HP 9000 C100 and C110
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1995 |
| Period | Maturity (III) |
| Series | Visualize |
| CPU | PA-7200 32-bit 100-120 MHz |
| Cache | 256 KB L1 |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Design | U2 |
| Drives | 3 SCSI 1 FD |
| Expansion | 1 GSC 3 EISA/GSC |
| I/O | Ethernet 2 SCSI 2 serial 2 PS/2 HIL audio |
HP 9000 C100 and C110 are PA-RISC graphics workstations based on the PA-7200 processor and were introduced in 1995. The C-Class were marketed as technical workstations for graphical use cases – CAD, CAE and visualization, and were pretty fast Unix desktop computers for their time.
HP billed these entry C-Classes as having no-compromise, full computing power
to be used in technical and design applications
with 2D and 3D graphics.
HP 9000 C-Class have a similar case to the older HP 9000 735 workstations – interlocking I/O modules and CPU board, but are based on faster PA-7200 and U2.
There were other C-Class workstations with different designs: 32-bit C132L and C160L, 64-bit C160 and C180 and powerful C200 et al. Board upgrades of C100 and C110 were possible to C160 and C180.
- HP Visualize C100, HP 9000/777, were introduced in 1995 for $19,715
- HP Visualize C110, HP 9000/777, were introduced in 1995 for $25,715
System architecture
Processors
| System | CPU | Speed | L1 cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 C100 | PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit | 100 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist |
| HP 9000 C110 | PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit | 120 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist |
Chipset
HP 9000 C100 and C110 workstations use the HP U2 chipset for PA-RISC computers. HP computers with Runway bus often used U2 and UTurn I/O adapters (IOA) and MMC/SMC as memory controllers that attach subsystems to the main Runway bus. HP UTurn and U2 attach the GSC main system bus with devices and I/O via Runway bus to the CPUs.
The rest of the system design and I/O devices is made up of proven components based on prior HP 32-bit PA-RISC designs, re-using HP LASI as I/O chipset.
- HP U2 chipset Runway to GSC bridge
- HP MMC/SMC memory controllers
- HP LASI I/O chipset
- Integrated NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide high-voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2
- Integrated Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- HP Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- HP Wax EISA bridge
- Graphics through separate GSC boards:
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, HP-HIL, Floppy)
» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the system architecture.
System buses
- Runway CPU/memory bus
100 MHz 800 MB/s peak data rate on C100; 120 MHz, 960 MB/s on C110 - GSC general system-level I/O bus
- EISA additional expansion I/O bus
- SCSI-2 single-ended bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Wide high-voltage differential main storage I/O bus
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs, 60ns or faster
- 128 data bits with 16 check bits
- Up to 8-way interleaving
- 400 MB/s (C100), 480 MB/s (C110) peak bandwidth
- Eight slots for 16-128 MB modules
- 32 MB to 1 GB supported
Expansion slots
- One slot for a GSC (EISA formfactor) card
- Three slots for GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
- I/O slot layout (from top to bottom):
- EISA or GSC
- EISA or GSC
- EISA or GSC (for secondary graphics)
- GSC (for primary graphics)
Storage
- Storage and drives installed in the disk slider
- Three SCSI half-height 3.5″ 68-pin hard drives, Fast-Wide high-voltage differential
- One SCSI half-heigth 5.25″ 50-pin SE drive, Fast-Narrow SE SCSI, externally accessible (this would take space from one internal hard drive)
- 3.5″ Floppy drive
External ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended
- SCSI-3 68-pin Fast-Wide differential (HVD)
- Two serial RS232C DB9 (up 460.8Kb/s)
- Parallel DB25
- Ethernet RJ45
- Ethernet AUI 15-pin
- Graphics port depend on installed video adapter
- Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse
- HP-HIL for input device loop
- Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)
- Four LEDs on the front for errors and status messages
Operating systems
- HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- HP-UX 11i v1 in 32-bit mode, TCOE and MTOE versions
- 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 9.07 (possibly), pre-Y2K
- PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC, supported by HP in the 2000s
- OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
- NetBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
- HPBSD research Unix operating system (closed)
Pictures
Dimensions
| Height | Width | Depth | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 138mm | 539mm | 447mm | 21kg |
Benchmarks
| System | CPU | SPEC95 int |
SPEC95 fp |
SPECrate95, int | SPECrate95, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 C100 | PA-7200 100 MHz | 4.98 | 6.59 | 44.8 | 59.4 |
| HP 9000 C110 | PA-7200 120 MHz | 6.00 | 8.14 | 54.0 | 73.3 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
| System | CPU | SPEC95 int |
SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Visualize C240 | PA-8200 236 MHz | 17.1 | 25.4 |
| Siemens SCENIC 1000 | Intel Pentium II 333MHz | 13.0 | 9.43 |
| SGI O2 | MIPS R10000 196MHz | 10.1 | 8.77 |
| HP Visualize C160L | PA-7300LC 160 MHz | 7.75 | 7.56 |
| DEC Alphastation 500 | DEC Alpha 21164 266MHz | 7.20 | 11.10 |
| Intel Alder | Intel Pentium Pro 166MHz | 7.11 | 6.21 |
| Sun Ultra 2 1170 | Sun UltraSPARC 167MHz | 6.34 | 9.33 |
| DEC Alphastation 250 | DEC Alpha 21064A 266MHz | 4.18 | 6.27 |
| SGI Indy | MIPS R5000 150MHz | 3.97 | 4.20 |
| HP 9000 712/100 | PA-7100LC 100 MHz | 3.76 | 4.06 |
| IBM RS/6000 43P | PowerPC 604 100 MHz | 3.59 | 3.20 |
Documentation
Manuals
- C100/110 Owners Guide (.pdf), Hewlett Packard 1995, A4200-90014 parisc linux
- Service Handbook C Class (.pdf), Hewlett Packard 1998, A4200-90042 parisc linux
- HP 9000 C-Class Workstation Family Models C100 and C110, HP Technical Computing archive.org, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024)
LED messages
- LED errors and status messages might be displayed on the HP C-Class front LEDs