HP 9000 742i, 742rt VME Workstation
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1992 |
| Period | Growth (II) |
| Series | 740 VME |
| CPU | PA-7100 32-bit 50 MHz |
| Caches | 128 KB |
| RAM | 64 MB |
| Design | ASP |
| Drives | none |
| Expansion | none |
| I/O | Ethernet SCSI 2 serial parallel |
HP 9000/742i are VME-based PA-RISC single-board computers based on HP 9000 715/50 workstations, released in 1992 by HP for instrumentation and measurement applications. The 742i computing logic is integrated onto a single VME board with many onboard devices but few expansion options.
SCSI is routed through the VME-P2 connector at the back of the board. Since the 742 features a VME controller, it can talk to other VME devices on the same VME bus (in VME cages) and control them.
The HP 742rt version of these VME computers was designed for the HP-RT realtime operating system but otherwise technically very close. The 745i and 747i VME computers in turn were based on very similar hardware to the 742i, but integrated into rugged VME cases with specific I/O options.
HP 74x VME products were discontinued in 2002 as customers have migrated to new solutions and platforms more rapidly than anticipated
with end of support between 2003 and 2007.
System architecture
Processors
| System | CPU | Speed | L1 cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 742i | PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | 50 MHz | 128 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 742rt | PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | 50 MHz | 128 KB off-chip |
Chipset
- ASP chipset
- NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596DX 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- Viper memory and I/O controller
- Intel 82350 EISA bus adapter chipset (EISA to GSC)
- CRX graphics, 8-bit
- CS4215 CODEC for 16-bit stereo audio
- VME bus adapter
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, i8042)
System buses
- PBus processor/memory bus
- VSC main system bus
- GSC system-level I/O bus
- VME bus
- SCSI-2 narrow single-ended bus.
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs
- Takes 8-32 MB modules
- Two slots
- 16 MB (2×8) minimum, 64 MB (2×32) maximum
Expansion slots
- None
External ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin Fast-Narrow single-ended
- Two serial RS232C DB9
- Parallel DB25
- DB15 Ethernet AUI 15-pin
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 (9.01, 9.03, 9.05, 9.07), pre-Y2K
- PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC, supported by HP in the 2000s
- OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
- 742rt: HP-RT realtime 1.0 to 3.0
Benchmarks
| System | SPEC95 int |
SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 742i/50 | 1.53 | 2.46 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
| System | 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 |
Dimensions
| Height | Width | Depth | Weight | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40mm | 233mm | 160mm | 0.9kg | 35W @ 5V DC |
Documentation
- HP 9000 Model 742i Owner’s Guide (PDF, 0.5 MB, Hewlett Packard 1993) parisc linux
- VMEbus Single Board Computers and Industrial Workstations archive.org, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024)