HP Visualize C132L, C160L
Quick Facts | |
---|---|
Introduced | 1996 |
Period | Maturity (III) |
Series | Visualize |
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 |
I/O | Ethernet EVC 2 SCSI 2 serial parallel 2 PS/2 HIL audio |
HP Visualize C132L and C160L PA-RISC workstations were entry-level Unix workstations with integrated, low-cost PA-7300LC processors and LASI chipset. They have a similar case to that of the old HP 9000/735 workstation, built of interlocking modules for I/O board, MPU board etc.
C132L and C160L were close to the slightly older and less powerful
C100/C110, which were PA-7200 based, and technically almost identical to the smaller and less expandable
B132L/B160L workstations.
PA-7300LC C160L was marketed by HP for MDA, EDA, GIS, or software development
with outstanding graphics and compute performance in an affordable and expandable system.
A C180L is mentioned in documentation but it is unclear if ever existed. The very rare PA-RISC laptops from RDI, PrecisionBooks from 1998, were technically based on Visualize C132L, C160L and C180L workstation designs.
- HP Visualize C132L, HP 9000/779, were introduced in 1996
- HP Visualize C160L, HP 9000/779, were introduced in 1996 for $19,480
System architecture
Processors
System | CPU | Speed | L1 cache | L2 cache |
---|---|---|---|---|
HP Visualize C132L | PA-7300LC PA-RISC 32-bit | 132 MHz | 64/64 KB on-chip | 1 MB off-chip |
HP Visualize C160L | PA-7300LC PA-RISC 32-bit | 160 MHz | 64/64 KB on-chip | 1 MB off-chip |
Chipset
- HP LASI integrated chipset
- GP Phantom PseudoBC GSC+ port
- Integrated NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI-2
- Integrated Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- HP Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- HP Wax EISA bridge
- HP Dino GSC-to-PCI bridge
- HP Visualize-EG graphics with 2MB frame buffer memory
- Graphics could be extended through separate boards:
- Optional HP HCRX GSC video card
- Optional HP Visualize GSC video card
- Optional HP Visualize-FX PCI video card
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, Floppy, HP-HIL)
» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the system architecture.
System 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
- 12 slots for 16-256 MB modules
- 32 MB to 2 GB supported
Expansion slots
- Two slots for GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
- One slot for 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:
- EISA or GSC
- EISA or GSC
- PCI-32/33.3 V or EISA
- PCI-32/33
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
- EVC graphics port, that needs a special HP adapter cable to convert to VGA
- 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
- 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
Benchmarks
System | CPU | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp | SPEC95 rate int |
SPEC95 rate fp |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
HP Visualize C132L | PA-7300LC 132 MHz | 6.45 | 6.70 | 58.1 | 60.3 |
HP Visualize C160L | PA-7300LC 160 MHz | 7.75 | 7.56 | 7.75/7.56 | 69.7/68.1 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
System | CPU | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
---|---|---|---|
HP Visualize C240 | PA-8200 236 MHz | 17.10 | 25.40 |
HP Visualize C160 | PA-8000 160 MHz | 10.40 | 16.30 |
SGI O2 | MIPS R10000 196MHz | 10.10 | 8.77 |
Intel SE440BX | Intel Pentium II 233MHz | 9.38 | 7.40 |
IBM RS/6000 F50 | PowerPC 604e 166 MHz | 7.52 | 8.52 |
DEC Alphastation 600 | DEC Alpha 21164 300MHz | 7.33 | 12.2 |
Intel Alder | Intel Pentium Pro 166MHz | 7.11 | 6.21 |
Sun Ultra 2 1170 | Sun UltraSPARC 167MHz | 6.34 | 9.33 |
HP 9000 C110 | PA-7200 120 MHz | 6.00 | 8.14 |
SGI Indy | MIPS R5000 150MHz | 3.97 | 4.20 |
HP 9000 712/100 | PA-7100LC 100 MHz | 3.76 | 4.06 |
Dimensions
Height | Width | Depth | Weight |
---|---|---|---|
138mm | 539mm | 447mm | 21kg |
Documentation
Manuals
- C160L Owners Guide (.pdf), Hewlett Packard 1996, A4200-90021 parisc linux
- Service Handbook C Class (.pdf), Hewlett Packard 1998, A4200-90042 parisc linux
- HP VISUALIZE Workstation Desktop Model C160L, 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