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
1. AGP 8X graphics on possibly two or more channels — 1.0 GB/s
2. PCI-X 64/133 on possibly two channels — 1.0 GB/s
3. PCI-X 64/66 and Ultra320 SCSI on one channel — 0.5 GB/s
4. 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
- 11i v1 TCOE (Technical Computing Operating Environment)
- 11i v1 MTOE (Minimal Computing Operating Environment)
- X11 graphics drivers are included for HP Visualize and some ATI 3D adapters
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.

Based on old SPEC2000 archives
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:

Based on old SPEC2000 archives
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

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