HP Visualize J5000, J5600, J7000

Quick Facts
Introduced	1999-2000
Period	Maturity (III)
Series	Visualize
CPU	1-2 (J5x00) 1-4 (J7x00) PA-8500 64-bit PA-8600 64-bit 440-552 MHz
Cache	1.5 MB L1
RAM	8 GB (J5x00) 16 GB (J7x00)
Design	Astro
Drives	5 SCSI 1 FD
Expansion	7 PCI
I/O	Fast Ethernet 2 SCSI 2 serial parallel 2 USB audio

System
Expansion
Ports
Operating systems
Pictures
Performance
Documentation

HP Visualize J5000 and J7000 were multi-processor PA-RISC workstations for the 3D graphics workstations market of the late 1990s. They had up to two (J5000) or four (J7000) 64-bit PA-RISC processors with large on-chip L1 caches and were the bigger versions of HP Visualize C3000 and C3600 with better expandability.

System design was a major change from earlier HP Visualize J200 et al. and similar to J6000 and J6700: LASI chipset and GSC were removed, new 64-bit chipset, I/O devices attach to PCI and USB ports. J5000 and J7000 share the same case and architecture while J7000 support more processors and RAM.

Both J5000 and J7000 were technical engineering workstations for advanced electronic design automation (EDA) and mechanical design automation (MDA) in the automotive and aerospace industries. Heralded as The Extreme Machine at release in 1999, HP claimed the J7000 has no real competition – it’s strongest competition is HP’s own Industry leading J5000.

HP Visualize J5000, HP 9000 785, were introduced in 1999 for $13,118 (single) and $24,313 (dual processor)
HP Visualize J5600, HP 9000 785, were introduced in 2000 for $21,108 (dual)
HP Visualize J7000, HP 9000 785, were introduced in 1999 for less than $50,000
HP Visualize J7600, HP 9000 785, were introduced in 2000
All Visualize J-Class were marketed and sold with HP Visualize fx graphics adapters

An upgrade path to HP Itanium (IA64 EPIC) was envisaged for Visualize workstations but not offered eventually. HP Visualize J5000 and J7000 were a group of the last PA-RISC workstations with J6700 and C3750 offered by HP before the ultimate HP c8000 in 2004.

System

Processors

System	CPU	Speed	L1 Cache
HP Visualize J5000	1-2 PA-8500 PA-RISC 64-bit	440 MHz	512/1024 KB on-chip
HP Visualize J5600	1-2 PA-8600 PA-RISC 64-bit	552 MHz	512/1024 KB on-chip
HP Visualize J7000	1-4 PA-8500 PA-RISC 64-bit	440 MHz	512/1024 KB on-chip
HP Visualize J7600	1-4 PA-8600 PA-RISC 64-bit	552 MHz	512/1024 KB on-chip

Chipset

HP Astro chipset, memory/Runway controller
Four HP Elroy PCI bridges
National 87560 (SuperI/O) for USB, RS232, parallel, floppy and IDE
National 87415 IDE controller
National USB controller
Analog Devices AD1889 sound chip
DEC 21142/43 Fast Ethernet controller (Tulip)
Symbios Logic 53C896 Ultra2-Wide SCSI-3 controller
Graphics were integrated via HP expansion boards:
- Optional Visualize-FX PCI video adapters
- J7000 Visualize-FX6 PCI video adapters

System buses

Runway CPU/memory bus
PCI-64/33 high-performance device I/O bus
PCI-64/66 high-performance graphics I/O bus
SCSI-2 Ultra-Narrow single-ended bus
SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD bus main storage I/O
IDE bus; CD/floppy I/O

Expansion

Memory

278-pin 120 MHz ECC SDRAM DIMMs
Takes 256/512/1024 MB modules
J5000 8 slots
J7000 16 slots
256 MB minimum, J5000: 8 GB (8×1024) maximum; J7000: 16 GB (16×1024) maximum.

Expansion cards

Five PCI 64-bit/33 MHz, 5 V slots
Two PCI 64-bit/66 MHz, 3.3 V slots
I/O slots layout (from top to bottom):
1. EMPTY
2. PCI-64/33, 5 V
3. PCI-64/33, 5 V
4. PCI-64/66, 3.3 V
5. PCI-64/33, 5 V
6. PCI-64/33, 5 V
7. PCI-64/66, 3.3 V
8. PCI-64/33, 5 V

Storage

Four SCSI 3.5″ Ultra2-Wide LVD hard drives with 80-pin SCA connector
3.5″ Floppy drive
SCSI half-heigth 5.25″ drive, external accessible

Ports

SCSI-2 50-pin Ultra-Narrow single-ended
SCSI-3 68-pin Ultra2-Wide LVD
Two serial RS232C DB9
Parallel DB25
Fast Ethernet RJ45
Two USB ports for keyboard & mouse
Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and line-out)

Operating systems

HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- 11i v1 64-bit in version TCOE
  - J5000, J7000 (December 2000-September 2005)
  - C5600, J7600 (December 2000-December 2006)
- 11.00 64-bit from version ACE9911
- 10.20 32-bit from version ACE9912
- Software on HP-UX: Very often used for engineering (CAD/CAM), mathematics and signals, sometimes DTP
PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC
OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC, in 32-bit mode
NetBSD open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC, in 32-bit mode

Pictures

HP Visualize J5600, Thomas Schanz 2013, CC BY-SA 4.0

Performance

Compared to other RISC and Unix platforms of the 1990s, PA-RISC was a fast architecture with PA-8500/PA-8600 processors being very strong late-1990s 64-bit RISC processors.

PA-RISC SPEC scores of HP 9000 computers
System	CPU	SPEC95 int/fp		SPEC95 rate int/fp		SPEC2000 int/fp		SPEC2000 rate int/fp
HP Visualize J5000	1 PA-8500 440 MHz 2 PA-8500 440 MHz	32.50	54.00	302 579	486 744
HP Visualize J5600	1 PA-8600 552 MHz 2 PA-8600 552 MHz	42.60	62.70	384 758	564 847	431	433	9.63	8.02
HP Visualize J7000	1 PA-8500 440 MHz 2 PA-8500 440 MHz	32.40	54.00	302 579	486 744

Based on old SPEC2000 archives
System	Processor	SPEC2000 int/fp
HP c8000	PA-8800 1.0 GHz	1001
HP zx6000	McKinley 1.0 GHz	807	1422
HP AlphaServer ES80	Alpha 21364 1GHz	689	975
IBM POWER 275	IBM POWER4+ 1GHz	617	862
Sun Fire 280R	UltraSPARC III Cu 1GHz	511	688
SGI Origin 3200	MIPS R14000 600MHz	483	499
DELL Power Edge 4400	Pentium III Xeon 1 GHz	437	302
IBM RS/6000 M80	IBM RS64 IV 750MHz	409	359
AlphaStation XP1000	Alpha 21264A 667MHz	403	532
HP i2000	Itanium Merced 800MHz 4MB	365	610
HP Visualize P750C	Pentium III 750MHz	325	219
Compaq AlphaServer ES40	Alpha 21264 500MHz	311	382
HP Visualize P500	Intel Pentium III 500MHz	231	191

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.

Manuals

J5x00/J7x00 Owner’s Guide (PDF, 4.5 MB) parisc linux
J5x00/J7x00 Service Handbook (PDF, 4.4 MB) parisc linux
VISUALIZE Workstation Memory Subsystem (PDF, 120 KB) parisc linux
System Firmware for HP-UX 11.00/11.11, Hewlett-Packard Company (2004: mirror accessed 2025) archive.org

Articles

HP DELIVERS WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL 64-BIT FOUR-WAY TECHNICAL WORKSTATION, HP Visualize J7000 Unix Workstation Press Release, Hewlett Packard 1999 archive.org
HP VISUALIZE J7000 UNIX Workstations product brief, Hewlett Packard 1999 5968-7603E archive.org