HP 9000 500 FOCUS
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1982 |
| Period | Prelude |
| Series | Early |
| CPU | 1-3 FOCUS 18 MHz |
| Cache | 16 KB L1 |
| RAM | 10 MB |
| Design | IOP/MPB |
| Drives | 1 FD 1 HD |
| Expansion | GP-IO |
| Bandwidth | I/O 5.1 MB/s |
| I/O | HP-IB serial DSB |
With Frank McConnell
HP 9000 500 computers were the first members of the HP 9000 series in the early-1980s and predecessors of PA-RISC workstations. Introduced in 1982, the HP 9000 500 were based on a modern 32-bit HP processor, the HP FOCUS, but not PA-RISC yet, which was developed a few years later by HP.
The HP 9000 520, originally marketed as 9020, was the first computer of the HP 9000 workstation range.
The Hewlett Packard Journal described it in 1983 as the new HP 9000 computer, a mainframe on the desktop.
Four 500 series were released: 520, 530, 540 and 550; all used the same HP FOCUS CPU, memory and I/O; differences were casing, expandability and built-in I/O.
| Model | Introduced | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 520 Dawn | 1982 | $30,000 |
| 530 Corona | 1982 | $23,105 |
| 540 Corona | 1982 | $24,115 |
| 550 Shuttle | 1984 |
The HP 9000/500 series was phased out in the late 1980s, probably due to the complexity and cost of its architecture. It was replaced by HP PA-RISC (700/800 series) and M68K (300/400 series) computers with HP-UX. The first PA-RISC NMOS processor had one third the amount of FETs of the FOCUS processor in a much more streamlined design.
The HP 9000 520 was used widely by the US Navy from the mid-1980s in the DTC as desktop computer for tactical uses. Originally called Desk-Top Computer in 1982, the DTC program later became Desktop Tactical Computer (DTC-1) and looked at using commercial COTS desktop computers for tactical decision support in US Navy facilities and ships.
After an evaluation throughout the Navy the contract was awarded to HP, after which the 9020C version (520 workstation with 13" monitor) became widely deployed throughout the US Navy.
It apparently served on US nuclear submarines well into the 1990s.
The 9020C was also part of the US Navy Joint Operational Tactical System, JTOS: (from the HP Computer Museum, Bill Reed)
"Despite the fact that some naval leaders didn't see the point of JOTS, at one time, almost every tactical or fleet staff in the United States Navy had five or more HP 9000s, often networked together. Some had the early projection systems for common displays. There was a sharing of the load, so to speak. The computers gave those that processed anti-submarine warfare what they wanted on one terminal while those involved with anti-air warfare processed on another computer. The technology that ensued included special interface boards capturing radar systems, communications systems and aircraft systems, many connected with fiber optics."
Systems
Four models were introduced between 1982-1984 with the same architecture:
| System | Processor | Cache | RAM | Design | I/O | Storage | Price | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 520 | 1-3 FOCUS 18 MHz | 16 KB | 10 MB | IOP | GP-IO | 10 MB | $30,000 | 1982 |
| 9020A: 12″ color monitor with 512×390 resolution | ||||||||
| 9020B: 12″ monochrome (green) monitor with 560×455 resolution | ||||||||
| 9020C: 13″ color monitor with 560×455 resolution | ||||||||
| 9020AS (bundled system): 9020A with 1 MB RAM, 10 MB hard drive, thermal printer, HP BASIC | ||||||||
| 9020AT (bundled system): 9020A with 1.5 MB RAM, thermal printer, HP-UX operating system | ||||||||
| 530 | 1-3 FOCUS 18 MHz | 16 KB | 10 MB | IOP | GP-IO | 10 MB | $23,105 | 1982 |
| 9030A: base system 19″ rack-mount | ||||||||
| 540 | 1-3 FOCUS 18 MHz | 16 KB | 10 MB | IOP | GP-IO | 10 MB | $24,115 | 1982 |
| 9040A: base system, free-standing cabinet system | ||||||||
| 9040AT (bundled system): 9040A with 1.5 MB RAM, HP-UX operating system (single-user) | ||||||||
| 9040AM (bundled system): 9040A with 1.5 MB RAM, HP-UX operating system (multi-user) | ||||||||
| 550 | 1-3 FOCUS 18 MHz | 16 KB | 10 MB | IOP + DSP | HP-IB | 10 MB | 1984 | |
| 9050A: base system, industrial system that replaced 530 and 540 | ||||||||
| 9050AT (bundled system): 9050A with 1.5 MB RAM, HP-UX operating system (single-user) | ||||||||
| 9050AM (bundled system): 9050A with 1.5 MB RAM, HP-UX operating system (multi-user) | ||||||||
HP 9000 500 computers in multi-processor configuration were called 600 series (some HP 9000 800 servers were later called 600 series for a time).
Possible I/O and expansion options
- HP-IB card for external HP-IB (HP Instrumentation Bus) devices
- GP-IO card for GP-IO (General Purpose I/O) devices with 8-bit or 16-bit DMA
- Asynchronous Serial
- I/O Expander for eight I/O channels/slots (CIO) for additional IOPs
- LAN 9000, 10 Mbit Ethernet (coax)
Software
Two operating systems were provided by HP for the HP 9000 520 in 1982: HP BASIC or HP-UX, while the later 530, 540 and 550 supported only HP-UX, which was supported between versions 1.0 and 5.3 on HP FOCUS hardware.
The operating systems were built on top of a common kernel, called SUNOS (no relation to Sun SunOS Unix) which provided basic operating primitives like memory, processor and I/O management. This was intended to be invisible to the user; the Unix operating system on top ran as a single process on it.
There were three revision of SUNOS:
SUN I OS:
- Kernel for BASIC language system on Dawn (the 9000/520)
- Single user
- No virtual memory
- Supports only HP
Focus
(i.e., HP’s own) memory boards - Only for HP 9000/520
SUN II OS:
- Supports both HP BASIC and HP-UX (at that time a port of System III Unix)
- Multiple users
- Virtual memory
- Supports only HP
Focus
(i.e., HP’s own) memory boards - For HP 9000/520, 530 and 540
- Updates for new hardware
- Multiple users
- Virtual memory
- Supports both HP
Focus
(i.e., HP’s own) and commercial third-party memory boards - For HP 9000/520, 530, 540 and 550
HP-UX for the HP 9000 500 computers was the first commercial UNIX supporting a multi-processor, multi-user system in the early 1980s. SMP for PA-RISC was supported only much later in HP-UX.
References
Manuals
- HP 9000 Series 500 Computers Models 520, 530, 540, 550 Hardware Technical Data (.pdf) Hewlett Packard (November 1984. Accessed 15 January 2008 at hpmuseum.net)
- 9050 CE Handbook for the HP 9000 Series 500 (.pdf) Hewlett-Packard Company (1985. Accessed 15 January 2008 at hpmuseum.net)
- OVERVIEW SUN III O.S., Hewlett Packard (Version 1.0/September 1984: Hewlett Packard)
Articles
- An 18- MHz, 32-bit VLSI Microprocessor (.pdf, pp. 7-10) Kevin P. Burkhart (August 1983. Hewlett Packard Journal. Accessed 15 January 2008 at hpmuseum.net)
- HP-9020C/AN/UYK-43 Study, US Navy (1987. Defense Technical Information Center. Unclassified, accessed at archive.org mirror)
- Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 520 Frank McConnell (1997. Accessed January 2008)
- HP Computer Museum - Technical Desktops - 9000/520 Jon Johnston (WordSong Communications P/L. Accessed 15 January 2008 and December 2019)
- Re: HP 9000/500 vs. Vectra with 386 CPU and 387 co-processor? Roger N. Clark (28 July 1988: USENET posting comp.sys.hp)
- Introducing more computing power per engineer - The HP 9000 Model 550 (PDF) Hewlett-Packard, Januar 1985, accessed January 2023 at 1000bit.it
- HP 9825 Timeline - 1981, Steve Leibson, September 2006
Pictures
Pictures © Hewlett Packard, scans from product brochures, from hpmuseum.net and 1000bit.it
This page
This article on HP 9000 500 and FOCUS was added around 2007 to OpenPA