HP 9000 825, 835 and 850
NS-1 PA-RISC servers
Between 1987 and 1988, HP released early PA-RISC servers with the brand-new 32-bit NS-1 PA-RISC 1.0 NMOS-III processors: HP 9000 825, 835 and 850.
HP 9000 825S were marketed as minicomputer, 825SRX as Superworkstation and 835 and 850S as Super-minicomputer. Product numbers changed a few times and some systems marketed as HP 9000 600 series for a while – a name soon discontinued again.
HP 9000 825 and 835 were sold as graphics workstations and headless computing servers, both using the HP-UX Unix operating system. HP 9000 850 servers were HP’s most powerful technical computer at the time.
All three used a PA-RISC system design with three main buses, expanding the original HP 9000 840 system design: Processor (CPU, FPU) and memory connect to the 64-bit System Main Bus (SMB, peak 220 MB/s), to which two bus converters attach. Two Central System Buses (CTBs, or Midbuses) attach to SMB with each 27 MB/s. Each CTB (Midbus) connects two Channel Adapters (CA) for I/O devices on CIO/CIB boards.
| System | also | Processor | Year | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 825 | 825S | NS-1 PA-RISC 25 MHz | 1987 | $42,500 |
| HP 9000 835 | 835S | NS-1 PA-RISC 30 MHz | 1988 | $45,000 |
| HP 9000 850 | 850S | NS-1 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz | 1987 | $220,500 |
HP 9000 825
HP 9000 825 and 825S FireFox are small 1980s Unix servers or minicomputers, also sold as 825SRX Superworkstation, based on 25 MHz NS-1 processor on two boards, with 16 KB cache and 2048-entry TLB.
HP 9000 825 central CTB buses run at 8.33 MHz with seven shared I/O CIO and memory slots. Maximum RAM was 112 MB or 96 MB with graphics adapter, which could be expanded with 16MB arrays. HP 9000 825 had a performance of about 9 MIPS.
Models
- HP 9000 825: Base model, $42,500 in 1987
- HP 9000 825CHX: Workstation for graphics, included a 2D adapter
- HP 9000 825SRX: 24-bit 3D graphics for $69,500
HP 9000 835
HP 9000 835 and 835S TopGun are servers with 30 MHz NS-1 processor (maybe also NS-2 processor), with 128 KB cache and 4096-entry TLB, slightly bigger and faster than the 825 servers. Central CTB buses run at 10 MHz, their maximum, with seven shared I/O CIO and memory slots. Maximum RAM was 112 MB or 96 MB with graphics adapter, which could be expanded with 16 MB arrays.
HP 9000 835 were expensive computers for the time and sold for about $45,000 in 1988 for a performance of about 14 MIPS. HP 9000 835 had a SPEC89 score of 9.5 (1989).
Several different models were available:
- HP 9000 835: Base model
- HP 9000 835CHX: Workstation for graphics, with 2D adapter
- HP 9000 835SRX: Workstation with 32-bit 3D adapter
- HP 9000 834: Standard 835 with a two-user limit
- HP 9000 835SE: High-end version for 64 users with integrated CIO expander, 24 MB memory sold for $99,000.
- HP 9000 635SV: Server version without graphics
Server versions without graphics were shortly sold as 9000 635SV.
HP 9000 850
HP 9000 850 are big cabinet servers released by HP in 1987, marketed as on top of the most advanced computing
.
With a 27.5 MHz NS-1 processor, 128 KB cache and 4096-entry TLB, 850 servers were the fastest PA-RISC computers at release and billed as minicomputer for general purpose, engineering, scientific and industrial uses.
Based on SMB and CTB architecture, 850 had CTBs at 9.16 MHz with CIO for I/O devices and additionally two Memory Array Buses MAB, capable of linking up eight 16 MB memory modules arrays via a 72-bit data path to the SMB. Maximum RAM was 128 MB with one memory controller and 256 MB with two memory controllers.
Sold for $220,500 in 1987 with a performance of about 14 MIPS, HP 9000 850 were HP’s most powerful technical computer in the late 80s.
Operating systems
HP 9000 825, 835 and 850 servers were supported in HP-UX from version HP-UX 2.0 in 1987 to HP-UX 10.10 in 1995, CHX and SRX graphics workstations only until HP-UX 9.
| HP-UX | Year | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| HP-UX 10.10 | 1995 | UNIX95, CDE, ServiceGuard |
| HP-UX 10.01 | 1995 | System V, DCE, Streams, better I/O and memory unsupported: 635, 645, 808, 815 unsupported: 825CHX, 825SRX, 834CH, 835SRX |
| HP-UX 9.0 | 1992 | PA-7100 and PA-7100LC support, LVM, VUE 9.02, 9.04 and 9.06 added hardware support 9.08 was B1 security release |
| HP-UX 8.0 | 1991 | 8.02 added Nova support 8.04 and 8.08 were security versions 8.06 added SMP code |
| HP-UX 3.0 | 1988 | 3.01 had nasty bugs, X11 |
| HP-UX 2.0 | 1987 | BSD, supports graphics |
Early PA-RISC HPBSD was ported to HP 9000 834 and 835 servers in the 1980s, as was Mach 3.0 from the University of Utah. Another microkernel operating system, Chorus was ported also in 1990-1991 as a research project to the HP 9000 834.
Pictures
Benchmarks
Assorted MIPS performance figures for early HP 9000 800 servers.
| System | CPU | MIPS |
|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 840 | TS-1 PA-RISC 8 MHz | 4.5 |
| HP 9000 825 | NS-1 PA-RISC 25 MHz | 9 |
| HP 9000 835 | NS-1 PA-RISC 30 MHz | 14 9.5 SPEC89 |
| HP 9000 850 | NS-1 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz | 14 |
| HP 9000 870/100 | PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz | 56 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data of other RISC and Unix computers:
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int |
SPEC89 | MIPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 G50 | PA-7000 96 MHz | 100.0 | 136.1 | 115 |
| HP 9000 712/80 | PA-7100LC 80 MHz | 97.1 | 97 | |
| Siemens PCE-5S | Intel Pentium 100MHz | 96.2 | 79 | |
| HP 9000 I40 | PA-7000 64 MHz | 65.2 | 70 | |
| Sun SPARCstation 10 | Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz | 50.2 | 71.2 | 58 |
| HP 9000 750 | PA-7000 66 MHz | 48.1 | 77.5 | 69 |
| Siemens PCE-4C | Intel 486DX2 66MHz | 35.8 | 25.6 | 37 |
| HP 9000 F10 | PA-7000 32 MHz | 22.0 | 35 | |
| DECstation 5000 | MIPS R3000 33MHz | 20.9 | 25.5 | 29 |
| HP Apollo DN10000 | Apollo PRISM 18 MHz | 19 | 22 | |
| DECstation 3100 | MIPS R2000 16MHz | 8.4 | 11.8 | 15.1 |
| HP 9000 425e | Motorola M68040 25MHz | 12.2 | 10.3 | 18 |
| Intel | i386 33MHz | 4.3 | 8 | |
| IBM PC 6150 | IBM ROMP 6MHz | 2.1 | ||
| HP 9000 320 | Motorola M68020 15MHz | 2 | ||
| HP 9000 500 | FOCUS 18 MHz | 0.98 | ||
| DEC VAX 11/780 | KA780 3.4MHz | 1 | 1 | 0.9 |
| IBM PC AT | Intel 80286 6MHz | 0.8 |
Documentation
Information on early PA-RISC computers is fragmented and inconsistent, even in official sales and technical documentation. This article was pieced together from news and press releases plus documentation available at the HP Computer Museum.
- INFORMATION ON HP9000 SERVERS AND WORKSTATIONS Hewlett Packard Company (1999. Accessed January 2007) and The HP 3000/HP 9000 model spreadsheet, Allegro Consultants (2004. Accessed January 2007)
- Wayne E. Holt (ed.), Beyond RISC! An Essential Guide to Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture, p. 95-102. (January 1988: Software Research Northwest Inc.) and Hardware Design of the First HP Precision Architecture Computers (PDF) David A. Fotland et al (March 1987: Hewlett-Packard Journal) hp museum
- HP 3000 Series 950 and HP 9000 Model 850S Family CE Handbook (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (October 1990. Accessed January 2008) hp museum and HP 9000 Series 800 Model 825S Hardware Technical Data (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (September 1988. Accessed January 2008) hp museum and HP 3000/925 and HP 9000/825/835 Computer Systems CE Handbook (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (May 1988. Accessed January 2008) hp museum and New midrange members of the Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture Computer Family Thomas O. Meyer et al (June 1989: Hewlett Packard Journal. Accessed January 2008 at findarticles.com)
- Hewlett-Packard Company, HP 3000 Series 950 and HP 9000 Model 850S Family CE Handbook
- A Broader Vision of Performance For Your Business - HP 9000 Multiuser Systems (PDF) Hewlett-Packard, 1990, 5952-0835, accessed January 2023 1000bit.it
- Hewlett Packard Update Computer Systems (PDF) Hewlett-Packard, May/June 1987, accessed January 2023 1000bit.it
- HP-UX CE Handbook for Series 800 HP Precision Architecture-RISC Computer Systems Hewlett-Packard Company (May 1993, 5961-8364) bitsavers