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PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP 9000/743i, 744 VME Workstations

Quick Facts
Introduced 1994 and 1997
Period Maturity (III)
CPU 1 PA-7100LC/
1 PA-7300LC
64-165 MHz
Caches 128-256 KB L1
0-512 KB L2
RAM 256 MB (743i)
1 GB (744)
Design LASI
Drives none
Expansion (2 GSC-M)/
(2 PMC PCI)
Bandwidth ?
I/O micro 10E
SCSI
micro serial
micro parallel
micro VGA
2 PS/2
micro audio

The HP 9000 743i and 744 VME workstations are single-board computers (SBCs) based on 32-bit PA-RISC for use in VME computers, based on HP 9000/715 and HP Visualize B132L/B160L desktops. The system processing unit is integrated with memory and several I/O controllers onto a single-height 2U VME board.

The 743i and 744 have on-board expansion options with GSC-mezzanine (GSC-M) and PCI-mezzanine (PMC) cards. Installed into a VME cage (frame) with power and VME bus connections, the 743i and 744 can talk to and control other VME cards on the same VME bus.

The 743i boards are used in the HP 9000 748i VME workstations, the 744 boards in the HP 9000 745 and 748 workstations.

They were designed and marketed for hospital intensive-care systems and data and control functions for manufacturing, automotive, telecommunications, aerospace, medical and laboratory applications. The HP 743rt and 744rt versions were designed for and sold with the HP-RT realtime operating system.

Model Introduced Price
743i/64 1994 $4,355
743i/100 1994
743rt 1994 $4,355
744/132L 1996 $8,600
744/165L 1997
744rt 1996

US Navy TAC

The 743i and 744 VME computers were used by the US Navy through the TAC program (Tactical Advanced Computer), in which HP was contracted to supply various PA-RISC computer models from the HP 9000 workstation and server series to the Navy. The 743i and 744 were used for tactical display and control applications, including the AN/UYQ-70 workstation aboard surface and submarine vessels and surveillance aircraft. Utilizing third-party VME devices and systems integration, especially for graphics, the 743i/744 were used with FDDI networking for this.

Agilent VXI

The HP/Agilent V743/64 (E1497A) and V743/100 (E1498A) VXI embedded computers are apparently very close to the 743i: the V743 was a single-slot, C-size, message-based computer with direct VXI access that ran HP-UX and supported C-SCPI and Agilent VEE.

System architecture

Processors

Model CPU Speed L1 Cache L2 Cache
743i/64 PA-7100LC 64 MHz 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
743i/100 PA-7100LC 100 MHz 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
V743/100 VXI PA-7100LC 100 MHz 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
744/132L PA-7300LC 132 MHz 128 KB on-chip
744/165L PA-7300LC 165 MHz 128 KB on-chip 512 KB off-chip

Chipset

System buses

Memory

Expansion slots

Some pins of the P2-VME connector are used to route GSC bus traffic to expansion options, VME cages need to be properly jumpered to support this to not interfere with these transfers. The 743/744 boards must not be used in VXI cages since some of the VXI pins carry voltage which would result in damaged devices on the GSC bus.

External ports

Notes

  1. These micro-connectors need HP conversion cables to provide the normal-sized versions of their respective connectors

Operating systems

Benchmarks

Model SPEC95, int SPEC95, fp
743i/64 2.52 3.31
743i/100 3.76 4.03
744/123L 6.45 6.70
744/165L 7.90 7.64

References

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