HP 9000 T500, T520, T600 and 890

Quick Facts
Introduced	1993, 95, 97
Period	Maturity (III)
Series	Mainframe
CPU	1-4 PCX 1-12 PA-7100 1-14 PA-7150 1-12 PA-8000 60-180 MHz
Caches	2-4 MB L1 (8 MB L2)
RAM	2-3.75 GB
Design	Viper
Drives	external
Expansion	VSC HP-PB HSC
I/O	SCSI Console

HP 9000 T-Class were PA-RISC high-end, datacenter-class servers from the early 1990s, multi-processors built with modular system cards for processors, memory or I/O devices. Part of the HP 9000 800 server range, 890, T500 and T520 used 32-bit PA-RISC processors, later T600 moved on to 64-bit PA-RISC 2.0.

HP marketed T-Class as Corporate Business Servers that were the most capable and expandable UNIX-based systems with high-end performance scalability to meet growing business needs. Designed for business Unix applications and the corporate processing market of the 1990s, T-Class had massive expansion options for an Unix server of the time with I/O and communications cards.

T500, T520, T600 and 890 share a similar system architecture with differences in specific processors and options. The main system backplane has sixteen slots, eight of which can be used for memory or processor boards and the other eight for I/O boards and converters. These boards plug into the main system VSC bus.

HP 9000/890 were an earlier iteration of the mainframe architecture, based on 1980s HP 9000 870 servers and apparently PA-RISC 1.0 PCX CPUs. Later T500/T600 were updated sucessors with newer technology and hardware. After the 64-bit T600, HP discontinued the T-Class design for mainframes in favor of the more flexible Cell-based Superdome systems. Apparently 890 and T500 were board-upgradable to T520, with another board-upgrade path to PA-8000 processors as well.

HP 9000 890 were introduced in 1992 for $340,000
HP 9000 T500, HP 9000/891 were introduced in 1993 for $165,000 (uni) and $660,000 12-way
HP 9000 T520, HP 9000/892 were introduced in 1995 for $145,000 (uni) and $520,000 14-way
HP 9000 T600, HP 9000/893 were introduced in 1997

System architecture

Processors

The 890 CPU is probably PCX, some sources indicate PA-7000. Off-chip caches are generally pretty large, especially on 890 T600 is apparently the only system with PA-8000 processor with L2 cache, not mentioned in the PA-8000 documentation
System	CPU	Speed	L1 cache	L2 cache
HP 9000 890	1-4 PCX PA-RISC 32-bit	60 MHz	4 MB off-chip2
HP 9000 T500	1-12 PA-7100 PA-RISC 32-bit	90 MHz	2 MB off-chip
HP 9000 T520	1-14 PA-7150 PA-RISC 32-bit	120 MHz	2 MB off-chip
HP 9000 T600	1-12 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit	180 MHz	2 MB off-chip	8 MB off-chip L23

Architecture

Separate processor cards attach processors and support chips to main system bus. There are slots for processors, memory and I/O cards. HP 9000 890 and T-Class have slighly different architecture.

HP 9000 890

Processor cards contain eight VLSI CMOS chips with the main processor and cache chips
1. PCX PA-RISC 1.0 processor
2. Cache chips ICMUX, DCMUX0 and DCMUX1 for 2 MB Instruction and 2 MB Data cache, ECC
3. Floating point processor FPC, MUL and ADD
4. Viper system bus VSC interface
Up to four processor cards per system

HP 9000 T500, T520 and T600

Processor cards contain each up to two processor modules with the actual CPUs
Up to six cards in T500/T600 or seven in T520 per system
Processor card chips:
1. Two Viper system bus VSC interface
2. Bus support chips
3. T600 4 MB L2 I cache and 4 MB L2 D cache, each two modules
Processor module chips:
1. T520/T500 PA-7100 PA-RISC 1.1 processor
2. T600 PA-8000 PA-RISC 1.1 processor
3. 1 MB L1 I cache
4. 1 MB L1 D cache

Chipset

Chipsets in T-Class and 890 depends on I/O cards and ordered options.

HP Viper processor to system bus interface, integrated on processor cards
HP-PB to VSC bus converter, integrated on the HP-PB interface cards
Common HP-PB plug-in cards:
- Fast/Wide SCSI
- MUX
- LAN/console
- HP-FL fiber link interface
T600 HP-HSC I/O Bus Converter
Service processor, controls all hardware and power of the system, integrated into a single-board located in the main cardcage

System buses

PBus processor/memory bus, 60 MHz, 32-bit data path between single CPUs and their Viper main bus interfaces, that means one PBus per processor card on 890 servers, two PBuses per card on all others, 240 MB/s each
VSC central system bus, 60 MHz clock
- 890: 32-bit wide with 240 MB/s data rate
- T500/T520: 64-bit wide with 480 MB/s data rate
- T600: 128-bit wide with 960 MB/s data rate
PBus and VSC are configured for PBus Variant 2 Scalable MP multiprocessing attachment
T600 Runway CPU/memory bus, although not mentioned in documentation
T600 GSC+ expansion bus in HSC variant
HP-PB for up to 168 high-speed HP Precision Bus I/O channels with 1 GB/s throughput
SCSI depends on installed I/O cards

Memory

Memory cards, in sizes of 64-768 MB, not all systems support all cards
Up to eight cards in P MB card slots 1-14
Memory attaches to shared VSC system bus, 64-bit data path, and 128-bit data path on T600
Cards operate at VSC bus frequency and have on-card interfaces to VSC bus
890 up to 2 GB main memory
T500/T520 up to 3.75 GB main memory
T600 apparently up to 16 GB main memory

Expansion slots

T600 24 HSC/GSC+ slots, depends on HP-PB slot usage
14 HP-PB slots single-height — 7 double-height
Up to 98 additional HP-PB slots can be added through expanion cabinets

Storage

Drives located in external drive bays or racks
T600 Marketed as up to 30TB with RAID arrays, huge amount for the time
T500/T520 up to 20 TB with RAID

External ports

SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended
TP/RJ45 10BaseT 10 Mbit Ethernet
Two serial RS232C DB9, one for console, one for USV
Parallel DB25
Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard und mouse

Operating systems

HP 9000 890

HP-UX 10.20 32-bit (possibly unsupported)
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 9000 T-Class

HP-UX 11i v1 in 32-bit or 64-bit mode
HP-UX 11.00 in 32-bit or 64-bit mode
HP-UX 10.20 32-bit
HP-UX 10.00 and HP-UX 10.10, pre-Y2K
HP-UX 9, pre-Y2K, unsure

Benchmarks

System	SPEC92 rate int	SPEC92 rate fp	SPEC95 int	SPEC95 fp	SPEC95 rate int	SPEC95 rate fp
HP 9000 890	1-CPU: 1215 2-CPU: 2253 3-CPU: 3306 4-CPU: 4301	1-CPU: 1180 2-CPU: 2360 3-CPU: 3529 4-CPU: 4685
HP 9000 T520			5.2		1-CPU: 47 2-CPU: 93 4-CPU: 186 8-CPU: 363 12-CPU: 531
HP 9000 T600			11.8	14.9	1-CPU: 106 2-CPU: 211 4-CPU: 418 6-CPU: 617 8-CPU: 814 10-CPU: 1003 12-CPU: 1192	1-CPU: 134 2-CPU: 263 4-CPU: 510 6-CPU: 735 8-CPU: 915 10-CPU: 1043 12-CPU: 1151

Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other Unix workstations and servers:

Based on old SPEC95rate archives
System	Processor	SPEC95 int	SPEC95 fp	SPEC95 rate int	SPEC95 rate fp
DG AViiON AV 20000	16-CPU Pentium Pro 200 MHz			1007
DEC AlphaServer 8400 5/300	12-CPU 21164 300 MHz	33 (8P)		767	919
Siemens RM600 720	24-CPU R4400 250 MHz			921
HP 9000 D380	2-CPU PA-8000 180 MHz	12	17	210	221
HP 9000 K580	6-CPU PA-8200 240 MHz	17 (1P)	28 (1P)	902	849
Convex SPP1600	8-CPU PA-7200 120 MHz 16-CPU PA-7200 120 MHz 32-CPU PA-7200 120 MHz			290 541 996	383 744 1444
Convex SPP20000	8-CPU PA-8000 180 MHz 16-CPU PA-8000 180 MHz			713 1307	935 1413
HP Visualize C3600	1-CPU PA-8600 552 MHz	42	64	379	576

Dimensions

Height	Width	Depth	Weight
1620mm	750mm	905mm	360kg

Documentation

Manuals

CE Handbook HP 3000 99x Family, HP T-Class Family (URL gone)
Operators Guide T-Class HP 3000 99x Family Systems, HP 9000 Enterprise Servers (1997: Hewlett-Packard, A1809-96019) 3kranger
Installation Guide T-Class HP 3000 99x Family, HP 9000 Systems (1999: Hewlett-Packard, A1809-90001) 3kranger
Operator’s Guide HP 3000 99x Family, HP 9000 T-Class Systems (June 1997: Hewlett-Packard, A1809-90009)

Articles

Corporate Business Servers: An Alternative to Mainframes for Business Computing (.pdf) Thomas B. Alexander et al (June 1994: Hewlett-Packard Journal) archive.org
HEWLETT-PACKARD MOVES T-CLASS SERVERS UP TO PA-7150 RISCS, Computer Business Review September 1995
Multiprocessor features of the HP Corporate Business Servers, K. Chan et al., Compcon 93
HP T-Class Corporate Business Servers HP Computer Buyer’s Guide archive.org, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024) archive.org
Implementing HP 9000-890 Platforms: A Case Study, Portland Community College, INTEREX 1993, Paper #4032

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