PA-RISC information - since 1999

Early HP 9000 PA-RISC Systems

HP 8000 825
HP 9000 825 © Hewlett Packard 1987

HP 9000 800 were the first PA-RISC systems released by HP in the 1980s. All 800s are server systems, although some had graphics capabilities. The technical and product landscape was diverse in the 80s with HP selling many different server and microcomputer series. RISC and Unix servers as the HP 9000 800 were new niche products at that time, but soon became hugely successful for business, scientific and industrial uses.

Early PA-RISC servers were HP’s first foray into the RISC and Unix market. 800s are very different to later HP 9000 workstations and servers, based on custom design in TTL, NMOS and CMOS PA-RISC 1.0 processors. They were big and loud departmental servers – and rather expensive. As these computers were sold in the pre-Internet era, available information is sparse.

System a.k.a. Processor Design Year Price
HP 9000 840 840S TS-1 PA-RISC 8 MHz CTB and CIO 1986 $113,500
HP 9000 825 825S NS-1 PA-RISC 25 MHz SMB and CTB 1987 $42,500
HP 9000 850 850S NS-1 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz SMB and CTB 1987 $220,500
HP 9000 835 835S NS-1 PA-RISC 30 MHz SMB and CTB 1988 $45,000
HP 9000 822 NS-2 PA-RISC 25 MHz SIU and CTB 1989 $20,000
HP 9000 832 NS-2 PA-RISC 30 MHz SIU and CTB 1989 $30,000
HP 9000 845 845S NS-2 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz SMB and CTB 1989 $42,500
HP 9000 860 860S NS-2 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz SMB and CTB 1989 $291,000
HP 9000 855 855S NS-2 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz SMB and CTB 1990 $340,500
HP 9000 842 PCX PA-RISC 32 MHz SPI and SMB 1990 $85,000
HP 9000 852 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz SPI and SMB 1990 $143,000
HP 9000 808 PCX PA-RISC ? MHz SIU and CTB 1990 $16,000
HP 9000 815 PCX PA-RISC ? MHz SIU and CTB 1990 $14,900
HP 9000 865 865S PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz SPI and SMB 1991 $275,000
HP 9000 870 870S 1-4 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz SPI and SMB 1991 $440,000

The only operating system for early HP 9000 800 servers is the HP Unix HP-UX up to version 10.10. There were a few research and development projects during the 1980s that targeted some of these systems but none were made publically available.

With later PA-RISC 1.1 computers in the early 90s, HP standardized and unified HP 9000 products and more affordable computers were offered to a wider customer base like the HP 9000 720, 730 and 750 workstations and Nova servers.

HP 9000 840 – First PA-RISC

HP 8000 840
HP 9000 840 © HP 1986

The first commercial PA-RISC product was released in 1986 with the HP 9000 840 Indigo server, based on a six-board TTL implementation of 32-bit PA-RISC 1.0 in the TS-1 processors at 8 MHz. HP 9000 840 were primarily marketed and used as servers – and only few versions of it remain in existence after the early PA-RISC days.

HP 9000 840 use two main buses: Central Bus (CTB, also called MidBus), a 32-bit 8 MHz 20 MB/s bus, connects the processor to the main memory and the secondary I/O bus. Seven card slots are available in the 840 on Channel I/O (CIO), the 16-bit central device I/O bus. CIO has a data rate of 5 MB/s with a clock speed of 4 MHz and supported CIO devices include HP-IB, Hewlett-Packard Interface-Bus, used for instrumentation, measurement and networking adapters.

Up to 112 MB of RAM was supported: 7×16 MB with 2-16 MB memory modules compatible. The optional graphics adapter used one I/O and one memory slot, reducing the maximum RAM to 96 MB. Included by default into the system was a separate Floating Point Coprocessor (FPC) board. Storage and media devices were attached to HP-IB, SCSI was available only later and with newer boot ROMs. 840 could be upgraded via CPU board swap to 825, 835 or 845, retaining the case, memory and I/O boards.

Originally priced for $113,500 in 1986, HP 9000 840 with maximum options could go up to $240,500. HP 9000 840 achieved about 4.5 MIPS and originally shipped in 1986 with HP-UX 1.0, heavily BSD-based. They were supported until HP-UX 10.10 in 1995.

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HP 9000 825, 835 and 850 with NS-1

Between 1987 and 1988, HP released first systems with brand-new 32-bit PA-RISC 1.0 processors in NMOS-III, the NS-1: HP 9000 825, 835 and 850.

HP 825 with CRT
HP 9000 825, Thomas Schanz CC BY-SA 4.0

HP 9000 825S were marketed as minicomputer, 825SRX as Superworkstation and 835 and 850S as Super-minicomputer. Product numbers changed a few times and some systems were called HP 9000 600 series for a while – a name soon discontinued.

HP 9000 825 and 835 were packaged both as graphics workstations and as headless computing servers, both to be used with HP-UX Unix operating system. HP 9000 850 server was HP’s most powerful technical computer at the time.

These systems used a similar PA-RISC server architecture with three main buses, expanding the original HP 9000 840 system design: Processor (CPU and FPU) and memory connect to the 64-bit wide System Main Bus (SMB, peak 220 MB/s), to which two bus converters attach. To these, two Central System Buses (CTBs, or Midbuses) attach with a throughput of each 27 MB/s. Each of the Midbuses (CTBs) connects two Channel Adapters (CA), to which I/O devices attach via so-called CIO/CIB boards.

HP 9000 825, 835 and 850 servers were supported in HP-UX from version HP-UX 2.0 in 1987 to HP-UX 10.10 in 1995. The CHX and SRX graphics workstations models were only supported until HP-UX 9.

Pictures

HP 9000 825

HP 9000 825 and 825S FireFox are small 1980s Unix servers or minicomputers, also sold as 825SRX Superworkstation, based on 25 MHz NS-1 processor on two boards, with 16 KB cache and 2048-entry TLB.

HP 9000 825 central CTB buses run at 8.33 MHz with seven shared I/O CIO and memory slots. Maximum RAM was 112 MB or 96 MB with graphics adapter, which could be expanded with 16MB arrays. HP 9000 825 had a performance of about 9 MIPS.

Models

HP 9000 835

HP 8000 835
HP 9000 835 © HP 1988

HP 9000 835 and 835S TopGun are servers with 30 MHz NS-1 processor (maybe also NS-2 processor), with 128 KB cache and 4096-entry TLB, slightly bigger and faster than the 825 servers. Central CTB buses run at 10 MHz, their maximum, with seven shared I/O CIO and memory slots. Maximum RAM was 112 MB or 96 MB with graphics adapter, which could be expanded with 16 MB arrays.

HP 9000 835 were expensive computers for the time and sold for about US $45,000 in 1988 for a performance of about 14 MIPS. HP 9000 835 had a SPEC89 score of 9.5 (1989).

Several different models were available:

Server versions without graphics were shortly sold as 9000 635SV.

A port of early PA-RISC HPBSD ran on HP 9000 834 and 835 servers in the 1980s, as did the Mach 3.0 port from the University of Utah. Chorus was ported also in 1990-1991 as a research project to the HP 9000 834.

HP 9000 850

HP 8000 850
HP 9000 850 © HP 1987

HP 9000 850 are big cabinet servers released by HP in 1987, marketed as on top of the most advanced computing. Sporting a 27.5 MHz NS-1 processor with 128 KB cache and 4096-entry TLB, the 850 server was the fastest PA-RISC computer at release and billed as minicomputer for general purpose, engineering, scientific and industrial uses.

Based on SMB and CTB architecture, 850 had CTBs at 9.16 MHz with CIO for I/O devices and additionally two Memory Array Buses MAB, capable of linking up eight 16 MB memory modules arrays via a 72-bit data path to the SMB. Maximum RAM was 128 MB with one memory controller and 256 MB with two memory controllers.

Sold for a price of US $220,500 in 1987 with a performance of about 14 MIPS, HP 9000 850 were HP’s most powerful technical computer in the late 80s.

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HP 9000 845, 855 and 860 with NS-2

In 1989 HP 9000 computers based on the NS-2 processor, a revamped NS-1, appeared. These systems are all based on the same I/O architecture and faciliate the same CPU design — the PA-RISC 1.0 NS-2 processor with a SMB and CTB system design and CIO devices, similar to earlier systems like the 825 and 850 servers. These PA-RISC 1.0 servers include the following:5

HP 9000 845

HP 8000 845
HP 9000 845 © HP 1989

HP 9000 845 ShoGun from 1989 have 27.5 MHz NS-2 processor with 256 KB cache and a 16384-entry TLB, based on a SMB/CTB system design.

CTB main buses run at 9.16 MHz for seven CIO and memory slots, I/O is handled by CIO expansion cards. Maximum RAM of 112 MB: 7×16 MB, 96 MB: 6×16 MB with graphics adapter. Performance was about 22 MIPS.

Special version

HP 9000 855

HP 8000 855
HP 9000 855 © HP 1990

HP 9000 855 or 855S Jaguar are bigger servers than the 845, with a 27.5 MHz NS-2 processor with 256 KB cache and 16384-entry TLB.

System design is SMB/CTB, with the CTB buses at 9.16 MHz, maximum RAM of 128 MB or 256 MB with two memory controllers. Performance is about 22 MIPS for a serious price of US $340,500 in 1990.

HP 9000 860

HP 9000 860 Cougar servers are cabinet, mainframe-like systems, based on 27.5 MHz NS-2 processor with 1024 KB cache and 16384-entry TLB.

CTB I/O buses run at 9.16 MHz, maximum RAM is 128 MB with one memory controller and 256 MB with two memory controllers. HP 9000 860 was released in 1989 for a price of $291,000 and could be upgraded with newer CPU boards to a HP 9000 865 or 870 server.

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HP 9000 822, 832, 808, 815 with NS-2 and PCX

HP released several compact PA-RISC servers between 1989 and 1990 for the lower-end Unix business server market. Two separate low-cost systems design were offered – HP 9000 822 and 832 servers with the NMOS NS-2 processor and HP 9000 808 and 815 servers based on the new CMOS PCX processor. For devices and I/O, the HP-PB bus was used.7

HP 9000 822 and 832

HP 8000 832
HP 9000 832 © HP 80s

HP 9000 822 and 832 are PA-RISC servers released in 1989, based on single-chip VLSI processors for the first time, in HP NMOS manufacturing process. HP 9000 822 SilverFox Low are entry-level PA-RISC business servers for Unix with 25 MHz NS-2 processor with 32 KB cache and a 4096-entry TLB.

HP 9000 832 SilverFox High are very similar to 822 but higher performance with faster 30 MHz NS-2 processor with 128 KB cache and 4096-entry TLB. System design is SIU/SMB for HP-PB cards used for expansion and I/O, maximum RAM is 64 MB.

Performance of HP 9000 822 is about 10 MIPS for a price of around $20,000 in 1989, marketed for highly-reliable computational and data processing needs in a normal office environment on the floor without special AC or spacing requirements. Performance of 832 was slightly higher with 12 or 15 MIPS for a price of about US $30,000 in 1989.

There was an CPU board upgrade path from 822 to 832 and to 842 and 852. Apparently I/O slots could also be upgraded from 6 to 12, but it is not totally clear how.

HP 9000 822 and 832 servers were supported in HP-UX possibly from version HP-UX 7.0 in 1989 to HP-UX 10.10 in 1995.

HP 9000 808 and 815

HP 8000 808
HP 9000 808 © HP 1980s

HP 9000 808 and 815 are low-cost PA-RISC servers released in 1990, apparently using PCX PA-RISC 1.0 processors in CMOS. They use a similar system design (SPI and SMB) which leaned on their predecessors and were an attempt by HP to capture the lower-cost late-1980s server market with more simpler and limited offerings.

Maximum RAM for 808 was 32 MB, for 815 slightly higher 56 MB, with expansion cards seemingly using HP-PB. HP 9000 808 had a performance of 7 MIPS (which seems rather low for the PCX) was sold for around $16,000, the 815 with the same performance of 7 MIPS in 1990 for around $14,900.

Both 808 and 815 were not distributed on a larger scale it seems – not many machines and even less documentation survived. There are a few inconsistencies in the available mentions of the 808 and 815. HP apparently offered a CPU board upgrade path from 815 to 825, and then to 835 and 845, although it is unclear if that makes sense, as the latter are based on older CPUs.

HP 9000 808 and 815 servers were supported in HP-UX possibly from version HP-UX 7.0 or 8.0 in 1989 to HP-UX 9 in 1992.

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HP 9000 842, 852, 865 and 870 with PCX

HP 9000 842, 852, 865 and multi-processor 870 use the first PA-RISC processors implemented in CMOS — the PA-RISC 1.0 PCX. Released in 1990 and 1991, these servers are very similar to earlier NMOS NS-2 based servers with the same system and I/O architecture and slightly modified CPU/SPU design.6 These system use the same 16 MB memory arrays as earlier servers but could also use 64 MB boards.

HP 9000 842, 852, 865 and 870 servers were supported in HP-UX possibly from version HP-UX 8 in 1991 to HP-UX 10.10 in 1995.

HP 9000 842 and 852

HP 9000 842 SilverBullet Low used 32 MHz PCX processors with large 1024 KB cache, 8192-entry TLB and 256 MB maximum RAM. HP 9000 852 SilverBullet High were almost the same design, but with a faster 50 MHz PCX processor.

Both machines use SPI/SMB system design and HP-PB expansion cards for I/O and devices. Performance of 842 was about 30 MIPS for a price of about $85,000 at time of introduction in 1990, with the 852 having 50 MIPS for around $143,000.

HP 9000 865

HP 9000 865 Panther servers are cabinet computers, with a larger design than the previous 800 series, based on the new CMOS-based 50 MHz PCX PA-RISC processor with 768 KB cache and a 8192-entry TLB. SPI/SMB system design and CIO bus was used for I/O, maximum RAM was 512 MB. HP 9000 865 sold for about $275,000 in 1991 and was supposed to have a performance of 56 MIPS.

HP 9000 870

HP 8000 870
HP 9000 870 © Hewlett Packard 1980s

HP 9000 870 Panther servers are large cabinet computers and the first SMP multiprocessor PA-RISC systems, with up to four 50 MHz PCX processors with 1024 KB cache and a 8192-entry TLB each. HP 9000 870/100 was uni-CPU, 870/200 dual, 870/300 triple and 870/400 quad-CPU with 1 MB cache per CPU.

SPI/SMB system design and CIO bus is used for I/O, and maximum RAM was 1024 MB with two memory controllers in 16 slots. Performance was supposedly 50 or 56 MIPS for single-CPU, 90 or 112 MIPS for dual-CPU, up to 168 MIPS for triple-CPU and up to 224 MIPS for quad-CPU. Introduction prices were about $440,000 for 870/300, $530,000 for 870/400.

Later HP 9000 890 mainframes with up to four CPUs are possibly similar to the 870 and was an upgrade and technology enhancement path.

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Operating systems

HP 9000 800 servers, especially the early versions from the 1980s, only really support HP-UX Unix, developed by HP, due to their custom and proprietary hardware.

HP-UX support for early HP 9000 800 servers
HP-UX Year Servers Comment
HP-UX 10.10 1995 HP 9000 840, 825, 835, 850
845, 855, 860, 822, 832
842, 852, 865 and 870
HP 9000 Nova, E-Class		 UNIX95, CDE, ServiceGuard
HP-UX 10.01 1995 HP 9000 840, 825, 835, 850
845, 855, 860, 822, 832
842, 852, 865 and 870
HP 9000 Nova, E-Class		 System V, DCE, Streams, better I/O and memory
unsupported: 635, 645, 808, 815
unsupported: 825CHX, 825SRX, 834CH, 835SRX
HP-UX 9.0 1992 HP 9000 840, 825, 835, 850
845, 855, 860, 822, 832, 808, 815
842, 852, 865 and 870
HP 9000 Nova, E-Class		 PA-7100 and PA-7100LC support, LVM, VUE
9.02, 9.04 and 9.06 added hardware support
9.08 was B1 security release
HP-UX 8.0 1991 HP 9000 840, 825, 835, 850
845, 855, 860, 822, 832, 808, 815
842, 852, 865 and 870
HP 9000 Nova		 8.02 added Nova support
8.04 and 8.08 were security versions
8.06 added SMP code
HP-UX 7.0 1989 some PA-RISC 1.0 PA-RISC only in 7.03, rest M68k
HP-UX 3.0 1988 HP 9000 825, 835, 850 +? 3.01 had nasty bugs, X11
HP-UX 2.0 1987 HP 9000 840, 825, 835, 850 BSD, supports graphics
HP-UX 1.0 1986 HP 9000 840 First, prerelease

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Benchmarks

Assorted MIPS performance figures for early HP 9000 800 servers.

Based on HP, Dhrystone and MIPS archives
System CPU MIPS
HP 9000 840 TS-1 PA-RISC 8 MHz 4.5
HP 9000 808 PCX PA-RISC 12.5 MHz 6
HP 9000 815 PCX PA-RISC 12.5 MHz 6
HP 9000 825 NS-1 PA-RISC 25 MHz 9
HP 9000 822 NS-2 PA-RISC 25 MHz 10
HP 9000 850 NS-1 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz 14
HP 9000 835 NS-1 PA-RISC 30 MHz 14
9.5 SPEC89
HP 9000 832 NS-2 PA-RISC 30 MHz 12/15
HP 9000 845 NS-2 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz 22
HP 9000 855 NS-2 PA-RISC 27.5 MHz 22
HP 9000 842 PCX PA-RISC 32 MHz 30
HP 9000 852 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz 50
HP 9000 865 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz 56
HP 9000 870/100 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz 56
HP 9000 870/200 2 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz 112
HP 9000 870/300 3 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz 168
HP 9000 870/400 4 PCX PA-RISC 50 MHz 224

Comparison to SPEC benchmark data of later HP 9000 800 servers:

Based on old SPEC92, Dhrystone and MIPS archives
System CPU SPEC92 int SPEC89 MIPS
HP 9000 G50 PA-7000 96 MHz 100.0 136.1 115
Siemens PCE-5S Intel Pentium 100MHz 96.2 79
HP 9000 I40 PA-7000 64 MHz 65.2 70
Sun SPARCstation 10 Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz 50.2 71.2 58
HP 9000 712/80 PA-7100LC 80 MHz 97.1 97
HP 9000 750 PA-7000 66 MHz 48.1 77.5 69
Siemens PCE-4C Intel 486DX2 66MHz 35.8 25.6 37
HP 9000 F10 PA-7000 32 MHz 22.0 35
DECstation 5000 MIPS R3000 33MHz 20.9 25.5 29
HP Apollo DN10000 Apollo PRISM 18 MHz 19 22
DECstation 3100 MIPS R2000 16MHz 8.4* 11.8 15.1
HP 9000 425e Motorola M68040 25MHz 12.2 10.3 18
Intel i386 33MHz 4.3 8
IBM PC 6150 IBM ROMP 6MHz 2.1
HP 9000 320 Motorola M68020 15MHz 2
HP 9000 500 FOCUS 18 MHz 0.98
DEC VAX 11/780 KA780 3.4MHz 1 1 0.9
IBM PC AT Intel 80286 6MHz 0.8

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Documentation

Information on these early PA-RISC computers is fragmented and inconsistent, even in official sales and technical documentation, with sometimes divergent accounts of hardware, architecture and PA-RISC processors. Much of the information here was pieced together from old news articles and press releases, plus documentation available at the HP Computer Museum.

  1. INFORMATION ON HP9000 SERVERS AND WORKSTATIONS Hewlett Packard Company (1999. Accessed January 2007) and The HP 3000/HP 9000 model spreadsheet, Allegro Consultants (2004. Accessed January 2007)
  2. Wayne E. Holt (ed.), Beyond RISC! An Essential Guide to Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture, p. 95-102. (January 1988: Software Research Northwest Inc.) and Hardware Design of the First HP Precision Architecture Computers (PDF) David A. Fotland et al (March 1987: Hewlett-Packard Journal) hp museum
  3. HP 3000 Series 950 and HP 9000 Model 850S Family CE Handbook (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (October 1990. Accessed January 2008) hp museum and HP 9000 Series 800 Model 825S Hardware Technical Data (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (September 1988. Accessed January 2008) hp museum and HP 3000/925 and HP 9000/825/835 Computer Systems CE Handbook (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (May 1988. Accessed January 2008) hp museum and New midrange members of the Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture Computer Family Thomas O. Meyer et al (June 1989: Hewlett Packard Journal. Accessed January 2008 at findarticles.com)
  4. Wayne E. Holt, Beyond RISC!
  5. Hewlett-Packard Company, HP 3000 Series 950 and HP 9000 Model 850S Family CE Handbook
  6. Ibid.
  7. HP 9000 Series 800 Model 822S/832S Technical Data (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (1989. Accessed January 2008) hp museum
  8. For HP 9000/840: Interview with David Fotland, September/October 2008
  9. HP REDUCES HP 9000 MINICOMPUTER PRICES (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Press Release, October 1989, accessed January 2023 1000bit.it
  10. A Broader Vision of Performance For Your Business - HP 9000 Multiuser Systems (PDF) Hewlett-Packard, 1990, 5952-0835, accessed January 2023 1000bit.it
  11. Hewlett Packard Update Computer Systems (PDF) Hewlett-Packard, May/June 1987, accessed January 2023 1000bit.it
  12. HP-UX CE Handbook for Series 800 HP Precision Architecture-RISC Computer Systems Hewlett-Packard Company (May 1993, 5961-8364) bitsavers
  13. HP 3000/930 and HP 9000/840 Computers CE Handbook Hewlett-Packard Company (November 1986, 09740-90023) bitsavers

Pictures © Hewlett Packard, scans from product brochures, from hpmuseum.net and 1000bit.it

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