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PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP Visualize C200, C240, C360

Quick Facts
Introduced 1997 and 1999
Period Maturity (III)
CPU 1 PA-8200
1 PA-8500
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)
Bandwidth CPU/Mem 960 MB/s
Sys 256 MB/s
I/O 100E
2 SCSI
2 serial
parallel
2 PS/2
audio

The 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 CPUs, based on the earlier 32-bit Visualize C100/C110.

The C-Class have a similar case to that of the old 735 with interlocking modules so I/O, CPU board etc. can be easily taken out.

The 64-bit Visualize C-Class were graphics workstations aimed at CAD/CAM/3D modelling, and were at the time the fastest configurations of the C-Class series.

The systems were sometimes referred to as C200+ and C240+ and were sold under the Visualize brand as well as the prior HP 9000 naming scheme.

Model Number Introduced Price
C200 9000/782 1997 $21,000
C240 9000/782 1997 $46,000
C360 9000/785 1998 $22,365

Note that list prices were moving in 97-98 a lot due to pressure from Windows NT workstations and HP adjusting prices often in response.

System architecture

Processors

Model CPU Speed L1 Cache
C200 PA-8200 200 MHz 512/1024 KB off-chip
C240 PA-8200 236 MHz 2048/2048 KB off-chip
C360 PA-8500 367 MHz 512/1024 KB on-chip

Chipset

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 SE-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 Ultra-Wide SE 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 Ultra-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 SPECrate95, int SPECrate95, fp
C200 14.20 21.40 129 193
C240 17.10 25.40 156 229
C360 26.00 28.10 234 252

Dimensions

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

References

Manuals

Other

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