HP 9000 800 Nova Servers
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1991-1993 |
| Period | Growth (II) |
| Series | 800 Series |
| CPU | 1 or 1-2 32-bit PA-7000 PA-7100 32-96 MHz |
| Caches | 96 KB-4 MB L1 |
| RAM | 128 MB (F10) 192 MB (F20/F30) 384 MB (x30) 768 MB (x50/x60/x70) |
| Design | Viper |
| Drives | many |
| Expansion | 2 HP-PB (Fx0) 6 HP-PB (Gx0) 8 HP-PB (Hx0) 12 HP-PB (Ix0) |
| I/O | SCSI MUX parallel |
HP 9000 8000 Nova servers in the F, G, H and I Class are business-oriented PA-RISC servers from the early 1990s.
They were based on 32-bit PA-7000 and PA-7100 processors and succeeded 1980s HP 9000 800 PA-RISC 1.0 servers as multifunction or dedicated network servers for applications, databases and communications.
Nova servers were designed by the HP Technical Server division with a different architecture to PA-RISC workstations. The smaller 807S server (F10) was designed by HP Böblingen, Germany, R&D staff, when the need for low-end models for value-added resellers became apparent in Europe. HP Böblingen had taken over low-end UNIX server system R&D during that time.
As HP 9000 Midrange Business Servers, Nova servers targeted business applications and transactions in a compact deskside and rackmountable case with lots of expansion, often used for I/O and storage-heavy workloads. Entry Nova servers could be ordered without FPU, as floating-point performance was often not required in transactions and databases, and for example F10 (807S) were positioned against Intel i486 servers.
- HP 9000 F10, HP 9000 807S were introduced in 1991 for $12,895
- HP 9000 F20 and H20, HP 9000 817S and 827S were introduced in 1991 for $20,000 and $25,000
- HP 9000 F30, G30/H30 and I30, HP 9000 837S, 847S and 857S were introduced in 1991 for $43,000 and $95,000
- HP 9000 G40, H40 and I40, HP 9000 867S and 877S were introduced in 1991 for $112,500-$140,000
- HP 9000 G50, H50 and I50, HP 9000 887S and 897S were introduced in 1992
- HP 9000 G60, H60 and I60, HP 9000 887S and 897S were introduced in 1993
- HP 9000 G70, H70 and I70, HP 9000 887S and 897S were introduced in 1993
Nova servers were suceeded by E Class servers with PA-7100LC that shared F Class cases and some of the proprietary I/O design. Many Nova servers became available second-hand in the 2000s at bargain prices, since few follow-on use cases were possible for the cumbersome machines with limited software options but HP-UX.
System
Processors
| System | CPU | FPU | Speed | L1 Cache |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 F10 | PA-7000 PA-RISC 32-bit | optional | 32 MHz | 32/64 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 F20, H20 | PA-7000 PA-RISC 32-bit | optional | 48 MHz | 64/64 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 F30, G30, H30, I30 | PA-7000 PA-RISC 32-bit | optional | 48 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 G40, H40, I40 | PA-7000 PA-RISC 32-bit | optional | 64 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 G50, H50, I50 | PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | integrated | 96 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 G60, H60, I60 | PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | integrated | 96 MHz | 1024/1024 KB off-chip |
| HP 9000 G70, H70, I70 | 1-2 PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit | integrated | 96 MHz | 2048/2048 KB off-chip |
The leading letters (F, G, H, I) indicate I/O expansion and case while the digitis (10, 20, … 70) denote used processors and chipsets. G, H and I class shared the same case.
Picture of H20 (827) CPU Board (PA-7000) Thomas Schanz 2008
Chipset
HP 9000 Nova servers used modified HP ASP chipset with HP Viper memory controller, interfacing the processor to memory and HP-PB I/O bus. System I/O is implemented on so-called HP-PB Personality Boards with separate I/O devices and chips.
System buses
- PBus processor/memory bus
- VSC main system bus
- HP-PB bus for the general I/O
- SCSI-2 Narrow single-ended bus for main storage I/O
Expansion
Memory
- HP proprietary modules like on 720, 730 and 750, and 735/755
- F10: 16 MB minimum, 128 MB (8×16 MB) maximum
- F20 and F30: 16 MB minimum, 192 MB (12×16 MB) maximum
- H20, H30, G30, I30, x40: 16 MB minimum, 384 MB (12×32 MB) maximum
- x50, x60, x70: 16 MB minimum, 768 MB (12×64 MB) maximum
Expansion cards
- Fx0: two slots for HP-PB cards
- Gx0: six slots for HP-PB cards
- Hx0: eight slots for HP-PB cards
- Ix0: twelve slots for HP-PB cards
Storage
- Many, depending on the case
Ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended
- High-pin-count MUX connector
- Parallel DB25
- Rest depends on installed HP-PB cards
Operating systems
The only operating system for HP 9000 800 Nova servers is HP-UX Unix, there were no (known) ports of other operating systems since the architecture was very proprietary and never publically documented.
- HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- HP-UX 11.00 in 32-bit mode
- HP-UX 10.20 32-bit
- HP-UX 10.00 and HP-UX 10.10, pre-Y2K
- HP-UX 9 (9.00, 9.02, 9.04, 9.06), pre-Y2K
- HP-UX 8 (8.02, 8.06), pre-Y2K
- Software on HP-UX: Mostly used for transaction services (databases, middleware) or departmental servers in technical environments
Performance
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int |
SPEC92 fp |
MIPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 F10 | PA-7000 32 MHz | 22.0 | 36.6 | 35 |
| HP 9000 F20, H20 | PA-7000 48 MHz | 33.6 | 56.1 | 53 |
| HP 9000 F30, G30/H30, I30 | PA-7000 48 MHz | 37.8 | 62.4 | 53 |
| HP 9000 G40/H40, I40 | PA-7000 64 MHz | 65.2 | 91.3 | 70 |
| HP 9000 G50/H50, I50 | PA-7000 96 MHz | 100.0 | 158.5 | 115 |
| HP 9000 G60/H60, I60 | PA-7000 96 MHz | 108.8 | 195.3 | 115 |
| HP 9000 G70/H70, I70 | PA-7000 96 MHz | 108.8 | 195.3 | 115 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix computers:
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int |
SPEC92 fp |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 755/125 | PA-7150 125 MHz | 136.0 | 201.0 |
| IBM RS/6000 43P | PowerPC 604 100 MHz | 128.0 | 120.2 |
| Sun SPARCstation 20 | Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz | 125.8 | 121.2 |
| HP 9000 E55 | PA-7100LC 96 MHz | 108.0 | 163.4 |
| Siemens PCE-5S | Intel Pentium 100MHz | 96.2 | 81.2 |
| SGI Indigo2 | MIPS R4400 150MHz | 85.9 | 93.6 |
| HP 9000 E45 | PA-7100LC 80 MHz | 82.1 | 122.9 |
| DEC AlphaStation 200 | DEC Alpha 21064 100MHz | 74.6 | 95.2 |
| HP 9000 712/60 | PA-7100LC 60 MHz | 67.0 | 85.3 |
| Motorola 900 | Motorola 88110 50MHz | 54.0 | 62.2 |
| Sun SPARCstation 10 | Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz | 50.2 | 60.2 |
| HP 9000 E25 | PA-7100LC 48 MHz | 45.0 | 66.7 |
| Digital DECstation 5000 | MIPS R4000 50MHz | 43.2 | 42.1 |
| IBM RS/6000 355 | IBM POWER 41MHz | 40.7 | 83.3 |
| Siemens PCE-4C | Intel 486DX2 66MHz | 35.8 | 16.1 |
| Motorola 8000 | Motorola 88100 33MHz | 27.7 | 18.8 |
| Digital VAX 4000 90A | DEC NVAX 83MHz | 19.5 | 37.2 |
| HP 9000 425e | Motorola 68040 25MHz | 12.2 | 9.3 |
Documentation
Most HP documentation is only available at HP Museum and other archives, with most official sources, articles and journals having disappeared in the 2010s.
Manuals
- Owner’s Guide to the HP 9000 8x7S Family (.pdf) Hewlett-Packard Company (1991. 5960-31110, Accessed January 2009) hpmuseum
- Owner’s Guide to the HP 9000 8x7S Family (.pdf) Hewlett-Packard Company (1992, 5959-5273) hpmuseum
- CE Handbook Series 9x7 and Model 8x7S Family (.pdf) Hewlett-Packard Company (February 1992, A1707-90016. Accessed January 2009) hpmuseum
- HP-UX CE Handbook for Series 800 HP Precision Architecture-RISC Computer Systems Hewlett-Packard Company (May 1993, 5961-8364) bitsavers
Product sheets
- HP 9000 Series 800 Business Servers Models 807S/817S/827S/837S/847S/857S, product brief, Hewlett-Packard Company (Juni 1991, 5091-1631E) hpmuseum
- HP 9000 Midrange Business Brief HP 9000 G, H and I Class Servers, (.pdf) Hewlett-Packard Company (February 1994, 5962-8608E. Accessed January 2009 at hpmuseum.net)
- HP 9000 800 X Class Computer System Installation and Configuration Guide, Hewlett-Packard (1993, A1703-90041, E0893) hpmuseum
Articles
- German Engineering, Home Grown UNIX Servers Help HP Europe Build On Expanding Markets, HP Professional September 1991 archive.org
- HP 9000 Midrange Business Server Family , product brief, Hewlett Packard 1995 archive.org
Other
- Pinout for the mini-DIN console connector at the back