PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP Visualize C160, C180

Quick Facts
Introduced 1996
Period Maturity (III)
Series Visualize
CPU PA-8000
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 were graphics workstations equipped with 64-bit PA-8000 processors, introduced in 1996. They were higher-end offerings with better CPUs and configurations compared to older HP Visualize C100, C110, or lower-cost C132L, C160L.

© Hewlett Packard 1999

The case is similar to that of the HP 9000/735 workstation with interlocking modules. These machines were aimed at CAD/CAM/3D modelling and were succeeded by the powerful C200 and C240.

C160 and C180 were the first smaller 64-bit PA-RISC workstations for graphics applications and positioned by HP against Sun Ultra 2 and Silicon Graphics Indigo2 workstations for Unix technical computing. HP marketed them for MDA, EDA, Exploration and Production, GIS, and Medical Imaging as well as fluid dynamics and structural analysis as they had outstanding floating point and graphics performance.

C180 were sometimes marketed as C180-XP with included Visualize 48XP graphics adapter. 32-bit C100 and C110 were board-upgradable to C160 and C180.

System architecture

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

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

System buses

Memory

Expansion slots

Storage

External 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

Benchmarks

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

Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:

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

LED messages

ROM update

There is a firmware update available for the C160 and C180, which contains the latest version (6.2).

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