HP A400 & A500 (rp2400/rp2430 & rp2450/rp2470)
Overview
Project names
- A400-36 (rp2400): Crescendo DC-360
- A400-44 (rp2400): Crescendo DC-440
- A400-5X (rp2400): Crescendo DC-550
- A400-6X (rp2430): Crescendo DC-650 W2
- A400-7X (rp2430): Crescendo DC-750 W2
- A500-36 (rp2450): Crescendo 360
- A500-44 (rp2450): Crescendo 440
- A500-5X (rp2450): Crescendo 550
- A500-6X (rp2470): Crescendo 650 W2
- A500-7X (rp2470): Crescendo 750 W2
Introduced: May 2000
Discontinued: September 2002
The rp2400/rp2430 (A400) and rp2450/rp2470 (A500) were the 64-bit successors to the popular A180 rack servers. The chassis remained superficially the same — it is still a 2U rack-mountable case, but the interior changed significantly. The various A400/A500 models are sported by 64-bit PA-RISC CPUs in different variations, but are all using large on-chip L1 caches. The I/O subsystem was redesigned around the Astro memory/CPU controller and several Elroy PCI bridges, which control the various PCI slots and integrated I/O devices. The difference between the A400 and A500 is that the latter are SMP-capable and can use more memory modules and PCI cards.
They also feature an advanced version of the Secure Web Console found in the earlier
A180 systems.
It is called Guardian Service Processor
(GSP) and can be reached with pressing
Ctrl-b.
It can be used for a wide range of administrative tasks; in the References section further
below is a link to a detailed command summary.
Original prices of the entry version were $4,600 for the A400-44 and $9,200 for a single-CPU A500-5X.
Internals
CPU
The A400 systems are uniprocessor systems while the A500 support up to 2-way SMP. The A400 (rp2400/rp2430) and A500 (rp2450/rp2470) are based on a different system boards, which supported different types of processors:
- A400/rp2400 — A6109A, A6109B: one 440MHz processor
- A400/rp2430 — A6890A: one 650MHz processor [probably supports 550MHz too]
- A500/rp2450 — A5570A, A5570B, A8329A: up to two 440MHz or 550MHz processors
- A500/rp2470 — A6890A: up to two 650MHz or 750MHz processors
The following table lists the various suffixes denoting the different theoretically possible CPU configurations. Upgrading from one configuration to another could require the replacement of other parts besides the processor, e.g. the mainboard or power supply.
- -44: PA-8500 440MHz with 512/1024KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A400/rp2400, A500/rp2450]
- -5X: PA-8600 550MHz with 512/1024KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A500/rp2450, A400 probably too]
- -6X: PA-8700 650MHz with 768/1536KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A400/rp2430, A500/rp2470]
- -7X: PA-8700 750MHz with 768/1536KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A500/rp2470]
- Unsure if the following two processors were ever actually supported/shipped:
- -8X: PA-8700 875MHz with 768/1536KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each
- -9X: PA-8800 (dual-core) 900MHz/1.0GHz with 1.5/1.5MB on-chip L1 and 32MB off-chip L2 cache each
Chipset
- Astro memory/Runway controller, connects to the system/processor bus (1-2 CPUs), dedicated memory bus and to the I/O systems via five (A400) or seven (A500) I/O links
- rp2430 (A400): Three Elroy PCI bridges (LBAs), convert the five I/O links from Astro into three PCI buses
- rp2470 (A500): Four Elroy PCI bridges (LBAs), convert the seven I/O links from Astro into four PCI buses
- Two HP Diva Serial [GSP] Multiport UARTs
- DEC 21142/43 Fast Ethernet controller (Tulip)
- Symbios Logic 53C876 SCSI controller, (includes 2 Symbios Logic 53C875 cores with each one Ultra-Wide SCSI-2 bus)
- Symbios Logic 53C896 Ultra2-Wide SCSI-3 controller
Buses
- Runway CPU/memory bus, 120MHz
- SCSI-2 Ultra-Narrow single-ended bus
- Two SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD buses
- rp2430 (A400):
- 1.9GB/s system bus bandwidth
- 1.3GB/s I/O bus bandwidth (five 250MB/s I/O links)
- 1.9GB/s memory bandwidth
- Three independent PCI-64/66 I/O buses (on five I/O links):
- rp2470 (A500):
- 1.9GB/s system bus bandwidth
- 1.9GB/s I/O bus bandwidth (seven 250MB/s I/O links)
- 1.9GB/s memory bandwidth
- Four independent PCI-64/66 I/O buses (on seven I/O links):
- PCI-64/66 bus on two I/O links (500MB/s) for one PCI
Twin-turbo
slot (slot 1) - PCI-64/66 bus on two I/O links (500MB/s) for one PCI
Twin-turbo
slot (slot 2) - PCI-64/66 bus on two I/O links (500MB/s) for two PCI
shared
slots (slot 3 and 4) - PCI-64/66 bus on one I/O link (250MB/s) for the core I/O — SCSI, Ethernet networking, management LAN, serial ports, etc.
- PCI-64/66 bus on two I/O links (500MB/s) for one PCI
Memory
- ECC SDRAM DIMMs
- Take 256MB/512MB/1GB modules
- Eight slots, A400 can only use first 4 of those
- 256MB (1×256) minimum, A400/rp2430: 2GB (4×512MB) maximum, A500/rp2470: 8GB (8×1GB) maximum
Expansion
- A400/rp2430: Two PCI 64-bit/66MHz, 5V slots [two slots from the A500 are disabled]
- A500/rp2470: Four PCI 64-bit/66MHz, 5V slots
- Two of those slots are
Twin-turbo
slots (slot 1 and 2), each on its own dedicated PCI bus connected via two dedicated 250MB/s I/O channel (rope) - A500/rp2470: The other two slots are
shared
slots (slots 3 and 4) and share two 250MB/s I/O channels — if only one slot is used it is allocated two channels and becomes aTwin-turbo
slot in effect
Drives
- Two trays for each one 3.5″ Ultra2-Wide LVD SCSI hard drives with 80-pin SCA connector which require a special spud to be plugged into the system.
External Connectors
- 50-pin HD SCSI-2 Ultra-Narrow single-ended
- 68-pin HD SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD
- DB25 male RS232C serial for console/UPS (a break-out cable which converts to three DB9 plugs)
- TP/RJ45 10/100Mbit Ethernet
- TP/RJ45 10Mbit Ethernet for Secure Web Console/GSP
ROM update
There is an firmware update available which contains the latest version (43.50).
- PF_CHAW4350.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
- PF_CHAW4350.tar.gz contains the patch.
There is also an firmware update available for the GSP (service processor) on rp2430 and rp2470 systems which contains the latest version (C.02.14).
- PF_CHARGSPC0214.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
- PF_CHARGSPC0214.tar.gz contains the patch.
References
- hp server rp2400 series whitepaper, Hewlett-Packard Company (February 2002, product number 5981-0175EN) [did not find an appropriate URL for this PDF document —Ed.]
- rp24xx Hardware Manual (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (n. d.)
- Doug’s HP 9000 - GSP Notes Page with a detailed description of the available GSP commands.
Operating Systems
- HP-UX: Only 64-bit 11.00 and 11i (v1 and v2) releases run.
- Linux: works, but the SMP support on some models supposedly is a bit flaky and not all CPU configurations are supported.
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC2000, int | SPEC2000, fp | SPEC2000 rate, int |
SPEC2000 rate, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A500-5X (rp2450) |
422 | 414 | 2-CPU: 9.3 | 2-CPU: 7.6 |
| A500-7X (rp2470) |
581 | 6.74 2-CPU: 12.9 |
Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.
Physical dimensions/Power
- 95×482×635 mm height/width/depth
- rack-mounted: 2U height, 482×774 mm width/depth
- 22.68kg net weight