HP Visualize C160, C180 Workstations

Quick Facts
Introduced 1996
Period Maturity (III)
Series Visualize
CPU PA-8000 64-bit
160-180 MHz
Cache 1-2 MB
RAM 3 GB
Design UTurn
Drives 3 SCSI
1 FD
Expansion 1 GSC/PCI
1 GSC/PCI/EISA
2 GSC/EISA
I/O Ethernet
EVC
2 SCSI
2 serial
parallel
2 PS/2
HIL
audio

HP Visualize C160 and C180 are Unix graphics workstations with 64-bit PA-8000 RISC processors, introduced in 1996. They were the higher-end offerings with better CPUs and configurations compared to HP Visualize C100, C110 and lower-cost C132L, C160L workstations.

© Hewlett Packard 1999

HP Visualize C160 and C180 were the first smaller 64-bit PA-RISC workstations for graphics applications, positioned by HP against Sun Ultra 2 and Silicon Graphics Indigo2 workstations. HP aimed the Visualize C160 and C180 computers at CAD/CAM and 3D applications. They were later succeeded by the powerful C200 and C240.

HP marketed the C160 and C180 for MDA, EDA, Exploration and Production, GIS, and Medical Imaging as well as fluid dynamics and structural analysis with outstanding floating point and graphics performance.

C180 were sometimes sold as C180-XP with Visualize 48XP graphics adapters. Earlier 32-bit Visualize C100 and C110 were board-upgradable to C160 and C180. The Visualize C-Class case is similar to earlier HP 9000 735 workstations with interlocking modules.

System

Processors

System CPU Speed L1 cache
HP Visualize C160 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit 160 MHz 512/512 KB off-chip
HP Visualize C180 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit 180 MHz 1/1 MB off-chip

Chipset

HP 9000 C160 and C180 workstations use a 64-bit HP UTurn PA-RISC chipset, together with the 64-bit Runway bus for I/O adapters (IOA) and MMC/SMC 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 balance of the C160 and C180 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. 

 ______
|ICache|
|______|
 ___|___  Runway  ______
|PA-8000|___..___|Memory|
|_______|   ||   |______|
 __|___     ||
|DCache|    ||     _ _ LASI ASIC _ _
|______|    ||            ______
 ________   ||    |  ..__|i82596|___|_[10Mb Ethernet]
|U2/Uturn|__||       ||  |______|
|________|        |  ||   ______    |
    | |________..    ||__|53C710|_____[8-bit SCSI-2]
    |_______.. || |  ||  |______|   |
            || ||____||   ____
 ________   || || |  ||__|PS/2|_____|_[Keyboard/Mouse]
|GSC-slot|__|| ||    ||  |____|
|________|  || || |  ||   ______    |
 ________   || ||    ||__|16550A|_____[1st Serial]
|GSC-slot|__|| || |  ||  |______|   |
|________| GSC ||    ||   ______
 ________      || |  ||__|37C65C|___|_[Floppy]
|WAX/EISA|_____||    ||  |______|
|________|     || |  ||   ______    |
    ||         ||    ||__|16C522|_____[Parallel]
 ___||____     || |  ||  |______|   |
|EISA-slot|    ||    ||   _______
|_________|    || |  ||__|Harmony|__|_[Audio]
 ___||____     ||    ||  |_______|
|EISA-slot|    || |  ||   ___       |
|_________|    ||    ||__|RTC|
 ___||____     || | GSC  |___|      |
|EISA-slot|    ||  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
|_________|    ||   ______
 ________      ||__|53C720|___________[16-bit SCSI-2]
|GSC-slot|_____||  |______|
|________|     ||   ___________
 ________      ||__|VisualizeEG|______[VGA]
|GSC-slot|_____||  |___________|
|________|     ||
 ____          ||  _ _ WAX ASIC_ _ _
|Dino|_________|| |                 |
|____|         ||         ______
   |_______..  || |  ..__|16550A|___|_[2nd Serial]
 ________  ||  ||____||  |______|
|PCI-slot|_|| GSC |  ||   ___       |
|________| ||        ||__|HIL|________[Input]
 ________  ||     | GSC  |___|      |
|PCI-slot|_||      _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
|________| PCI

HP Visualize C160/C180 System Architecture

System buses

Expansion

Memory

Expansion cards

Storage

Ports

Operating systems

Pictures

HP Visualize C160 HP Visualize C160 HP Visualize C160 HP Visualize C160
HP Visualize C160 HP Visualize C160 HP Visualize C110 HP Visualize C110
HP Visualize C160, Thomas Schanz 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dimensions

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

Performance

PA-RISC SPEC scores of HP 9000 computers
System CPU SPEC95
int		 SPEC95
fp		 SPEC95
rate int		 SPEC95
rate fp
HP Visualize C160 PA-8000 160 MHz 10.40 16.30 93.6 147
HP Visualize C180 PA-8000 180 MHz 11.80 18.70 107 169

Compared to other RISC and Unix platforms of the 1990s, PA-RISC was a fast architecture with PA-8000 processors being strong mid-1990s 64-bit RISC processors.

Based on old SPEC95 archives
System CPU SPEC95
int		 SPEC95
fp
HP Visualize C240 PA-8200 236 MHz 17.1 25.4
SGI Origin 2000 MIPS R10000 250MHz 4MB 14.7 24.5
Sun Ultra 5 333 Sun UltraSPARC IIi 333MHz 14.1 18.3
Siemens SCENIC 1000 Intel Pentium II 333MHz 13.0 9.43
IBM RS/6000 43P 150 PowerPC 604e 250 MHz 11.1 8.78
SGI O2 MIPS R10000 196MHz 10.1 8.77
Intel SE440BX Intel Pentium II 233MHz 9.38 7.40
Intel Alder Intel Pentium Pro 200MHz 8.09 6.75
HP Visualize C160L PA-7300LC 160 MHz 7.75 7.56
IBM RS/6000 F50 PowerPC 604e 166 MHz 7.52 8.52
DEC Alphastation 600 DEC Alpha 21164 300MHz 7.33 12.2
Sun Ultra 2 1170 Sun UltraSPARC 167MHz 6.34 9.33

Documentation

Most HP documentation is only available at archive.org and other archives, with most official sources, articles and journals having disappeared in the 2010s.

LED messages

ROM update

There is a firmware update available for the C160 and C180, which contains the latest version 6.3 or 6.2

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