HP C8000
Quick Facts | |
---|---|
Introduced | 2004 |
Period | Decline (IV) |
Series | Visualize |
CPU | 1-2 64-bit PA-8800 PA-8900 800 MHz-1.1 GHz |
Caches | 3 MB L1 32-64 MB L2 |
RAM | 32 GB |
Design | zx1 |
Drives | 4 SCSI 2 IDE 3 SCSI/IDE |
Expansion | 3 PCI-X 3 PCI 1 AGP 8x |
I/O | Gigabit Ethernet Fast Ethernet SCSI 4 USB 2 serial MGMT |
HP c8000 is the last PA-RISC workstation produced by HP in 2004, with up to two dual-core PA-8800 Mako or PA-8900 64-bit processors. C8000 were the pinnacle of PA-RISC workstation design, released at a time when RISC workstations were on their way out.

HP produced a long line of C-Class Unix workstations, starting with 32-bit HP Visualize C100 in 1995 to C3750 in 2001 and finally c8000 in 2004, when Windows workstations with powerful PC graphics already took their place in CAD/CAM and 3D.
With an array of system and I/O options, the core of c8000 workstations is the HP zx1 Itanium chipset, designed for HP Itanium workstations and servers. c8000 are built in a sleek, silent tower casing and also available as a rack-mount option.
HP c8000 were sold at the same time as Itanium workstations in the early 2000s, when HP offered Itanium zx2000 and zx6000 workstations with HP-UX Unix but also Windows 2000 and OpenVMS IA64.
- HP c8000 were introduced in 2004 for $9,312
Architecture
Processors
System | CPU | Speed | Cache | |
---|---|---|---|---|
C8000 | 1-2 | PA-8800 PA-RISC 64-bit dual-core |
900 MHz-1.0 GHz | 1.5/1.5 MB on-chip 32 MB off-chip L2 |
C8000 | 1-2 | PA-8900 PA-RISC 64-bit dual-core |
900 MHz-1.1 GHz | 1.5/1.5 MB on-chip 64 MB off-chip L2 |
Chipset
HP c8000 workstations are based on an HP zx1 Itanium chipset with two main components — MIO memory and I/O controller (HP Pluto) and IOA I/O adapters (HP Mercury), as used in HP Itanium workstations like zx2000 as well.
- HP zx1 chipset, on original HP Itanium design based on two main components: central memory and I/O controller (MIO), and I/O adapters (IOAs).
- HP Pluto, zx1 MIO, the chipset controller connects the processor bus, two memory buses and seven I/O channels. Contains memory and cache controllers.
- Six HP Mercury, zx1 IOAs, connect PCI-X slots and I/O devices to the zx1 MIO on seven I/O channels (3.5 GB/s)
- Gigabit Ethernet controller
- Graphics through separate boards:
- Optional ATI FireGL T2 128 MB, AGP
- Optional ATI FireGL X1 256 MB, AGP
- Optional ATI FireGL X3 256 MB, AGP
- Optional HP fxe 18 MB, PCI
- Other cards might or might not work
- Two-channel Ultra-320 SCSI controller
- UltraATA-133 IDE controller
- 8 MB Flash EEPROM
System buses
- Itanium 2/zx1 processor bus 6.4 GB/s
- Two zx1 memory buses, 266 MHz, 4.25 GB/s for 8.5 GB/s memory bandwidth
- Seven zx1 I/O channels/buses (
ropes
), aggregate 3.5 GB/s- AGP 8X graphics on possibly two or more channels — 1.0 GB/s
- PCI-X 64/133 on possibly two channels — 1.0 GB/s
- PCI-X 64/66 and Ultra320 SCSI on one channel — 0.5 GB/s
- PCI 64/33, PCI 32/33, IDE and Ethernet on one channel — 0.5 GB/s
- AGP 8x graphics bus, 2133 MB/s
- PCI-X 64/133 I/O bus, 1066 MB/s
- PCI-X 64/66 I/O bus, 533 MB/s
- PCI 64/33 I/O bus, 266 MB/s
- PCI 32/33 I/O bus, 133 MB/s
- SCSI-3 Ultra320 (LVD) storage I/O bus, 320 MB/s
- UltraATA-133 IDE secondary storage I/O bus, 133 MB/s
Expansion
Memory
- PC2100 registered ECC DDR266 SDRAM DIMMs
- Up to 4 GB modules
- Eight slots
- 32 GB maximum
- 8.5 GB/s memory bandwidth
- 80ns memory latency
I/O slots
All PCI slots are 3.3 V
- PCI-32/33, short PCI cards
- PCI-32/33, short PCI cards
- AGP-8X Pro, 110W
- PCI-64/33, short and full-length cards
- PCI-64/66, short and full-length cards
- PCI-64/66, short and full-length cards
- PCI-64/133, short and full-length cards
Storage
- Four internal 3.5″ bays for Ultra320 LVD SCSI drives with 68-pin connector
- Two internal 3.5″ bays for UltraATA-133 IDE hard drives
- Three half-heigth 5.25″ bays for externally accessible SCSI (LVD or SE) or UltraATA-133 drives
I/O ports
- Two serial RS232C DB9
- Five USB 2.0 ports (two in front, three in rear)
- Video depends on installed graphics adapter
- TP/RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet
- Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and line-out) on optional 16-bit audio card
Operating systems
- HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- PA-RISC Linux, not all video adapters are supported for X11 and not as stable as HP-UX
Pictures







Dimensions
System | Height | Width | Depth | Weight |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tower | 490mm | 287mm | 572mm | 22.5kg |
Rack-mounted | 5U | 424mm | 572mm | 21.9kg |
Power output 650W
Benchmarks
HP c8000 workstations with PA-8800/PA-8900 processors were very fast PA-RISC computers Benchmark results were never published, probably not to interfere with Itanium workstations.
System | Processor | SPEC2000 int |
SPEC2000 fp |
---|---|---|---|
HP c8000 | PA-8800 1.0 GHz | 1001 (est.) |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
System | Processor | SPEC2000 int |
SPEC2000 fp |
---|---|---|---|
AMD | Opteron 250 2.4GHz | 1619 | 1652 |
HP zx6000 | Madison 1.5 GHz | 1315 | 2106 |
Intel | Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz | 1290 | |
HP ProLiant BL40p | Intel Xeon 2.8GHz | 1249 | 1081 |
AMD | Athlon XP 2.2GHz | 1080 | 873 |
HP zx6000 | McKinley 1.0 GHz | 807 | 1422 |
HP AlphaServer ES80 | Alpha 21364 1GHz | 689 | 975 |
HP Visualize C3750 | PA-RISC PA-8700+ 875 MHz 2.2MB | 678 | 674 |
IBM POWER 275 | IBM POWER4+ 1GHz | 617 | 862 |
Sun Fire 280R | UltraSPARC III Cu 1GHz | 511 | 688 |
DELL Power Edge 4400 | Pentium III Xeon 1 GHz | 437 | 302 |
IBM RS/6000 M80 | IBM RS64 IV 750MHz | 409 | 359 |
HP i2000 | Itanium Merced 800MHz 4MB | 365 | 610 |
Documentation
- HP Workstation c8000 Technical Reference Guide, HP 2004, 5969-3188 archive.org
- Alternative: HP Workstation c8000 Technical Reference Guide, HP kernel.org
- QuickSpecs HP c8000 Workstation, HP 2007, DA 12134 archive.org
- HP Workstation c8000 Product Overview, HP 2004, 5982-5771EN archive.org
- HP Workstation c8000 Product Design Highlights, HP 2004 archive.org
- HP PA-RISC Workstations Options, HP 2005, website archive.org
- Hardware and Software Setup HP workstation c8000, HP Januar 2004, AB629-90001, mirror