HP A400, A500 (rp2400, A-Class)
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 2000, 2002 |
| CPU | 1-2 PA-8500/ PA-8600 PA-8700 440-750 MHz |
| Cache | 1.5-2.25 MB L1 |
| RAM | 2-8 GB |
| Design | Astro |
| Drives | 2 SCSI |
| Expansion | 2-4 PCI |
| Bandwidth | System 1.9 GB/s I/O 1.3 GB/s (A400) I/O 1.9 GB/s (A500) Mem 1.9 GB/s |
| I/O | 100E 2 SCSI 1/3 serial 10E console |
Overview
The HP A-Class servers rp2400/rp2430 (A400), rp2405 and rp2450/rp2470 (A500) are the early 2000s 64-bit successors of the popular HP 9000/A180 rack servers. Still being part of the HP 9000 800 series, the A-Class were renamed under the rp server badge with several iterations of rp24x0 designators. The A400 was single-processor while the A500 was SMP-capable and had better expandability. The rp2405 was a low-cost version, introduced two years later based on similar hardware to the A500 that could be upgraded to a rp2470.
System design is based on 64-bit PA-RISC processors with large on-chip L1 caches, Astro memory/CPU controller and Elroy PCI bridges for expansion and I/O, a similar but simplified architecture of the HP Visualize C3000 line of workstations.
The various A-Class model names with CPU-suffix correspond to these rp-designators:
- rp2400: A400-36, A400-44, A400-5X
- rp2405
- rp2430: A400-6X, A400-7X
- rp2450: A500-36, A500-44, A500-5X
- rp2470: A500-6X, A500-7X
Internals
CPU
The A400 servers are uniprocessor while the A500 support up to 2-way SMP, based on different system boards they support different types of processors (it's all rather complicated):
| Model | Part-No | CPU | Processor options |
|---|---|---|---|
| A400/rp2400 | A6109A, A6109B | 1 | -44: PA-8500 440 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache |
| A400/rp2430 | A6890A | 1 | -5X: PA-8600 550 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache -6X: PA-8700 650 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache |
| rp2405 | A7121A | 1 | -6X: PA-8700 650 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache |
| A500/rp2450 | A5570A, A5570B, A8329A | 1-2 | -44: PA-8500 440 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache -5X: PA-8600 550 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache |
| A500/rp2470 | A6890A | 1-2 | -6X: PA-8700 650 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache -7X: PA-8700 750 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache |
| rp2405 | A7122A | 1-2 | -6X: PA-8700 650 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache |
The following configuration might have been shipped, or maybe were only theoretically possible:
- -8X: PA-8700 875 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each
- -9X: PA-8800 (dual-core) 900 MHz/1.0 GHz with 1.5/1.5 MB on-chip L1 and 32 MB off-chip L2 cache each
Chipset
- Astro memory/Runway controller, connects to the system/processor bus (1-2 CPUs), dedicated memory bus and to the I/O systems via five (A400) or seven (A500) I/O links
- A400: Three Elroy PCI bridges (LBAs), convert the five I/O links from Astro into three PCI buses
- A500: Four Elroy PCI bridges (LBAs), convert the seven I/O links from Astro into four PCI buses
- Two HP Diva Serial [GSP] Multiport UARTs
- DEC 21142/43 Fast Ethernet controller (Tulip)
- Symbios Logic 53C876 SCSI controller, (includes two Symbios Logic 53C875 cores with each one Ultra-Wide SCSI-2 bus)
- Symbios Logic 53C896 Ultra2-Wide SCSI-3 controller
Buses
- Runway CPU/memory bus, 120 MHz
- 1.9 GB/s system bus bandwidth
- 1.9 GB/s memory bandwidth
- SCSI-2 Ultra-Narrow single-ended bus
- Two SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD buses
- A400 Three independent PCI-64/66 I/O buses on five 250 MB/s I/O links
- A500 Four independent PCI-64/66 I/O buses on seven 250 MB/s I/O links
Memory
- ECC SDRAM DIMMs, 256 MB/512 MB/1 GB modules
- Eight slots, A400 uses only four
- A400, rp2405 (A7121A) 2 GB maximum
- A500, rp2405 (A7122A) 8 GB maximum
Expansion
- A400, rp2405 (A7121A) Two PCI 64-bit/66 MHz, 5 V slots
- A500, rp2405 (A7122A) Four PCI 64-bit/66 MHz, 5 V slots
Drives
- Two trays for each one 3.5″ Ultra2-Wide LVD SCSI hard drives with 80-pin SCA connector which require a special spud to be plugged into the system.
External connectors
- SCSI-2 50-pin Ultra-Narrow single-ended
- SCSI-3 68-pin Ultra2-Wide LVD
- DB25 male RS232C serial for console/UPS (a break-out cable which converts to three DB9 plugs)
- Fast Ethernet RJ45
- Ethernet RJ45 for Secure Web Console/GSP
References
Manuals
- hp server rp2400 series whitepaper (URL gone)
- hp server rp2405 series whitepaper (URL gone)
- rp24xx Hardware Manual (URL gone)
Website
- Doug’s HP 9000 - GSP Notes Page with a detailed description of the available GSP commands.
Operating systems
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC2000, int | SPEC2000, fp | SPEC2000 rate, int |
SPEC2000 rate, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A500-5X (rp2450) |
422 | 414 | 2-CPU: 9.3 | 2-CPU: 7.6 |
| A500-7X (rp2470) |
581 | 6.74 2-CPU: 12.9 |
Dimensions
| Model | Height | Width | Depth | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95mm | 482mm | 635mm | 23kg | |
| Rack-mounted | 2U | 482mm | 774mm | 23kg |