• OpenPA
• Hardware
• Computers
• Operating
• About

HP N4000 (rp7405/rp7410) Servers

• System
• Expansion
• Ports
• Operating systems
• Performance
• Dimensions
• Documentation

HP rp7405/rp7410 N4000 N-Class servers are up to 8-way multiprocessing servers which could be hardware-partitioned into logical servers, two nPartitions. Based on the same 10U rack chassis as rp7400/N4000, these newer rp7405 and rp7410 have a completely overhauled system and I/O architecture.

The Core Electronic Complex is a modified HP Superdome cell system architecture for two cells with each up to four processors, sixteen RAM slots and central chipset.

rp7405 were apparently an entry-level version of rp7410, based on the same hardware with the same capabilities but shipped in smaller configurations. Upgrades to a full rp7410 were possible, probably with a modified firmware for unlocking.

• HP rp7405 N4000, A7111A, A7112A and A7113A, were introduced in 2002 for $50,959
• HP rp7410 N4000, A6752A, were introduced in 2002 for $92,250

up

System

Processors

rp7405 and rp7410 support two to eight 64-bit PA-RISC processors, based on their system board, designated by the [-6X, -7X … -9X] suffix from PA-8700 up to possibly PA-8900.

Chipset

• HP Cell controller (CC), central chipset and crossbar, provides links for four processors, two memory banks, I/O via SBA, PDH and firmware, and second cell.
• HP Master I/O controller (SBA) on I/O backplane on each cell, provides up to 32 links that connect to slave I/O controllers LBA.
• Core I/O for I/O functions on two cards MP/SCSI and LAN/SCSI:
  • Two dual-channel Symbios Logic 53C1010 Ultra160 SCSI controllers
  • Dual-channel Symbios Logic 53C896 Ultra2-Wide SCSI-3 (MP/SCSI)
  • Gigabit Ethernet networking (LAN/SCSI)
  • Fast-Ethernet (DEC 21142/43) Management LAN (MP/SCSI)
  • Optional second Core I/O card, for redundancy or partitioning
• 18 Elroy PCI bridges (LBAs) convert links/ropes from the SBA to PCI bus (only 9 of these 18 LBAs are used when only one cell board is installed)

         CPU0 CPU1      CPU2 CPU3    CPU4 CPU5      CPU6 CPU7
           |   |          |   |        |   |          |   |
           |   | 4x2GB/s  |   |        |   | 4x2GB/s  |   |
           ====================        ====================
                    ||                          ||
                    || 8GB/s                    || 8GB/s
  |||||           __||__                      __||__           |||||
  |||||   4GB/s  |      |        8GB/s       |      |   4GB/s  |||||
  |||||==========|  CC  |====================|  CC  |==========|||||
  |||||          |______|                    |______|          |||||
  |||||             ||                          ||             |||||
  Memory            ||                          ||             Memory
                    || 2GB/s                    || 2GB/s
                    ||                          ||
                  __||__                      __||__
                 |      |                    |      |
                 | SBA  |                    | SBA  |
                 |______|                    |______|
                    ||                          ||
                    || 16x265MB/s               || 16x265MB/s
                    || (4.2GB/s)                || (4.2GB/s)
                    ||                          ||
  =================================  =======================================
  |   ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  | 
 265  || 530  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |         same as on left side
 MB/s || MB/s ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  | 
  |   ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  | 
  |   ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |
 LBA  LBA LBA LBA LBA LBA LBA LBA LBA
  |   ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |
 PCI  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |
 2x   ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |
  |   ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |
 Core ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  |
 I/O  PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI
      4x  4x  4x  4x  4x  4x  4x  2x


   PCI slots/buses:
   PCI 4x -- PCI 64-bit/66MHz (533MB/s)
   PCI 2x -- PCI 64-bit/33MHz (266MB/s)

   LBA connections/downlinks:
   ||   two ropes -- 530MB/s
   |    one rope  -- 265MB/s

System buses

• Runway+ DDR CPU bus, 125 MHz DDR 64-bit, 2.0 GB/s per CPU, 16.0 GB/s max
• Memory bus 4.0 GB/s for each cell, aggregate 8.0 GB/s max
• XBC cell-to-cell link 8.0 GB/s aggregate
• SBA cell-to-I/O link 2.0 GB/s on each cell, aggregate 4.0 GB/s max
• 32 I/O links (ropes), 12-bit wide, 265 MB/s, 8.5 GB/s I/O peak
  • 28 ropes link to 14 Twin-Turbo slots via 14 LBAs
  • Two ropes link to two Turbo PCI slots via two LBAs
  • Two ropes connect via two LBAs to Core I/O MP/SCSI cards
• 14 PCI-64/66 I/O buses for expansion slots
• Two PCI-64/33 I/O buses for expansion slots for Core I/O SCSI/LAN
• Two PCI-64/33 I/O buses for Core I/O MP/SCSI
• Two SCSI-3 Ultra160 LVD main storage I/O buses one on each cell
• Ultra SCSI SE for removable media

Expansion

Memory

• ECC DIMMs, low-voltage TTL, 125 MHz frequency
• 256 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB modules supported
• 16 slots on each cell board
• 32 GB maximum, 64 GB with future memory modules

Expansion cards

There are up to 16 PCI 64-bit/66 MHz slots in the I/O cage, which can be fully accessed when using a system with two cells. With one cell board only seven slots are available. One PCI slot is dedicated to Core I/O card set.

Storage

• Four trays for low-profile 3.5″ Ultra2-Wide LVD SCSI hard drives with 80-pin SCA connector, hot-plug
• One tray for a half-heigth 5.25″ 50-pin Ultra-Narrow SE SCSI drive, external accessible

up

Ports

• 68-pin VHDCI Ultra160 LVD external SCSI external channel from LAN/SCSI board
• Three serial RS232C DB9 local console, remote console, UPS via DB25 M cable on MP/SCSI board
• 10/100 Mbit Ethernet TP/RJ45 Management LAN on MP/SCSI board
• Gigabit Ethernet TP/RJ45 on LAN/SCSI board

up

Operating systems

• HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
  • HP-UX 11i v3 in 64-bit mode
  • HP-UX 11i v2 in 64-bit mode
  • HP-UX 11i v1 in 64-bit mode, in EOE, FOE, MCOE versions (December 2001- December 2006)
    • 7405 (December 2002-December 2006)
    • 7410 (March 2002-December 2006)
    • newer processors only in later versions
  • HP-UX 11.00 in 64-bit mode (possibly)
  • Software on HP-UX: Often used for e-commerce and services (databases, middleware)

up

Performance

Compared to other RISC and Unix platforms of the early 2002, PA-RISC was a fast architecture with PA-8700 and especially PA-8800 and PA-8900 processors being very fast early 2000s 64-bit RISC processors.

The main competitor for HP 9000 N4000 servers were advanced RISC servers from other Unix computer vendors for business and internet applications like Sun, SGI and IBM, and ironically also the newly acquired HP AlphaServers.

up

Documentation

Most HP documentation is only available at archive.org and other archives, with most official sources, articles and journals having disappeared in the 2010s.

• User Guide hp rp7405/7410 Servers, Hewlett-Packard 2002, A6752-96008 archive.org
• hp server rp7410 whitepaper (URL gone)
• System Firmware for HP-UX 11.00/11.11, Hewlett-Packard Company (2004: mirror accessed 2025) archive.org
• Service Guide hp rp7405/rp7410 Servers, Hewlett-Packard 2002, A6752-96007 istoragenetworks

up

OpenPA is an independent resource for PA-RISC computers, technology and operating systems, edited since 1999 by Paul Weissmann. He also publishes OpenKRITIS on critical infrastructures and Insel Westberlin, a Berlin archive. OpenPA is a non-commercial, registered serial publication, ISSN 1866-2757. The Internet never forgets.

• Main
• Impressum/Datenschutz
• News
• About
• Copyright © 1999-2026