HP 9000 712

Quick Facts
Introduced	1994-1995
Period	Maturity (III)
Series	700 Series
CPU	PA-7100LC 60-100 MHz
Caches	64-256 KB L1
RAM	128 MB(60, 80) 192 MB (100)
Design	LASI
Drives	1 SCSI 1 FD
Expansion	1 GIO 1 TSIO
I/O	Ethernet SCSI serial parallel VGA 2 PS/2 audio

The HP 9000 712 workstations were a 1994 low-cost Unix and PA-RISC workstation design from HP and the second pizza-box system after the 705 and 710 workstations for HP-UX.

The design goal from HP for the 32-bit 712 workstation was to reach the performance of 1992-era workstations such as the HP 9000 735 at a fraction of their fabrication costs.

712 workstations used a highly simplified and integrated VLSI design from HP with many components on-board, its pizza-box case was one of the smallest Unix workstation cases of the 90s, similar to Sun SPARCstations.

Geared towards graphical user interfaces and X Window environment, 712 had hardware accelerators for 2D graphics. The beautiful NeXTSTEP PA-RISC operating system, based on Mach and Unix, was designed for and on HP 9000 712.

712 were very popular in the 1990s in technical disciplines and graphics, software and early (90s!) multi-media development. Especially the 712/60 was competitively priced at the time for an entry-level RISC Unix system, compared to HP and competing Unix RISC products. HP 712 offered outstanding performance at new low prices with integrated graphics, standard I/O, stereo audio, solid integer performance for Unix applications.

Together with other HP 9000 computers, 712 workstations were part of the mid-1990s US Navy TAC-4 program for tactical computers. This led to HP 9000 712s being used widely as TAC-4 Desktop Computer throughout US Navy and military vessels. HP 9000 712 and its architecture was the basis for other systems like the newer, LASI-based 715 workstations and the SAIC Galaxy 1100, the first PA-RISC portable.

HP 9000 712/60 were introduced in 1994 for $4,400
HP 9000 712/80 were introduced in 1994 for $8,820
HP 9000 712/100 were introduced in 1995 for $15,100

HP reduced pricing of 712 and 715 workstations quite aggressively in 1997, by up to 50 percent (to $7,060 for 712/100) when newer B-Class computers became available. HP 9000 712 played a key role in the open source scene of the 2000s.

System architecture

Processors

System	CPU	Speed	L1 cache
712/60	PA-7100LC PA-RISC 32-bit	60 MHz	1 KB on-chip and 64 KB off-chip
712/80	PA-7100LC PA-RISC 32-bit	80 MHz	1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
712/100	PA-7100LC PA-RISC 32-bit	100 MHz	1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip

Chipset

HP LASI integrated chipset
Integrated NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
Integrated Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
Integrated HP Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
HP Artist graphics, 8-bit, 1 MB VRAM, 1024×768 or 1280×1024 with 2 MB VRAM
Integrated Other I/O (serial, parallel, Floppy)

» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the chipset.

System buses

GSC system level I/O bus (128 MB/s)
SCSI-2 single-ended bus

Memory

72-pin ECC SIMMs
Takes 8-32 MB modules
Either 4 memory sockets, on 712/60 and /80 models, or 6, on 712/100
16 MB minimum, 128 MB/192 MB maximum
Memory has to be installed in pairs, starting from slot 0, the closest slot to the drives.

Expansion slots

VRAM expansion slot for A2263-66520 expansion for higher resolutions/more colors, see a picture of the VRAM at hpmuseum
One slot for a GIO card, a special formfactor GSC bus card only used in the 712, with some cards available for networking, video and I/O
One slot for a TSIO card, a special formfactor GSC card for the Teleshare expansion slot, with only one card offered

Storage

SCSI 3.5″ Fast-Narrow SE 50-pin hard drive
3.5″ Floppy drive with special connector

External ports

SCSI-2 50-pin Fast-Narrow single-ended
Serial RS232C DB9, up to 115200 baud
Parallel DB25
Ethernet RJ45
Ethernet AUI 15-pin
VGA HD15
Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard & mouse
Three phone jacks (microphone, headphones and line-in)
One LED on the front for errors and status messages

Operating systems

HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- HP-UX 9.05 32-bit, pre-Y2K version
- HP-UX 10.20 32-bit
- HP-UX 11.00 and HP-UX 11i v1 in 32-bit mode, but rather slow
NeXTSTEP, Mach-based Unix with beautiful GUI, PA-RISC in version 3.3
PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC, supported by HP in the 2000s
OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
NetBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
Research: HPBSD, original 4.3BSD on PA-RISC
Research (with issues): Mach 4/Lites, microkernel with 4.4BSD
Research: MkLinux, Linux with Mach microkernel
Research: OSF MK-PA, OSF/1 Unix port to PA-RISC
Planned: Windows NT was planned in 1994 for HP 9000 712 workstations

Pictures

712/60

712/100

Dimensions

Height	Width	Depth	Weight
70mm	432mm	400mm	8kg

Benchmarks

System	CPU	SPEC92 int	SPEC92 fp	SPEC95 int	SPEC95 fp
HP 9000 712/60	PA-7100LC 60 MHz	67.0	85.3	2.08	2.66
HP 9000 712/80	PA-7100LC 80 MHz	97.1	123.3	3.12	3.55
HP 9000 712/100	PA-7100LC 100 MHz	117.2	144.2	3.76	4.06

Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations. HP 9000 712 were slightly faster than MIPS, Alpha, SPARC and Intel computers from the same time, but usually significantly faster in floating point.

Based on old SPEC92 and SPEC95 archives
System	CPU	SPEC92 int	SPEC92 fp	SPEC95 int	SPEC95 fp
Intel Alder	Intel Pentium Pro 150MHz	276.3	220.0	6.08	5.42
HP 9000 C110	PA-7200 120 MHz	167.0	269.0	6.00	8.14
DEC Alphastation 250	DEC Alpha 21064A 266MHz	198.6	262.5	4.18	6.27
IBM RS/6000 43P	PowerPC 604 100 MHz	128.0	120.2	3.59	3.20
Sun SPARCstation 20	Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz	125.8	121.2	3.11	3.10
Siemens PCE-5S	Intel Pentium 100MHz	96.2	81.2	4.04	2.35
Intel Xpress	Intel Pentium 75MHz	89.1	68.5	2.31	2.02
SGI Indigo2	MIPS R4400SC 75MHz	85.9	93.6
IBM RS/6000 250	PowerPC 601 80MHz	77.6	89.4	1.82	2.03
DEC AlphaStation 200	DEC Alpha 21064 100MHz	74.6	95.2	1.48	2.79
Micronics M4P	Intel 486DX4 100MHz	51.4	26.6
Sun SPARCstation 10	Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz	50.2	60.2	1.13	1.38
Digital DECstation 5000	MIPS R4000 50MHz	43.2	42.1

Documentation

Manuals

Model 712 Technical Reference (PDF) Hewlett Packard 1995 parisc linux
Model 712 Service Handbook (PDF) Hewlett Packard 1995 parisc linux

LED messages

LED errors and status messages might be displayed on the HP 9000 712 front LEDs

Product sheets

A Low-Cost, High-Performance PA-RISC Workstation with Built-In Graphics, Multimedia, and Networking Capabilities (PDF, HP Journal 4/95) archive.org
An I/O System on a Chip (LASI) (PDF, HP Journal 4/95) archive.org
Product design of the Model 712 (PDF, HP Journal 4/95) archive.org
HP 9000 Series 700 Model 712/60 and 712/80i Workstations, Hewlett-Packard, 12/1993, 5091-9780E
HP UNIX Workstations and Netstations archive.org, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024)
HP 9000 Models 712/60, 712/80, and 712/100 Workstations, HP Workstation Group archive.org, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024)
Product Brief HP 9000 Models 712/60, 712/80, and 712/100 Workstations (PDF, 88 KB, Hewlett Packard)
HP 9000 New product Summary guide, technical sales document, second part is on 712, Hewlett Packard: 1993 1000bit.it

Articles

Large parts of the HP Journal April 1995 Issue describe HP 9000 712
First NeXT RISC Workstation: Our first look at NEXTSTEP on HP's low-cost pizza box, NeXTWORLD, April 1994
Famous Graphics Chips: HP›s Artist Graphics, Jon Peddie, computer.org 2020
Booting the HP 712, Sophie Haskins, Pizza Box Computer, 2018
NeXTstep on the HP 712 Part 1: Installation, Sophie Haskins, Pizza Box Computer, 2020
HP to field two low-end workstations, small Unix server, Computerworld 1993-12-20: Volume 27 Issue 51 archive.org

ROM update

There is a firmware update available for HP 9000 712 to the latest version 2.3.

PF_C7120023.txt has details about contents and installation of the patch.
PF_C7120023 contains the patch.

Other

NetBSD 712 serial console HOWTO, instructions for serial console, i.e. headless
Pinout for the AUI/RS232 Y-cable for the optional second Ethernet/serial card.

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