PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP Visualize B1000, C3000, C3600, C3700

Quick Facts
Introduced 1999-2001
Period Maturity (III)
Series Visualize
CPU PA-8500 64-bit
PA-8600 64-bit
PA-8700+ 64-bit
300-875 MHz
Cache 1.5-2.25 MB L1
RAM 8 GB
Design Astro
Drives 2 SCSI
1 FD
1 IDE
Expansion 6 PCI
I/O 100E
2 SCSI
2 serial
parallel
2 USB
audio

HP Visualize B1000, C3000, C3600 and C3700 were late-1990s 64-bit PA-RISC workstations for the graphics and CAD on Unix markets. They used 64-bit HP PA-8500, PA-8600 and PA-8700 PA-RISC processors and were often used in technical design disciplines, before the market moved to Intel/Windows NT.

B1000 © HP 1999

The architecture with HP Astro and Elroy PA-RISC chipsets was a major change from earlier Visualize workstations with new I/O devices added and no more LASI chipset and GSC bus – staples of 1990s PA-RISC. PCI and USB appeared.

C3700 © Hewlett Packard 2004

Part of the HP 9000 Unix PA-RISC workstations, Visualize B-Class and C-Class were sold until the early 2000s as some of the last PA-RISC desktop computers, the end of an era. B1000 were the entry version whereas C3000 and C3600 were more powerful for 3D design.

They were followed in 2004 by the last PA-RISC workstation, the HP c8000.

Architecture

Processors

System CPU Speed L1 cache
HP Visualize B1000 PA-8500 PA-RISC 64-bit 300 MHz 512/1024 KB on-chip
HP Visualize C3000 PA-8500 PA-RISC 64-bit 400 MHz 512/1024 KB on-chip
HP Visualize C3600 PA-8600 PA-RISC 64-bit 552 MHz 512/1024 KB on-chip
HP Visualize C3650 PA-8700 PA-RISC 64-bit 625 MHz 768/1536 KB on-chip
HP Visualize C3700 PA-8700 PA-RISC 64-bit 750 MHz 768/1536 KB on-chip
HP Visualize C3750 PA-8700+ PA-RISC 64-bit 875 MHz 768/1536 KB on-chip

Chipset

System buses

Expansion

Memory

I/O slots

Storage

I/O ports

Operating systems

Pictures

HP Visualize C3700 HP Visualize C3700 HP Visualize C3700 HP Visualize C3700
HP Visualize C3700, Thomas Schanz 2013, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dimensions

System Height Width Depth Weight
Desktop 445mm 229mm 495mm 25kg
Rack-mounted 6U 451mm 665mm 25kg

Benchmarks

System CPU SPEC95
int		 SPEC95
fp		 SPEC95
rate int/fp		 SPEC2000
int		 SPEC2000
fp
HP Visualize B1000 PA-8500 300MHz 24.1 42.0 217/378
HP Visualize C3000 PA-8500 400MHz 31.8 52.4 287/471 313 321
HP Visualize C3600 PA-8600 552MHz 42.1 64.0 379/576 432 433
HP Visualize C3650 PA-8700 625MHz 508 542
HP Visualize C3700 PA-8700 750MHz 604 576
HP Visualize C3750 PA‑8700+ 875MHz 678 674

HP Visualize B1000 and C3000 series with 64-bit PA-RISC processors were very fast Unix workstations at the turn of the century. They were usually faster than higher-clocked MIPS, Alpha, UltraSPARC and Intel computers from the same time, and significantly faster in floating point in SPEC benchmarks.

Based on old SPEC2000 archives
System Processor SPEC2000
int		 SPEC2000
fp
HP c8000 PA-8800 1.0 GHz 1001 (est.)
HP zx6000 McKinley 1.0 GHz 807 1422
HP AlphaServer ES80 Alpha 21364 1GHz 689 975
IBM POWER 275 IBM POWER4+ 1GHz 617 862
Sun Fire 280R UltraSPARC III Cu 1GHz 511 688
SGI Origin 3200 MIPS R14000 600MHz 483 499
DELL Power Edge 4400 Pentium III Xeon 1 GHz 437 302
IBM RS/6000 M80 IBM RS64 IV 750MHz 409 359
HP i2000 Itanium Merced 800MHz 4MB 365 610
HP Visualize P750C Pentium III 750MHz 325 219
Compaq AlphaServer ES40 Alpha 21264 500MHz 311 382
HP Visualize P500 Intel Pentium III 500MHz 231 191

Documentation

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