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PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP Visualize C132L, C160L

Quick Facts
Introduced 1996
Period Maturity (III)
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

The 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 so the I/O board, MPU board etc. can be easily taken out.

The 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.

The very rare PA-RISC laptops from RDI, the RDI PrecisionBooks from 1998, were technically based on the Visualize C132L, C160L and C180L.

Model Number Introduced Price
C132L 9000/779 1996
C160L 9000/779 1996 $19,480

System architecture

Processors

Model CPU Speed L1 Cache L2 Cache
C132L PA-7300LC 132 MHz 64/64 KB on-chip 1 MB off-chip
C160L PA-7300LC 160 MHz 64/64 KB on-chip 1 MB off-chip

The external L2 cache SRAM is optional and installed in two DIMM slots next to the CPU socket with modules of equal size. Usually, systems come with two 512 KB modules ≡ 1 MB L2.

Chipset

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

System buses

Memory

Expansion slots

Storage

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:

External ports

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

References

Manuals

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