PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP 9000 D-Class and R-Class

Quick Facts
Introduced 1996-1998
Period Maturity (III)
Series Lettered
CPU PA-7100LC 32-bit
PA-7300LC 32-bit
1-2 PA-7200 32-bit
1-2 PA-8000 64-bit
1-2 PA-8200 64-bit
75-240 MHz
Caches 256 KB-4 MB L1
0-1 MB L2
RAM 512 MB to 3 GB
Design LASI, U2 or UTurn
Drives 5-8 SCSI
Expansion D2x0: 2-5 EISA, 1-4 GSC
D3x0: 3-7 EISA, 1-5 GSC
R3x0: 4-7 EISA, 1-4 GSC
I/O Ethernet
SCSI
2 serial
parallel

HP 9000 D-Class servers were flexible, upgradable and scalable PA-RISC enterprise servers for Unix applications of the late-1990s. They were designed to bring mid-range performance for an entry-level price, with processors from 32-bit PA-7100LC to 64-bit PA-8200 and some multi-processing SMP support, released in 1996-1998.

HP 9000 D-Class
© Hewlett Packard

All D-Class servers were HP 9000 800 server series and used two different architectures: LASI for PA-7100LC and PA-7300LC models and U2/UTurn for PA-7200/PA-8000 models. They were built into a mid-tower case for use as a departmental server. Still rather big and loud machines for the late-1990s.

HP 9000 R-Class
© Hewlett Packard

R-Class Ultralight servers R380 and R390 are rack-mountable versions of their D-Class counterparts D380/D390. They are technically almost identical, except some differences in the I/O and storage configuration.

D-Class were technically close to the larger K-Class servers.

In the 1990s, D-Class servers were part of the US Navy TAC-4 program, in which HP was a vendor supplying RISC Unix computers for uses throughout the Navy. The D-Class were part of a technology refreshment of TAC-4 in 1996.

Different models were available which could be upgraded within the series to another model with various options for each system. The servers used the following naming convention and were part of the HP 9000 800 series:

System Model number Introduced Price
D200, D300 HP 9000/801 January 1996
D210, D310 HP 9000/811 January 1996 $6,900
D220, D320 HP 9000/803, HP 9000/813 January 1997 $8,900
D230, D330 HP 9000/823, HP 9000/833 January 1997 $16,700
D250, D350 HP 9000/821, HP 9000/831 January 1996
D260, D360 HP 9000/841, HP 9000/851 May 1996
D270, D370 HP 9000/861, HP 9000/871 November 1996
D280, D380 HP 9000/810, HP 9000/820 September 1997
D390 HP 9000/800 July 1998 $30,000
R380, R390 HP 9000/800 September 1998

Architecture

Processors

HP 9000 D-Class shipped with a variety of PA-RISC processors – three types of 32-bit CPUs and two 64-bit.

System CPU Speed L1 cache
D200, D300 1 PA-7100LC PA-RISC 32-bit 75 MHz 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
D210, D310 1 PA-7100LC PA-RISC 32-bit 100 MHz 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip
D220, D320 1 PA-7300LC PA-RISC 32-bit 132 MHz 64/64 KB on-chip plus 1 MB L2 off-chip optional
D230, D330 1 PA-7300LC PA-RISC 32-bit 160 MHz 64/64 KB on-chip plus 1 MB L2 off-chip optional
D250, D350 1-2 PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit 100 MHz 256/256 KB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist
D260, D360 1-2 PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit 120 MHz 1/1 MB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist
D270, D370 1-2 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit 160 MHz 512/512 KB off-chip
D280, D380
R380
1-2 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit 180 MHz 1/1 MB off-chip
D390, R390 1-2 PA-8200 PA-RISC 64-bit 240 MHz 2/2 MB off-chip

Chipset

D-Class servers use different chipsets and systems designs depending on the processor architecture. There were actually four different system architectures:

System buses

Expansion

Memory

I/O slots

Storage

I/O ports

Operating systems

Benchmarks

D390, R390 1-2 PA-8200 PA-RISC 64-bit 240 MHz 2/2 MB off-chip
System CPU SPEC92
int
SPEC92
fp
SPEC95
int
SPEC95
fp
SPEC95
rate int
SPEC95
rate fp
HP 9000 Dx00 PA-7100LC 75 MHz 115 146 2.18 2.90 19.2 25.8
HP 9000 Dx10 PA-7100LC 100 MHz 152 194 3.74 4.08 33.6 36.7
HP 9000 Dx20 PA-7300LC 132 MHz 6.57 6.72 59.2 60.5
HP 9000 Dx30 PA-7300LC 160 MHz 7.87 7.58 70.8 68.3
HP 9000 Dx50 PA-7200 100 MHz 144 218 5.01 6.77 45.1 61.0
HP 9000 Dx60 PA-7200 120 MHz 114 143
HP 9000 Dx70 PA-8000 160 MHz 10.40 15.00 93.9 135
HP 9000 Dx70 2 PA-8000 160 MHz 184 190
HP 9000 Dx80 PA-8000 180 MHz 12.30 17.40 111 157
HP 9000 Dx80 2 PA-8000 180 MHz 219 221
HP 9000 D390 PA-8200 240 MHz 15.50 25.50

Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:

Based on old SPEC95 archives
System CPU SPEC95
int
SPEC95
fp
DEC Alphastation 500 DEC Alpha 21164 500MHz 15.0 20.4
SGI Origin 2000 MIPS R10000 250MHz 4MB 14.7 24.5
Sun Ultra 5 333 Sun UltraSPARC IIi 333MHz 14.1 18.3
Siemens SCENIC 1000 Intel Pentium II 333MHz 13.0 9.43
IBM RS/6000 43P 150 PowerPC 604e 250 MHz 11.1 8.78
SGI O2 MIPS R10000 196MHz 10.1 8.77
Intel Alder Intel Pentium Pro 200MHz 8.09 6.75
Sun Ultra 2 1170 Sun UltraSPARC 167MHz 6.34 9.33
DEC Alphastation 255 DEC Alpha 21064A 233MHz 4.27 5.09
Siemens PCE-5S Intel Pentium 100MHz 4.04 2.35
SGI Indy MIPS R5000 150MHz 3.97 4.20
IBM RS/6000 43P PowerPC 604 100 MHz 3.59 3.20
Sun SPARCstation 20 Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz 3.11 3.10

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