HP Visualize C132L & C160L
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| CPU | PA-7300LC 132-160 MHz |
| Cache | 128 KB L1 1 MB L2 |
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Drives | 3 SCSI 1 FD |
| Expansion | 2 GSC/EISA 1 EISA/PCI 1 PCI |
| Bandwidth | Mem 423 MB/s (C132L) Mem 427 MB/s (C160L) I/O 132 MB/s (C132L) I/O 160 MB/s (C160L) |
| I/O | 10E EVC 2 SCSI 2 serial parallel 2 PS/2 HIL audio |
Overview
These were entry-level workstations equipped with the low-cost PA-7300LC CPU. They have a similar case to that of the old 735 — built of interlocking modules so the I/O board, MPU board etc. can be easily taken out.
Model numbers: both the C132L and C160L have the HP 9000/779 model number.
Internals
CPU
- C132L: PA-7300LC 132 MHz with 64/64 KB on-chip I/D L1 (and 1 MB off-chip unified L2) cache
- C160L: PA-7300LC 160 MHz with 64/64 KB on-chip I/D L1 (and 1 MB off-chip unified L2) cache
The off-chip L2 cache SRAM is optional and is installed in two DIMM slots below the CPU socket. The modules must be of equal size. Usually, these systems come with two 512 KB modules, totalling in 1 MB L2 cache.
Chipset
- LASI ASIC, which features:
- NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- WD 16C522 compatible parallel
- Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- NS 16550A compatible serial
- Wax chip
- EISA bus converter (GSC-to-EISA)
- Second RS232 serial
- HP HIL interface
- Dino GSC-to-PCI bridge
- Phantom PseudoBC GSC+ port
- Visualize-EG graphics
- Intel 82C503 Ethernet transceiver, media auto-selection
- CS4215 or AD1849 programmable CODECs
- WD37C65C Floppy controller
- NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI-2
» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the chipset.
Buses
- GSC-2 system and I/O bus (33 MHz with 132 MB/s peak data rate on C132L, 40 MHz 160 MB/s on C160L)
- EISA additional expansion I/O bus
- PCI-32/33 high-performance device I/O bus
- SCSI-2 single-ended bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Wide differential main storage I/O bus
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs, 60ns or faster
- Bus width: 128 data bits with 16 check bits
- Up to 8-way interleaving
- Takes 16-256 MB modules
- 12 slots
- 32 MB (2×16) minimum, 2 GB maximum
Expansion
- Two slots for either GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
- One slot for either a PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, 3V or EISA card
- One slot for a PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, 3V card
- Slot layout (from top to bottom):
- EISA or GSC
- EISA or GSC
- PCI-32/33.3 V or EISA
- PCI-32/33
Drives
The disk-slider can accomodate up to three SCSI drives and one floppy drive simultaneously, the internal cabling (usually) includes one Wide-SCSI cable with three 68-pin connectors and a HVD-terminator at the end, one Narrow-SCSI with one 50-pin connector and one cable for the floppy.
The Narrow-SCSI cable is normally used for the external-accessible half-height 5.25″ CD/DAT drive, although it is of course also possible to connect a 50-pin SE hard drive. The cable can also be easily replaced with a variant with more connectors to use up to three 50-pin SE hard drives. The PDC can boot off these SE drives.
The Wide-SCSI cable is normally used for the internal 3.5″ 68-pin Fast-Wide high-voltage differential system drives. Up to three hard drives can be installed in the cage, which leaves no room for an external-accessible CD/DAT drive though. The Fast-Wide drives are also bootable from the PDC.
A standard configuration could look like this:
- Two 3.5″ 68-pin Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI hard drives,
- One 3.5″ Floppy drive and
- One external-accessible half-height 5.25″ SCSI drive (CD/DAT).
External connectors
- 50-pin HD SCSI-2 single-ended
- 68-pin HD SCSI-3 Fast-Wide differential (HVD)
- Two DB9 male RS232C serial (up 460.8Kb/s)
- DB25 female parallel
- TP/RJ45 10 Mbit Ethernet
- 15-pin AUI 10 Mbit Ethernet
- EVC graphics port1
- Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse
- HP-HIL for input device loop
- Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)
- You need a special HP adapter-cable to convert this EVC-port to either BNC or HD15 VGA
ROM update
There is a firmware update available for the C160L, which contains the latest version (5.8).
- PF_CB1X0058.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
- PF_CB1X0058 contains the patch.
References
Manuals
- C160L Owners Guide (PDF, 1.6 MB)
- Service Handbook C Class (PDF, 1.5 MB)
Operating systems
- HP-UX: every 32-bit release from 10.20-11.11 works.
- Linux: works fine.
- OpenBSD: works fine (the 53C720 Fast-Wide HVD SCSI controller is supported since release 4.2).
- NetBSD: experimental support as of 5/2005, but the 53C720 Fast-Wide HVD SCSI controller is not supported.
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC95, int | SPEC95, fp | SPEC95 rate, int |
SPEC95 rate, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C132L | 6.45 | 6.70 | 58.1 | 60.3 |
| C160L | 7.75 | 7.56 | 7.75/7.56 | 69.7/68.1 |
Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.
Physical dimensions/Power
- 138×539×447 mm height/width/depth
- 16.7kg net weight, 21.1kg fully loaded
- 525W max. power input
- 5.0A max. RMS at 240V
- 9.5A max. RMS at 120V