HP Visualize C132L, C160L (C-Class)

Overview
Internals
External connectors
References
Operating systems
Benchmarks
Dimensions

Quick Facts
Introduced	1996
CPU	PA-7300LC 132-160 MHz
Cache	128 KB L1 1 MB L2
RAM	2 GB
Design	LASI
Drives	3 SCSI 1 FD
Expansion	2 GSC/EISA 1 EISA/PCI 1 PCI
Bandwidth	Mem 423 MB/s (C132L) Mem 427 MB/s (C160L) I/O 132 MB/s (C132L) I/O 160 MB/s (C160L)
I/O	10E EVC 2 SCSI 2 serial parallel 2 PS/2 HIL audio

Overview

These HP Visualize C-Class workstations were entry-level Unix workstations equipped with the integrated, low-cost PA-7300LC CPU. have a similar case to that of the old HP 9000/735 workstation — built of interlocking modules so the I/O board, MPU board etc. can be easily taken out.

Model numbers: both the C132L and C160L have the HP 9000/779 model number.

Internals

CPU

C132L: PA-7300LC 132 MHz with 128 KB on-chip L1 and 1 MB off-chip L2 cache
C160L: PA-7300LC 160 MHz with 128 KB on-chip L1 and 1 MB off-chip L2 cache

The off-chip L2 cache SRAM is optional and installed in two DIMM slots below the CPU socket, usually two 512 KB modules for 1 MB L2 cache.

Chipset

LASI chipset
Phantom PseudoBC GSC+ port
NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI-2
Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
Wax EISA bridge
Dino GSC-to-PCI bridge
Visualize-EG graphics
Other I/O (serial, parallel, Floppy, HP-HIL)

» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the chipset.

Buses

GSC-2 system and I/O bus (33 MHz with 132 MB/s peak data rate on C132L, 40 MHz 160 MB/s on C160L)
EISA additional expansion I/O bus
PCI-32/33 high-performance device I/O bus
SCSI-2 single-ended bus
SCSI-2 Fast-Wide differential main storage I/O bus

Memory

72-pin ECC SIMMs, 60ns or faster
Bus width: 128 data bits with 16 check bits
Up to 8-way interleaving
Takes 16-256 MB modules
12 slots
32 MB (2×16) minimum, 2 GB maximum

Expansion

Two slots for either GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
One slot for either a PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, 3V or EISA card
One slot for a PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, 3V card
Slot layout (from top to bottom):
1. EISA or GSC
2. EISA or GSC
3. PCI-32/33.3 V or EISA
4. PCI-32/33

Drives

The disk-slider can accomodate up to three SCSI drives and one floppy drive simultaneously, the internal cabling (usually) includes one Wide-SCSI cable with three 68-pin connectors and a HVD-terminator at the end, one Narrow-SCSI with one 50-pin connector and one cable for the floppy.

The Narrow-SCSI cable is normally used for the external-accessible half-height 5.25″ CD/DAT drive, although it is of course also possible to connect a 50-pin SE hard drive. The cable can also be easily replaced with a variant with more connectors to use up to three 50-pin SE hard drives. The PDC can boot off these SE drives.

The Wide-SCSI cable is normally used for the internal 3.5″ 68-pin Fast-Wide high-voltage differential system drives. Up to three hard drives can be installed in the cage, which leaves no room for an external-accessible CD/DAT drive though. The Fast-Wide drives are also bootable from the PDC.

A standard configuration could look like this:

Two 3.5″ 68-pin Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI hard drives,
One 3.5″ Floppy drive and
One external-accessible half-height 5.25″ SCSI drive (CD/DAT).

External connectors

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
EVC graphics port1
Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse
HP-HIL for input device loop
Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)

You need a special HP adapter-cable to convert this EVC-port to either BNC or VGA HD15

References

Manuals

C160L Owners Guide (PDF, 1.6 MB)
Service Handbook C Class (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Operating systems

Benchmarks

Model	SPEC95, int	SPEC95, fp	SPEC95 rate, int	SPEC95 rate, fp
C132L	6.45	6.70	58.1	60.3
C160L	7.75	7.56	7.75/7.56	69.7/68.1

Dimensions

Height	Width	Depth	Weight
138mm	539mm	447mm	21kg

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