SAIC Galaxy
SAIC, an American government contractor, developed the SAIC Galaxy mobile PA-RISC workstation as part of a military contract, TAC-4 in 1994. SAIC Galaxy were based on HP 9000/712 Unix workstations integrated into robust cases (8kg!).
SAIC Galaxy 1100 were no RISC laptops but mobile workstations to be used with AC power with no batteries. They are pretty rare and were originally built for military and intelligence (ISR) applications. Besides a few modifications, Galaxy 1100 are standard PA-RISC workstations and support standard PA-RISC operating systems and software.
| Galaxy 1000 | Galaxy 1100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Based on | HP 9000/712 | HP 9000/712 |
| Introduced | 1994 | 1994 |
| CPU | PA-7100LC 60 MHz |
PA-7100LC 80 MHz |
| Cache | 64 KB L1 | 256 KB L1 |
| Design | 32-bit RISC HP PA-RISC with HP LASI chipset | |
| RAM | 16-128 MB | |
| Video | HP Artist 1 MB | |
| Screen | 10.4″ LCD | |
| Drives | SCSI drive and floppy | |
| Expansion | Two PCMCIA, GIO/TSIO | |
| I/O | Ethernet, VGA, SCSI, PS/2, audio, 2 serial, parallel | |
| OS | HP-UX | |
| Price | ||
Another PA-RISC laptop was the slightly newer PrecisionBook from RDI, who also built a range of other RISC laptops in the 1990s and 2000s.
Technical details
SAIC Galaxy were 32-bit PA-RISC computers based on integrated HP workstations designs, which SAIC built into a portable
case.
Chipset and devices used were:
| Usage | Device | Type | External |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chipset | HP LASI | Integrated main chipset | |
| Storage | NCR 53C710 [i] | 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2 | 50-pin single-ended |
| Networking | Intel 82596CA [i] | 10 Mbit Ethernet controller | TP and AUI |
| Video | HP Artist | with 1 MB VRAM | VGA HD15 |
| Audio | HP Harmony [i] | CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo | 3 audio jacks |
| Cards | ? | PCMCIA controller | two slots (see below) |
| I/O | ? | Serial and parallel I/O | RS-232C DB9 and DB25 port |
| I/O | ? | PS/2 for keyboard/mouse | 2 ports |
Expansion and devices
There were few possibilities to expand the SAIC Galaxy with devices:
| Device | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | ECC | four sockets for 72-pin SIMMs, 16-128 MB |
| Storage | SCSI | one 3.5″ SCSI drive, fast SE |
| Media | Floppy | 3.5″ Floppy for 1.44MB |
| Cards | PCMCIA | two slots for two Type I/II or one Type III |
| Cards | GIO/TSIO | two slots for proprietary HP/SAIC modules |
| Input | PS/2 | 84-key keyboard and three-button trackball |
| Output | LCD | 10.4″ LCD 1024×768 (256 colors) active matrix |
SAIC Galaxy had no battery, they were mobile workstations connected to AC.
Operating systems
SAIC Galaxy were transportable Unix workstations and were shipped with HP-UX, supported in versions 10.20, 11.00 and 11i v1. Open source systems run quite well on them since the mid-2000s with PA-RISC Linux, NetBSD and OpenBSD supporting them plus possibly NeXTSTEP/PA-RISC and others.
Benchmarks
SPEC benchmark data and comparisons to contemporary laptops and workstations:
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int | SPEC92 fp | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy 1100 | HP PA-7100LC 80 MHz | 99.0 | 122.0 | 3.12 | 3.55 |
| Comparisons | |||||
| Siemens PCE-5S | Intel Pentium 100MHz | 96.2 | 81.2 | 4.04 | 2.35 |
| IBM RS/6000 860 | PowerPC 603e 166MHz | 3.94 | 2.71 | ||
| RDI PowerLite 110 | Sun microSPARC-II 110 MHz | 77.0 | 65.3 | ||
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3 | Sun MicroSPARC 50MHz | 26.4 | 21.0 | ||
Documentation
- SAIC Galaxy 1100, detailed description on OpenPA, 2024
- SAIC Galaxy 1100 product page with photos and details, SAIC 1996 archive.org
- RISCy BUSINESS presents the SAIC GALAXY 1100 (Accessed 2019)
- SAIC Galaxy 1100: a pre-CDE VUE of the PA-RISC with a security clearance, Old VCR, January 2023