HP 9000/725
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1992 and 1994 |
| Period | Growth (II) |
| Series | 700 Series |
| CPU | 1 PA-7100 (/50, /75) 1 PA-7100LC (/100) 50-100 MHz |
| Caches | 128-512 KB L1 |
| RAM | 256 MB |
| Design | ASP (/50, /75) LASI (/100) |
| Drives | 3 SCSI 1 FD |
| Expansion | 3 EISA (/50, /75) 1 SGC/EISA (/50, /75) 1 EISA (/100) 3 GSC/EISA (/100) |
| Bandwidth | ? |
| I/O | 10E SCSI 2 serial parallel VGA HIL (/50, /75) SMD-10 (/100) audio |
The HP 9000 725 PA-RISC workstations from 1992 were the smaller replacements for the HP 9000 750 servers while still offering the same amount of I/O options. The technical design is based on their 715 workstations counterparts in a slighty smaller desktop case, in dimensions very popular in the early 1990s.
Two different architectures were offered, one based on PA-7100 processors and the original HP ASP chipset, an early-1990s.
The original 725/50 was billed by HP as low-cost workstation
for applications that require fast X Window System performance and 2D/3D wireframe graphics
such as CAD, MCAD, CASE and publishing.
All at price points comparable to PCs.
The newer 725 design was based on the LASI chipset and newer LC processors, technically close to the pizzabox HP 9000 712 workstations.
The 725/100 was a high-performance, cost- effective expandable desktop system
with new CPU and system-integrated graphics.
Compared to the closely related 712 and 715 workstations, the 725 workstations was not as popular, even though offering good I/O options and a similar case and sizing to contemporary PCs.
| Model | Introduced | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 725/50 | 1992 | $17,895 |
| 725/75 | 1992 | $20,295 |
| 725/100 | 1994 |
System architecture
Processors
| Model | CPU | Speed | L1 Cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| 725/50 | PA-7100 | 50 MHz | 128 KB off-chip |
| 725/75 | PA-7100 | 75 MHz | 512 KB off-chip |
| 725/100 | PA-7100LC | 100 MHz | 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip |
Chipset
725/50 and 725/75
- ASP chipset
- Viper memory and I/O controller
- NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596DX 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- Intel 82C501AD Ethernet transceiver
- Intel 82350 EISA bus adapter chipset (EISA to GSC)
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, i8042)
- CRX graphics, 8-bit
- Audit 16-bit CS4215 CODEC
725/100
- LASI chipset
- NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, i8042)
- Wax chip (EISA bridge, HP-HIL)
- Artist graphics, 8-bit
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, Floppy controller, HP-HIL)
System buses
- GSC system-level I/O bus
- EISA additional I/O expansion bus
- 725/50, 725/75: PBus processor/memory bus
- 725/50, 725/75: VSC main system bus
- 725/50, 725/75: SGC expansion of the mainbus to the SGC expansion card
- SCSI-2 single-ended narrow bus (Fast on 725/100)
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs
- Takes 8-32 MB modules
- Eight sockets
- 32 MB (2×16) minimum, 256 MB (8×32) maximum
Expansion slots
- 725/50, 725/75: Three EISA expansion-slots,
One slot for either a SGC (EISA formfactor) or EISA card. - 725/100: One EISA expansion slot,
Three slots for either GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards.
Storage
- One tray for one 3.5″ Narrow SE 50-pin SCSI hard drive
- One tray for one 3.5″ Floppy drive
- Two trays for one half-height 5.25″ Narrow SE 50-pin SCSI drive each, externally accessible
(725/100 supports Fast-Narrow drives)
External ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin Narrow SE single-ended (Narrow-fast on 712/100)
- Two serial RS232C DB9
- Parallel DB25
- Ethernet AUI 15-pin
- VGA HD15
- 725/50, 725/75: HP-HIL connector for input devices
- 725/100: SMD-10 connector, to connect HIL/PS2 with a special adapter
- Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)
Operating systems
- HP-UX 9.05, 10.20 11.00 and 11i v1 (unsupported on 50 and 75)
- NeXTSTEP
- Linux
- OpenBSD
- NetBSD
- Research: HPBSD
- Research: Mach 4/Lites
- Research: MkLinux
- Research: OSF MK-PA
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|
| 725/50 | 1.53 | 2.46 |
| 725/75 | 2.51 | 3.85 |
| 725/100 | 3.76 | 4.06 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
| Model | CPU | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Siemens PCE-5S | Intel Pentium 100MHz | 4.04 | 2.35 |
| SGI Indy | MIPS R5000 150MHz | 3.97 | 4.20 |
| DEC AlphaStation 200 | DEC Alpha 21064 100MHz | 1.48 | 2.79 |
| Sun SPARCstation 10 | Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz | 1.13 | 1.38 |
References
- HP 9000 Model 725 Family, HP Workstation Group (archive.org mirror), Hewlett-Packard Company (1996: mirror accessed January 2024)