HP 9000 735 and 755
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1992 |
| Period | Growth (II) |
| Series | 700 Series |
| CPU | PA-7100 32-bit PA-7150 32-bit 99-125 MHz |
| Caches | 512 KB |
| RAM | 400 MB (735) 768 MB (755) |
| Design | ASP2 |
| Drives | 2 SCSI (735) 4 SCSI (755) |
| Expansion | 1 SGC, 1 EISA, +1 (735) 2 SGC, 4 EISA (755) |
| I/O | Ethernet or FDDI 2 SCSI 2 serial parallel HIL audio |
HP 9000 735 and 755 were powerful technical and graphical PA-RISC workstations from the early 1990s. They use 32-bit HP PA-7100 or PA-7150 RISC processors — the latter reserved for the fast and expensive 735/125 and 755/125 versions with 125 MHz.
Both 735 and 755 use heavy desk-side cases with separate modules for I/O and CPU.
These boards, along with EISA cages and storage subsystem are built into sliders
that can be removed separately from the system.
735 and 755 have similar cases and architecture as their HP 9000/730 and 750 predecessors. They support a large set of I/O buses, expansion options and drives in an updated design. 735 were widely used as FDDI node in Convex computing clusters, 735/125 workstations were rather fast Unix computers of the early 1990s and one of the fastest ever running NeXTSTEP.
HP 9000 735 were apparently used by the US Navy as part of the TAC-3 framework contract (Tactical Advanced Computer), possibly as AN/TSQ-142 mission planning system for the EA-6B aircraft and the HP 9000 755 used in ATWCS for cruise missile planning (Tomahawk).
- HP 9000 735/99 were introduced in 1992 for $37,395
- HP 9000 735/125 were introduced in 1992 for $35,395 (SPU)
- HP 9000 755/99 were introduced in 1992 for $58,995
- HP 9000 755/125 were introduced in 1992
System architecture
Processors
| System | CPU | Speed | L1 cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 735/99 | PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | 99 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 755/99 | PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | 99 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 735/125 | PA-7150 PA-RISC 32-bit | 125 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 755/125 | PA-7150 PA-RISC 32-bit | 125 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
Chipset
- HP ASP2 chipset
- HP Viper memory and I/O controller
- HP Cutoff ASIC, interfacing with memory (Viper) and I/O buses, provides address decoding, bus arbitration and interrupts
- HP Shortstop ASIC, coordinates data communication between the I/O buses and the mainbus
- NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide high-voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2
- Intel 82596DX 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- AMD Formac Plus Am79C830 FDDI controller
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, i8042)
- Intel 82350 EISA bus adapter chipset (EISA to GSC)
- Audio 16-bit CS4215 CODEC
- Graphics through separate boards:
System buses
- PBus processor/memory bus, 66 MHz on 735/99 and 755/99 (264 MB/s)
- VSC main system bus
- GSC system-level I/O bus
- EISA additional I/O expansion bus
- SGC expansion of the mainbus to the SGC expansion cards
- SCSI-2 narrow single-ended bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Wide high-voltage differential (HVD) main storage I/O bus
Memory
- HP proprietary memory modules, same as 720, 730 and 750, and the Nova servers
- 8-32 MB modules
- 755 supports 64 MB modules
- 12 sockets
- 735 16 MB onboard, 400 MB maximum
- 755 768 MB maximum
- Memory has to be installed in pairs, from bank 0 to the outside
.______________. to backplane | |________________. | | | | | | | | | ##### | | | | | | | | | | | | | | #CPU# | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ##### | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 | |_______________________________| \ /
Expansion slots
HP 9000 735
- One SGC in DIO-II formfactor
- One EISA slot
- One special daughter card slot for:
- A2665A - FDDI SAS daughter card with MIC connector
- A2658A - AUI Ethernet daughter card
- A2831A - ThinLAN Ethernet daughter card
HP 9000 755
- Two SGC slots in DIO-II formfactor
- Four EISA slots
Storage
- 735 One tray for either two 3.5″ SCSI 68-pin Fast-Wide HVD or 50-pin narrow SE hard drives.
- 755 One tray for two half-height 5.25″ SCSI drives and two trays for one full-height 5.25″ SCSI drive each
External ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended external
- SCSI-3 68-pin Fast-Wide high-voltage differential HVD external
- Two standard RS232C serial
- DB25 parallel
- 735 15-pin AUI or 10Base2 BNC Ethernet or FDDI SAS MIC connector
- 755 15-pin AUI & 10Base2 BNC Ethernet connectors
- RGB BNC, depends on installed framebuffer, if at all
- HP-HIL connector for input devices
- Five phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in, line-out and speaker)
- Ten LEDs on the front for errors and status messages
Operating systems
- 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 (9.05, 9.07), pre-Y2K
- 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: Mach 4/Lites, microkernel with 4.4BSD
- Research: MkLinux, Linux with Mach microkernel
- Research: OSF MK-PA, OSF/1 Unix port to PA-RISC
Pictures
735/99
735/125
Benchmarks
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int |
SPEC92 fp |
SPEC95 int |
SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 735/99 | PA-7100 99 MHz | 109.1 | 167.9 | 3.22 | 4.06 |
| HP 9000 755/99 | PA-7100 99 MHz | 109.1 | 167.9 | 3.22 | 4.06 |
| HP 9000 735/125 | PA-7150 125 MHz | 136.0 | 201.0 | 3.97 | 4.61 |
| HP 9000 755/125 | PA-7150 125 MHz | 136.0 | 201.0 | 3.97 | 4.61 |
Reviewers of new IBM RS/6000 offerings in Computerworld described the raw power
of the 1994 IBM POWER2, however when compared against the 1992-vintage 735 analysts noted that the HP 9000 735 still bested the 3BT with a SPECint92 rating of 136, vs. the IBM machine’s rating of 114.
| System | CPU | SPEC95 int |
SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Alder | Intel Pentium Pro 150MHz | 6.08 | 5.42 |
| DEC Alphastation 250 | DEC Alpha 21064A 266MHz | 4.18 | 6.27 |
| Siemens PCE-5S | Intel Pentium 100MHz | 4.04 | 2.35 |
| SGI Indy | MIPS R5000 150 MHz | 3.82 | 4.78 |
| IBM RS/6000 3CT | POWER2 67MHz | 3.41 | 10.20 |
| Sun SPARCstation 20 | Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz | 3.11 | 3.10 |
| DEC AlphaStation 200 | DEC Alpha 21064 100MHz | 1.48 | 2.79 |
| Sun SPARCstation 10 | Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz | 1.13 | 1.38 |
Documentation
Manuals
- HP 9000/735 Second Generation PA-RISC Snakes Workstation, Hewlett-Packard (IEEE paper, 1993) bitsavers
- HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 Model 735 Workstations Service Handbook, Hewlett Packard (1992, A2095–90602, edition 00893) parisc-linux
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 735 Owner’s Guide, Hewlett Packard (1992, A2095-90608, edition E0394) hpmuseum
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 735 Hardware Installation Guide, Hewlett Packard (1992, A2095-90000, edition E0493) hpmuseum
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 755 Owner’s Guide, Hewlett Packard (1992, A2288-90607, edition E0894) hpmuseum
LED messages
- LED errors and status messages might be displayed on the HP 9000 735 and 755 front LEDs
Product sheets
- HP Apollo Series 700 Model 755 Workstation, two pager, Hewlett Packard (October 1992, 5091-9336E) hpmuseum
- HP Apollo Series 700 Model 755 Workstation, product brief, Hewlett Packard (April 1993, 5091-5839E) hpmuseum
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 735/125 Product Guide, Hewlett Packard (March 1994, 5962-8546E) hpmuseum
- HP Apollo Series 700 Model 735 and 735/125, product brief, Hewlett Packard (April 1993, 5091-5838EE) hpmuseum
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 735 and 735/125, product brief, Hewlett Packard (March 1994, 5091-9898E) hpmuseum
- HP 9000 Series 700 Model 735CL Computational Cluster, product brief, Hewlett Packard (March 1994, 5962-8466E) hpmuseum
Articles
- The Art Of Computer Design, HP Professional, Hewlett-Packard (March 1997) archive.org
- IBM beefs up Unix boxes, Computerworld (1994, Volume 18, Issue 22) archive.org