MB (8×64) maximum
Expansion
- Two slots for HP-PB cards
Drives
- One tray for two 3.5″ Fast-Narrow SE 50-pin SCSI hard drives
- One tray for three half-height 5.25″ Fast-Narrow SE 50-pin drives, externally accessible
External connectors
- 50-pin HD SCSI-2 single-ended
- high-pin-count MUX connector
- TP/RJ45 10 Mbit Ethernet1
- 15-pin AUI 10 Mbit Ethernet1
- DB25 female parallel
ROM update
There is a firmware update available for the E25, E35 and E45, which contains the latest version (1.3).
- PF_CWBR0013.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
- PF_CWBR0013 contains the patch.
References
Articles
- Development of a Low-Cost, High-Performance, Multiuser Business Server System (PDF, HP Journal 4/95)
- HP 9000 E-Class Servers Product Brief (.pdf) Hewlett-Packard Company (1993: Hewlett-Packard)
Pictures
- E35: complete, CPU, CPU rear, I/O board, rear (pictures © Copyright ESIEE; with permission)
- E55: front, rear, CPU top, CPU bottom, I/O top, I/O bottom, backplane, PSU rear, chassis front, chassis rear (pictures © Copyright Ralf Folkerts; with permission)
Operating systems
- HP-UX: every 32-bit release from 10.20-11.00 works.
- 10.20 for 800s servers
- 11.00
- 11i v1: officially unsupported but some releases should work.
- Linux: works, but hardware support for the E-class is very limited, i.e., the SCSI subsystem does not work.
- NetBSD: experimental support as of 5/2005, however some I/O devices are not supported (e.g., SCSI).
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC92, int | SPEC92, fp |
|---|---|---|
| E25 | 45.0 | 66.7 |
| E35 | 65.6 | 98.5 |
| E45 | 82.1 | 122.9 |
| E55 | 108.0 | 163.4 |
Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.