HP N4000 (rp7400, N-Class)
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1999-2001 |
| CPU | 1-8 PA-8500/ 1-8 PA-8600/ 1-8 PA-8700 360-750 MHz |
| Caches | 1.5-2.25 MB L1 |
| RAM | 32 GB |
| Design | Stretch |
| Drives | 2 SCSI |
| Expansion | 12 PCI |
| Bandwidth | System 4.2 GB/s CPU 17 GB/s Mem 8.5 GB/s I/O 6.4 GB/s XBAR 15.3 GB/s |
| I/O | SCSI 3 serial 100E 100E console |
Overview
The HP 9000 rp7400 were mid-range PA-RISC servers and the original HP 9000 N-Class N4000 from the turn of the century. The original N4000 (rp7400) is based the Stretch system architecture, also used in the L1500 and L3000 (rp5430/rp5470) servers. Later rp7405 and rp7410 servers were also labeled N4000 and feature a similar set of I/O options and expandability in basically the same chassis, with a completely different system architecture, the Cell.
N4000s were shipped in two models with different system board, A3639A and A3639B. The N4000 that was later renamed to rp7400 was shipped with an even different mainboard and had the model number A3639C.
Model numbers
- HP 9000 rp 7400: N4000-36, N4000-44, N4000-5X, N4000-6X and N4000-7X
- These were also sold as HP e3000 rp7400 for MPE/iX
Internals
CPU
The rp7400 N4000 supports one to eight processors.
The original N4000 (A3639A and A3639B) and later rp7400 (A3639C) are in fact different products, based on the same basic architecture but with slight differences, especially relating to the type and number of processors. Not all early N4000s support the later processors and a maximum number of CPUs.
Processor types are indicated with the following suffixes:
- -36: PA-8500 360 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A3639A, A3639B, A3639C, A8327A]
- -44: PA-8500 440 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A3639A, A3639B, A3639C, A8327A]
- -5X: PA-8600 550 MHz with 512/1024 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A3639B, A3639C, A8327A]
- -6X: PA-8700 650 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A3639C, A8327A]
- -7X: PA-8700 750 MHz with 768/1536 KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each [A3639C, A8327A]
- Itanium 2/IA64 processors were planned on the N4000 but apparently never offered.
Chipset
The rp7400 system is based on the Stretch chipset, used in the L1500 and L3000 (rp5430/rp5470) servers as well. Stretch has four main components:
- Prelude memory controller, is the main crossbar of the system
- Four DEW Runway converters, attach the processors to the main buses
- Two IKE I/O controllers connect the PCI bridges via I/O channels
- 14 Elroy PCI bridges (LBAs) convert the IKE I/O to PCI buses
The rest of the system is implemented with common parts:
- DEC 21142/43 Fast Ethernet controller
- Dual-channel Symbios Logic 53C875 16-bit Ultra-Wide SCSI-2 controllers
- Dual-channel Symbios Logic 53C896 Ultra2-Wide SCSI-3 controller
» View a system-level illustration (ASCII) of the N4000’s system/bus architecture.
Buses
The system bus architecture is interesting as it provides more bandwidth than could be used under practical circumstances. The designers probably counted on future CPU upgrades, such as Itanium processors.
- Two Itanium system buses, 133 MHz, each 2.1 GB/s peak, 4.3 GB/s aggregate
- Eight Runway+ CPU buses, each 2.1 GB/s peak, aggregate 17.0 GB/s
- Four Memory buses, each 2.1 GB/s peak, aggregate 8.5 GB/s
- 24 I/O channels, each 133 MHz 265 MB/s, aggregate 6.4 GB/s
- 14 PCI-64/66 I/O buses for expansion slots
- Three SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD main storage I/O buses, one for each internal drive and one for external devices
Memory
- ECC SDRAM DIMMs
- 16 slots
- 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB and 2 GB modules supported
- 32 GB maximum
Expansion
- Ten
Twin-Turbo
PCI 64-bit/66 MHz slots, each on an independent PCI bus, each connected via two I/O links/ropes (aggregate 530 MB/s), hot-plug capable - Two
Turbo
PCI 64-bit/66 MHz slots, each on an independent PCI bus, each connected via one I/O link/rope (265 MB/s), hot-plug capable (one of these two Turbo slots is reserved for Core I/O LAN/SCSI) - All slots keyed for 5.0 V (support either 5.0 V or universal PCI cards)
Drives
- Two internal Ultra SCSI LVD 3.5″ drives with SCA connector, hot-pluggable
External connectors
- 68-pin VHDCI Ultra LVD external SCSI
- Three Serial RS232C DB9 (local console, remote console, general purpose) via a
DB25
M cable
- 10/100 Mbit Ethernet TP/RJ45
- 10/100 Mbit Ethernet TP/RJ45 LAN console
References
Manuals
- rp7400 Hardware Manual Hewlett-Packard Company (May 2002)
- hp server rp7400 system architecture and design guide, Hewlett-Packard Company (February 2002, product number 5981-0154EN) (URL gone)
Operating systems
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC2000, int | SPEC2000, fp | SPEC2000 rate, int |
SPEC2000 rate, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N4000-6X rp7400 |
493 | 489 | 5.7 2-CPU: 11.3 4-CPU: 22.1 8-CPU: 42.6 |
5.7 2-CPU: 10.4 4-CPU: 19.3 8-CPU: 30.5 |
| N4000-7X rp7400 |
551 | 524 | 6.4 2-CPU: 12.5 4-CPU: 24.6 8-CPU: 46.7 |
6.1 2-CPU: 11.0 4-CPU: 20.5 8-CPU: 32.1 |