HP Visualize C200, C240, C360

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 PA-RISC workstations were aimed at the late-1990s Unix graphics market, with powerful 64-bit PA-8200 and PA-8500 64-bit PA-RISC CPUs. They were based on earlier 32-bit Visualize C100/C110 workstations.

C-Class have 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. These newer 64-bit Visualize C-Class were graphics workstations aimed at CAD/CAM/3D modeling, and were at the time the fastest configurations of C-Class.

HP Visualize C200 and C240 were sometimes also called C200+ and C240+. HP marketed C-Class both the newer, late-1990s Visualize brand as well as the prior HP 9000 (700) naming scheme, going back to the 1990s.

HP Visualize C200, HP 9000/782, were introduced in 1997 for $21,000
HP Visualize C240, HP 9000/782, were introduced in 1997 for $46,000
HP Visualize C360, HP 9000/785, were introduced in 1998 for $22,365*

* List prices were moving a lot in 97-98 due to pressure from Windows NT workstations and HP adjusted prices often. Not sure this is right, though.

Architecture

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.

HP UTurn I/O adapter Runway to GSC bridge
HP MMC/SMC memory controllers
HP LASI integrated I/O chipset (GSC)
Symbios Logic 53C875 16-bit Ultra-Wide SCSI-2 controller (PCI)
DEC 21142/43 (Tulip) Fast-Ethernet controller (PCI)
Integrated NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2 (GSC)
Integrated Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller (GSC)
HP Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
HP Wax EISA bridge (GSC)
HP Dino PCI bridge (GSC)
HP Cujo PCI bridge, 64-bit (GSC)
Graphics could be extended through separate boards:
- Optional Visualize GSC video adapters
- Optional Visualize-FX PCI video adapters
Other I/O (serial, parallel, Floppy)

System buses

Runway CPU/memory bus (120 MHz with 960 MB/s peak data rate)
GSC-2 general system-level I/O bus, 256 MB/s
SE SCSI, bridges, audio
EISA (built to order option)
additional EISA expansion I/O
PCI-32/33 device I/O bus
Fast Ethernet, UW SCSI, PCI slots
PCI-64/66 high-performance device I/O bus
64-bit PCI slots
SCSI-2 Fast-Narrow single-ended bus
SCSI-2 Ultra-Wide single-ended bus main storage I/O

Expansion

Memory

72-pin ECC EDO SIMMs, 50ns or faster
12 slots for 16-256 MB modules
32 MB to 3 GB supported

I/O slots

Three slots for GSC (EISA formfactor) or PCI cards
One slot for a GSC (EISA formfactor), PCI or EISA card
Two PCI slots are 32-bit/33 MHz, 5 V; the other two PCI 64-bit/66 MHz, 3.3 V.
Some systems do not have the optional EISA slot
I/O slot layout, from top to bottom:
1. PCI-32/33, 5 V or EISA or GSC
2. PCI-64/66, 3.3 V or GSC
3. PCI-32/33, 5 V or GSC
4. PCI-64/66, 3.3 V or GSC

Storage

Storage and drives installed in the disk slider
Three SCSI half-height 3.5″ 68-pin hard drives, Ultra-Wide single-ended (SE)
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

I/O ports

SCSI-2 50-pin Fast-Narrow single-ended
SCSI-3 68-pin Ultra-Wide single-ended
Two serial RS232C DB9
Parallel DB25
Fast Ethernet RJ45
Ethernet AUI 15-pin
Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard & mouse
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 64-bit mode, TCOE and MTOE versions
- HP-UX 11.00 in 64-bit mode
- HP-UX 10.20 32-bit (ACE 9707 and ACE 9806)
PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC
OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
NetBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC

Pictures

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

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

Dimensions

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

Benchmarks

Results with HP-UX 10.20
System	CPU	SPEC95 int	SPEC95 fp	SPEC95 rate int/fp
HP Visualize C200	PA-8200 200 MHz	14.20	21.40	129/193
HP Visualize C240	PA-8200 236 MHz	17.10	25.40	156/229
HP Visualize C360	PA-8500 367 MHz	26.00	28.10	234/252

Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:

Based on old SPEC95 archives
System	CPU	SPEC95 int	SPEC95 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 333MHz	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 200MHz	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

Manuals

Model C160 / C180 / C200 / C240 / C360 Owner’s Guide (.pdf), Hewlett Packard 1998, A4200-90050 parisc linux
Service Handbook C Class (.pdf), Hewlett Packard 1998, A4200-90042 parisc linux

LED messages

LED errors and status messages might be displayed on the HP C-Class front LEDs

↑ up