HP Visualize J200, J210, J280, J2240
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1995-1997 |
| Period | Maturity (III) |
| Series | Visualize |
| CPU | 1-2 SMP PA-7200/ PA-8000/ PA-8200 100-236 MHz |
| Cache | 0.5-4 MB |
| RAM | 2 GB 4 GB (J2240) |
| Design | U2/UTurn |
| Drives | 4 SCSI |
| Expansion | 1 GSC 2 EISA 2 EISA/GSC/ J2240: 1 PCI 1 PCI/EISA 3 PCI/GSC |
| I/O | Ethernet Fast Ethernet (J2240) 2 SCSI 2 serial 2 PS/2 HIL audio |
HP Visualize J-Class are large PA-RISC workstations from the mid-1990s, up to two-way SMP in deskside chassis. Introduced in 1995, the J200 and J210 were the first PA-RISC workstations not using the Series 700 naming convention anymore. Together with the contemporary C-Class, the J-Class superseded earlier HP 9000 700 workstations like the 715 and 735.
J-Class later included a variety of 32- and 64-bit processors: J200 and J210 were 32-bit, the J280, J282 and J2240 were 64-bit. J280 was single-processor and could be upgraded to dual J282 – all others were two-way SMP-capable out of the box.
HP marketed J-Class against contemporary Unix and RISC offerings, specifically the Sun Ultra 2 U2 2200 and focused use cases of advanced 3D, computational analysis and compute- and memory-intensive processing workloads.
J-Class workstations had solid expandability with multiprocessing and many I/O options, often used for Visualize graphics.
- HP 9000 J200, HP 9000/770, were introduced in 1995 for $27,655
- HP 9000 J210, HP 9000/770, were introduced in 1995 for $35,655
- HP 9000 J210XC, HP 9000/770, were introduced in 1995
- HP Visualize J280, HP 9000/780, were introduced in 1996 for $38,520
- HP Visualize J282, HP 9000/780, were introduced in 1997
- HP Visualize J2240, HP 9000/782, were introduced in 1997 for $55,900
J-Class were used in the military a lot during the 1990s, together with a variety of other PA-RISC computers like D-Class they were part of the US Navy TAC-4 program. HP was a TAC-4 vendor supplying RISC Unix computers for uses throughout the Navy and offered the J-Class as part of a technology refreshment of TAC-4 in 1996.
There were 64-bit successor J-Class around 2000: the J5000/J7000 and J6000, which then became some of the last PA-RISC workstations offered before HP fully switched to Itanium and soon ceased to offer RISC/Unix workstations altogether.
System architecture
Processors
| System | CPU | Speed | L1 cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 J200 | 1-2 PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit | 100 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist |
| HP 9000 J210 | 1-2 PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit | 120 MHz | 256/256 KB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist |
| HP 9000 J210XC | 1-2 PA-7200 PA-RISC 32-bit | 120 MHz | 1/1 MB off-chip, 2 KB on-chip assist |
| HP Visualize J280 | 1 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit | 180 MHz | 1/1 MB off-chip |
| HP Visualize J282 | 1-2 PA-8000 PA-RISC 64-bit | 180 MHz | 1/1 MB off-chip |
| HP Visualize J2240 | 1-2 PA-8200 PA-RISC 64-bit | 236 MHz | 2/2 MB off-chip |
Chipset
- J2x0 HP U2 chipset Runway to GSC bridge
- J28x HP UTurn chipset Runway to GSC bridge
- HP MMC/SMC memory controllers
- HP LASI I/O chipset
- Integrated NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Integrated Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- HP Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- HP Wax EISA bridge
- NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide high-voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2
- Other I/O (serial, parallel, Floppy, HP-HIL)
- Graphics could be extended through separate boards:
- J2240 HP Dino GSC-to-PCI bridge
- J2240 HP Cujo GSC-to-PCI bridge, 64-bit
- J2240 Symbios Logic 53C895 16-bit Ultra-Wide SCSI-2 controller
- J2240 DEC 21142/43 Tulip Fast-Ethernet controller
» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the chipset (does not apply to J2240)
System buses
- Runway CPU/memory bus (100 MHz with 800 MB/s peak data rate on J200, 120 MHz 960 MB/s on all others)
- Cache:
- J200 64-bit wide, 800 MB/s I/D fetch and load
- J210 64-bit wide, 960 MB/s I/D fetch and load
- J28x 128-bit wide, 2.88 GB/s fetch, 1.44 GB/s D-store
- GSC system level I/O bus
- EISA additional expansion I/O bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Wide high-voltage differential bus, main storage I/O
- SCSI-2 Fast-Narrow single-ended bus
- J2240 SCSI-3 Ultra-Wide single-ended bus, main storage I/O
- J2240 PCI bus
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs, 60ns or faster
- Bus width: 128 data bits with 16 check bits
- Up to 8-way interleaving
- 16 slots for 16-128 MB modules
- 32 MB to 2 GB supported
- J2240 4 GB maximum (with 256 MB modules)
Expansion slots
- One slot for a GSC (EISA formfactor) card
- Two slots for EISA cards
- Two slots for GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
- Slot layout, from bottom to top:
- GSC (for primary graphics)
- EISA or GSC
- EISA or GSC
- EISA
- EISA
J2240 Expansion slots
- One slot for a PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, 5 V card
- One slot for a PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, 5 V or EISA card
- One slot for a GSC or PCI 32-bit 32-bit/33 MHz, 5 V card
- Two slots for GSC or PCI 64-bit/66 MHz, 3.3 V cards
- Slot layout, from bottom to top:
- PCI-64/66, 3.3 V or GSC (for primary graphics)
- PCI-32/33, 5 V or GSC
- PCI-64/66, 3.3 V or GSC
- PCI-32/33, 5 V
- PCI-32/33, 5 V or EISA
Storage
- One tray for two 3.5″ Fast-Wide HVD 68-pin SCSI hard drives
- One tray for two half-heigth 5.25″ Fast-Narrow SE 50-pin SCSI drives, external accessible
External ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin Fast-Narrow single-ended
- SCSI-3 68-pin Fast-Wide high-voltage differential (HVD)
- J2240 SCSI-3 68-pin Ultra-Wide single-ended
- Two serial RS232C DB9 (up to 460.8Kb/s)
- Parallel DB25
- Ethernet RJ45 and AUI
- J2240 Fast Ethernet RJ45
- Graphics port depends on installed framebuffer
- Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard & mouse
- HP-HIL for input device loop
- Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)
Operating systems
- HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- HP-UX 11i v1 in 32-bit (J2x0) or 64-bit (J28x), TCOE and MTOE versions
- HP-UX 11.00 in 32-bit (J2x0) or 64-bit (J28x)
- HP-UX 10.20 32-bit (ACE 9804 for J2240)
- J200, J210 HP-UX 10.00 and HP-UX 10.10, pre-Y2K
- J200, J210 HP-UX 9.07 (possibly), pre-Y2K
- PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC, supported by HP in the 2000s
- OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
- NetBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
- J200, J210 HPBSD research Unix operating system (closed)
- J200, J210 OSF MK-PA commercial Unix alternative (rare)
Pictures
J200
Dimensions
| Height | Width | Depth | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 470mm | 330mm | 541mm | 50kg |
Benchmarks
| System | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp | SPECrate95, int | SPECrate95, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 9000 J200 2-CPU |
4.98 | 4.50 | 44.8 64.5 |
61.3 105 |
| HP 9000 J210 2-CPU |
6.00 | 5.40 | 54.0 77.5 |
73.4 126 |
| HP 9000 J210XC 2-CPU |
6.40 | 5.70 | 57.6 82.8 |
81.5 142 |
| HP Visualize J280 2-CPU |
11.80 | 19.30 | 107 |
174 |
| HP Visualize J282 2-CPU |
11.90 | 19.30 | 107.2 |
174 |
| HP Visualize J2240 2-CPU |
17.40 | 26.30 | 157 307 |
237 349 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
| System | CPU | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Visualize C240 | PA-8200 236 MHz | 17.1 | 25.4 |
| DEC Alphastation 500 | DEC Alpha 21164 500MHz | 15.0 | 20.4 |
| 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 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 |
| DEC Alphastation 250 | DEC Alpha 21064A 266MHz | 4.18 | 6.27 |
| SGI Indy | MIPS R5000 150MHz | 3.97 | 4.20 |
| HP 9000 712/100 | PA-7100LC 100 MHz | 3.76 | 4.06 |
Documentation
Manuals
- Visualize J200, J210 technical reference manual (URL gone)
- Visualize J280 Owner’s Guide (URL gone)
- Visualize J280 workstation upgrade instructions (URL gone)
- Visualize J280, J282, J2240 Service Handbook (URL gone)
- Visualize J282, J2240 Owner’s Guide (URL gone)
- Visualize J282 workstation upgrade instructions (URL gone)
- Visualize J2240 workstation upgrade instructions (URL gone)
Articles
- Symmetric Multiprocessing Workstations and Servers System-Designed for High Performance and Low Cost, Hewlett-Packard Journal (February 1996: HP) archive.org
- A New Memory System Design for Commercial and Technical Computing Products (.pdf) Thomas R. Hotchkiss, Norman D. Marschke, and Richard M. McClosky (Februar 1996: Hewlett-Packard Journal) archive.org
- HP 9000 J-Class Workstation Family Models J200, J210 and J210XC, HP Technical Computing, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024) archive.org
- HP VISUALIZE Workstation Deskside Model J280, HP Technical Computing, Hewlett-Packard Company (1997: mirror accessed January 2024) archive.org