HP 9000 705 and 710 Workstations
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1992 |
| Period | Growth (II) |
| Series | 700 Series |
| CPU | PA-7000 32-bit 35/50 MHz |
| Caches | 96 KB |
| RAM | 64 MB |
| Design | ASP |
| Drives | 2 SCSI |
| Expansion | None |
| I/O | Ethernet SCSI 2 serial parallel VGA HIL audio |
HP 9000 705 and HP 9000 710 were the first smaller PA-RISC workstations, released in 1992 and called Bushmaster
by HP.
They are simplified versions of the 1991 Snakes 720, 730 and 750 workstations, integrated into a smaller pizzabox case, to make PA-RISC workstations more affordable (as unter-$10,000
options) and easier to integrate into workplaces.
HP 9000 705 and 710 were designed primarily for electronic CAD, mechanical CAD, computer-aided software engineering, database management, Geographical Information Systems, and desktop publishing, as well as customer and financial services.
The basic HP 9000 PA-RISC technical workstation design was taken over into 705 and 710 with few changes:
- Smaller instruction and data caches on the processor
- Lower CPU clock rate
- Different memory architecture
- Integration of graphics, SCSI, Ethernet subsystem onto a single mainboard
- Reduced expansion options
- First audio capable Series 700 workstation
HP 9000 705 and 710 were marketed to compete in the early 1990s low-end workstation market in the $5,000 to $10,000 price range against Sun Sparcstation IPX and IBM RS/6000 220 Unix workstations.
- HP 9000 705 were introduced in 1992 for $8,990
- HP 9000 710 were introduced in 1992 for $12,490
19-inch grayscale $7,490, 19-inch color $13,990, $2,500 extra for 420 MB disk
HP introduced another pizzabox-sized workstation a few years later in 1994 with the HP 9000 712 workstation, based on newer 32-bit PA-7100LC processors.
System
Processors
| System | CPU | Speed | L1 cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 705 | PA-7000 PA-RISC 32-bit | 35 MHz | 96 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 710 | PA-7000 PA-RISC 32-bit | 50 MHz | 96 KB off-chip |
Chipset
- HP ASP chipset, a custom HP RISC design
- HP Viper memory and I/O controller, low-cost version implemented in two chips
- NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596DX 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- Audio 8-bit mono PSB2160 CODEC
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, i8042)
- HP Stinger (?) CRX graphics, 8-bit
System buses
- PBus processor/memory bus, 200 MB/s at 50 MHz (710), 140 MB/s at 35 MHz (705)
- VSC main system bus, 100 MB/s at 25 MHz (710), 70 MB/s at 17.5 MHz (705)
- GSC system-level I/O bus
- SCSI-2 narrow single-ended bus
Expansion
Memory
- HP-proprietary 72-pin SIMMs
- Eight sockets
- 16 MB (4×4) minimum, 64 MB maximum
- Memory is installed in quartets: first in even (0, 2, 4, 6)
then in odd slots (1, 3, 5, 7):
front .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. | ext. int. ###| | drive drive ###| | ###| | ###| | ###| | 3 x-----x 7 x-----x ###| | 2 x-----x 6 x-----x ###| | 1 x-----x 5 x-----x ###| | 0 x-----x 4 x-----x ###| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ back
Expansion cards
- No expansion slots
Storage
- SCSI 3.5″ 50-pin Narrow SE hard drive
- SCSI half-height 5.25″ 50-pin Narrow SE drive, external accessible
Ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended
- Two serial RS232C DB9
- Parallel DB25
- 15-pin AUI 10 Mbit & 10Base2 BNC Ethernet
- VGA HD15
- HP-HIL connector for input devices
- Two phone jacks (microphone, headphones)
- Nine LEDs on the front for errors and status messages
Operating systems
Unix was the main operating system for HP 9000 705 and 710 with good 32-bit support in HP-UX 8 to HP-UX 10.20.
- HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- HP-UX 11.00 in 32-bit mode, might work but unsupported
- HP-UX 10.20 32-bit
- HP-UX 10.00 and HP-UX 10.10, pre-Y2K
- HP-UX 9 (9.01, 9.03, 9.05, 9.07), pre-Y2K
- HP-UX 8 (8.07), pre-Y2K
- Software on HP-UX: HP 9000 705 and 710 workstations were often used in engineering for CAD or for documentation with office suites like Lotus 1-2-3 or DTP
- PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC
HP 9000 705 and 710 have solid open source operating system support but I/O and graphics are a bit limited due to no I/O slots.
The early-1990s research and development operating systems were ported to 705 and 710 workstations:
- HPBSD, 4.3BSD Unix on PA-RISC from Utah University
- Mach 4/Lites, research microkernel with 4.4BSD (with issues)
- MkLinux, research Linux with Mach microkernel
- 710 OSF MK-PA, OSF/1 Unix port to PA-RISC
Pictures
Performance
HP 9000 705 and 710 were solid and quick performance for early-1990s desktop
Unix workstations, at a time when higher-performing systems were usually rather deskside computers.
HP pitched 710 workstation specifically against SGI Indigo graphics workstations, being on par or slightly fast than MIPS R3000 and early SPARC attempts.
| HP | CPU | SPEC92 int/fp |
SPEC95 int/fp |
SPEC89 | MIPS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 705 | PA-7000 35 MHz | 21.9 | 33.0 | 34.6 | 36.7 | ||
| 710 | PA-7000 50 MHz | 31.6 | 47.6 | 0.99 | 1.44 | 49.5 | 52.5 57.9 |
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int/fp |
SPEC95 int/fp |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 735/99 | PA-7100 99 MHz | 109.1 | 167.9 | 3.22 | 4.06 |
| Intel Xpress | Intel Pentium 75MHz | 89.1 | 68.5 | 2.31 | 2.02 |
| DEC AlphaStation 200 | Alpha 21064 100MHz | 74.6 | 95.2 | 1.48 | 2.79 |
| HP 9000 712/60 | PA-7100LC 60 MHz | 67.0 | 85.3 | 2.08 | 2.66 |
| Sun SPARCstation 10 | Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz | 50.2 | 60.2 | 1.13 | 1.38 |
| HP 9000 730 | PA-7000 66 MHz | 47.8 | 75.4 | 1.50 | 2.30 |
| DECstation 5000 | MIPS R4000 50MHz | 43.2 | 42.1 | ||
| IBM RS/6000 355 | IBM POWER 41MHz | 40.7 | 83.3 | ||
| Siemens PCE-4C | Intel 486DX2 66MHz | 35.8 | 16.1 | ||
| Motorola 8000 | Motorola 88100 33MHz | 27.7 | 18.8 | ||
| SGI IRIS Indigo IP12 | MIPS R3000 33MHz | 22.4 | 24.2 | ||
| HP 9000 425e | Motorola 68040 25MHz | 12.2 | 9.3 | ||
| Digital VAX4000 | DEC KA46 22MHz | 11.1 | 12.6 | ||
Documentation
Manuals
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 705 and 710 Owner’s Guide, Hewlett Packard (January 1992, A1991-90608, edition E0192) hpmuseum
LED messages
- LED errors and status messages might be displayed on the HP 9000 705/710 front LEDs
Product sheets
- Introducing the Model 705 Colour workstation, The power you need, Hewlett Packard (January 1992, A1991-90608, edition E0192) hpmuseum
- HP Apollo Series 700 Model 710 Workstation, product brief, Hewlett Packard (January 1992, 5091-3183E) hpmuseum
Articles
- High-Performance Design for Low-Cost PA-RISC Desktops (.pdf) pp. 55-63 Craig Fink et al (August 1992: Hewlett-Packard Journal) archive.org
- Hewlett unveils low-cost workstations, UPI Archives, May 12 1992
- New high-performance HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 workstations, HP Computer Update, HP, December 1992 hpmuseum
- Introducing the new HP Apollo 9000 Models 705 and 710 with breakthrough engineering and high-performance graphics, HP Computer Update, HP, Januar 1992 hpmuseum
- HP Apollo Series 700 Performance Brief, Hewlett Packard (n.d., no #) hpmuseum