SAIC Galaxy

SAIC Galaxy
SAIC Galaxy © SAIC 1996

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 are based on HP 9000 712 Unix workstations integrated into robust cases (8kg!).

SAIC Galaxy 1100 are no RISC laptops but mobile workstations to be used with AC power and no batteries. They are pretty rare, being 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.

SAIC Galaxy 1000 SAIC 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 Military contract (TAC-4)
SAIC Galaxy SAIC Galaxy 1100 SAIC Galaxy ad SAIC Galaxy ad
SAIC Galaxy 1100 © SAIC 1994

SAIC built another PA-RISC portable computer, the SAIC Talon. There was also a true PA-RISC laptop with the RDI PrecisionBook from the builder of a range of other RISC laptops in the 1990s and 2000s.

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System chipset

SAIC Galaxy are 32-bit PA-RISC computers based on integrated HP workstations designs, which SAIC built into a portable case. Chipset and devices used are:

[i] - integrated into chipset
Usage Device Type
Chipset HP LASI Integrated main chipset
Storage NCR 53C710 [i] 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
Networking Intel 82596CA [i] 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
Video HP Artist with 1 MB VRAM
Audio HP Harmony [i] CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo
Cards SAIC? PCMCIA controller
I/O HP LASI [i] Serial and parallel I/O
I/O HP LASI [i] PS/2 for keyboard/mouse

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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
Storage External 50-pin single-ended
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
Network Ethernet TP and AUI
Input Keyboard 85-key keyboard
Input Pointing three-button trackball
Ports PS/2 two ports
Ports Serial RS-232C DB9
Ports Parallel Centronics
Output LCD 10.4″ LCD 1024×768 (256 colors) active matrix
Output Video VGA HD15
Audio Jacks 3 audio jacks
Power AC (no battery)

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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.

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Performance

SPEC benchmark data and comparisons to contemporary laptops and workstations:

Based on old SPEC92 and SPEC95 archives
System CPU SPEC92
int/fp		 SPEC95
int/fp
Galaxy 1100 HP PA-7100LC 80 MHz 99.0 122 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

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Documentation

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