HP 9000/712

Quick Facts
Introduced	1994-1995
Period	Maturity (III)
CPU	1 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
Bandwidth	Cache 480 MB/s System 128 MB/s
I/O	10E SCSI serial parallel VGA 2 PS/2 audio

The HP 9000 712 workstations were a new, low-cost approach from HP for PA-RISC workstations and the second pizza-box sized system after the 705 and 710 workstations.

The design goal from HP for the 32-bit HP 9000/712 workstation was to reach performance levels of 1992-era workstations and servers such HP 9000 735 workstation, at a fraction of their fabrication costs. Everything is rather simplified and small, the case is one of the smallest Unix workstation cases, similar to the Sun SPARCstation 10 and 20 cases.

The 712 workstation was one of the so-called pizza-box computers of that era and was geared towards graphical user interfaces with the X Window environment. Use cases were 2D graphics and multimedia design, for which it had hardware accelerators.

The HP 9000 712 and its architecture was the basis for other systems — the newer, LASI-based 715 workstations were very similar, the SAIC Galaxy 1100, the first PA-RISC portable, was based on it as well as some measurement and control computers, such as the Agilent HP 16505A Prototype Analyzer.

Model	Introduced	Price
712/60	1994	$4,400
712/80i	1994	$8,820
712/100	1995	$15,100

The 712 became hugely popular in the 1990s in technical disciplines as well as in graphics, software and early (90s!) multi-media development. Especially the 712/60 was competitively priced during that time as an entry-level RISC Unix system, compared both to HP offerings as well as Unix RISC computers from the competition.

In the US Navy TAC-4 program for tactical computers from the mid-1990s, the HP 9000 712 was used widely as TAC-4 Desktop Computer throughout the US Navy and military vessels, together with other PA-RISC systems from the TAC-4 contract.

In the civilian world, the HP 9000 712 workstations later on became very popular in the hobbyist and open source scene of the 2000s due to their wide distribution and handy size that could easily be used at home.

System architecture

Processors

Model	CPU	Speed	L1 Cache
712/60	PA-7100LC	60 MHz	1 KB on-chip and 64 KB off-chip
712/80	PA-7100LC	80 MHz	1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
712/100	PA-7100LC	100 MHz	1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip

Chipset

LASI integrated chipset
(Integrated) NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
(Integrated) Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
(Integrated) Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
Artist graphics, 8-bit
(Integrated) Other I/O (serial, parallel, Flopyy)

» 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:
- A2263-66520M - Video RAM expansion for higher resolutions/more colors
One slot for a GIO card, a special formfactor GSC bus card only used in the 712, with the following cards available:
- A2878A - second video
- A4011A - 8025 Token Ring interface
- A4011B - 8025 Token Ring interface
- A4013A - second serial port
- A4014A - second Ethernet LAN (AUI+TP) and serial port.
- A4015A - second serial & X25 link
- A4217A - second Ethernet LAN (AUI+TP) & second VGA
- TAMS 50488 - HP-IB interface
One slot for a TSIO card, a special formfactor GSC card for the Teleshare expansion slot, with only one card offered:
- A4012A - Teleshare POTS interface with two RJ11C jacks

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)

Operating systems

HP-UX
- 10.20
- 11.00 and 11i v1: supported in 32-bit mode, but rather slow
NeXTSTEP (the NeXTSTEP PA-RISC port was designed for the HP 9000 712)
Linux
OpenBSD
NetBSD
Research: HPBSD
(With issues) Research: Mach 4/Lites
Research: MkLinux
Research: OSF MK-PA

Benchmarks

Model	SPEC92, int	SPEC92, fp	SPEC95, int	SPEC95, fp	SPEC95 rate, int	SPEC95 rate, fp
712/60	67.0	85.3	2.08	2.66	18.7	23.9
712/80	97.1	123.3	3.12	3.55	28.1	32.0
712/100	117.2	144.2	3.76	4.06	33.8	36.3

Dimensions

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

References

Manuals

Model 712 Technical Reference (PDF, 3.7 MB, Hewlett Packard 1995)
Model 712 Service Handbook (PDF, 4.4 MB, Hewlett Packard 1995)

Articles

HP 9000 Model 712 Overview (PDF, HP Journal 4/95)
Design of the Model 712’s I/O subsystem (LASI) (PDF, HP Journal 4/95)
Product design of the Model 712 (PDF, HP Journal 4/95)
In addition to the above almost the whole HP Journal April 1995 Issue deals with the 712 workstation.
Product Brief HP 9000 Models 712/60, 712/80, and 712/100 Workstations (PDF, 88 KB, Hewlett Packard)
First NeXT RISCWorkstation: Our first look at NEXTSTEP on HP's low-cost pizza box, NeXTWORLD, April 1994
HP 9000 Series 700 Model 712/60 and 712/80i Workstations, Hewlett-Packard, 12/1993, 5091-9780E

ROM update

There is an firmware update available for the 712, which contains the latest version 2.3.

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

Other

NetBSD 712 serial console HOWTO, instructions to configure 712s to use serial console (i.e., run headless)
Pinout for the AUI/RS232 Y-cable for the optional second Ethernet/serial card.

↑ up