HP Visualize C200, C240, C360 Workstations

Quick Facts
Introduced 1997 and 1999
Period Maturity (III)
Series Visualize
CPU PA-8200 64-bit
PA-8500 64-bit
200-367 MHz
Cache 1.5-4 MB L1
RAM 3 GB
Design UTurn
Drives 3 SCSI
1 FD
Expansion 3 GSC/PCI
1 GSC/PCI(/EISA)
I/O Fast Ethernet
2 SCSI
2 serial
parallel
2 PS/2
audio

HP Visualize C200, C240 and C360 are 64-bit PA-RISC workstations released between 1997 and 1999, designed for the late-1990s Unix graphics market. They had powerful 64-bit PA-8200 and PA-8500 64-bit PA-RISC CPUs and were based on earlier 32-bit Visualize C100/C110 workstations.

HP Visualize C-Class
© Hewlett Packard 1999

These newer, 64-bit Visualize C-Class were primarily graphics workstations aimed at CAD/CAM and 3D modeling, at the time the fastest configurations of C-Class. Most of the time, they were shipped with and used custom Visualize and Visualize-FX graphics adapters from HP.

HP Visualize C200 and C240 were sometimes also called C200+ and C240+. There were preceeded by Visualize C160 and C180 and later replaced by newer, PC-like C3000 and C3600 in 1999 to 2001. C-Class were marketed under the late-1990s Visualize branding as well as the earlier HP 9000 naming scheme.

System

Processors

System CPU Speed L1 cache
HP Visualize C200 PA-8200 PA-RISC 64-bit 200 MHz 512/1024 KB off-chip
HP Visualize C240 PA-8200 PA-RISC 64-bit 236 MHz 2048/2048 KB off-chip
HP Visualize C360 PA-8500 PA-RISC 64-bit 367 MHz 512/1024 KB on-chip

Chipset

HP 9000 C200 and C240 workstations use the 64-bit HP UTurn chipset for PA-RISC computers. HP computers with Runway bus often used U2 and UTurn I/O adapters (IOA) and MMC/SMC as memory controllers that attach subsystems to the main Runway bus. For C200 and C240, HP extended the UTurn and Runway architecture with PCI bridges.

The I/O part of the system design consists of some newer devices on PCI and proved HP 32-bit PA-RISC designs on GSC, re-using HP LASI as I/O chipset.

System buses

Expansion

Memory

Expansion cards

Storage

Ports

Operating systems

Pictures

HP Visualize C200 HP Visualize C200
HP Visualize C200, Thomas Schanz 2007, CC BY-SA 4.0
HP Visualize C240 HP Visualize C240 HP Visualize C240 HP Visualize C240
HP Visualize C240, Thomas Schanz 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0
HP Visualize C360 HP Visualize C360 HP Visualize C360 HP Visualize C360
HP Visualize C360 HP Visualize C360
HP Visualize C360, Thomas Schanz 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dimensions

HP Visualize C-Class workstations use a similar case to that of early-90s HP 9000 735 workstations with interlocking modules where I/O, CPU and other boards can be easily taken out.

Height Width Depth Weight
138mm 539mm 447mm 23kg

Performance

HP Visualize C200, C240 and C360 were extremely fast RISC workstations of the mid to late-1990s, often quicked than contemporary RISC and Unix workstations like Sun Ultra 5, DEC Alpha Workstations or RS/6000. Compared to other platforms of the 1990s, PA-RISC was fast with PA-8200 processors being very strong late-1990s 64-bit RISC processors. They were also still much faster than contemporary PCs with Windows NT and Intel.

PA-RISC SPEC scores of HP 9000 computers
System CPU SPEC95
int/fp
HP Visualize C200 PA-8200 200 MHz 14.20 21.40
HP Visualize C240 PA-8200 236 MHz 17.10 25.40
HP Visualize C360 PA-8500 367 MHz 26.00 28.10
Based on old SPEC95 archives
System CPU SPEC95
int/fp
IBM RS/6000 44P 170 POWER3-II 400MHz 25.3 47.9
Siemens Celsius 2000 Intel Pentium II 450MHz 18.9 15.0
DEC Workstation 600au DEC Alpha 21164 600MHz 18.4 21.3
SGI Origin 200 MIPS R12000 270MHz 15.8 25.2
Sun Ultra 5 333 Sun UltraSPARC IIi 333 14.1 18.3
Siemens SCENIC 1000 Intel Pentium II 333MHz 13.0 9.4
HP Visualize C180 PA-8000 180 MHz 11.8 18.7
IBM RS/6000 43P 150 PowerPC 604e 250 MHz 11.1 8.7
SGI O2 MIPS R10000 196MHz 10.1 8.7
Intel Alder Intel Pentium Pro 200 8.0 6.7
HP Visualize C160L PA-7300LC 160 MHz 7.7 7.5
HP 9000 C110 PA-7200 120 MHz 6.0 8.1

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.

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