RDI PrecisionBook
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1998 |
| Period | Maturity (III) |
| CPU | PA-7300LC 132-180 MHz |
| Cache | 128 KB L1 (+1 MB L2) |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| Design | LASI |
| Drives | 2 SCSI (2.5″!) |
| Expansion | 2 Cardbus |
| Bandwidth | Mem ~ 423 MB/s I/O 132-160 MB/s |
| I/O | 10E VGA SCSI floppy 2 PS/2 docking I/O breakout audio |
Overview
The RDI Tadpole PrecisionBook portable PA-RISC workstations, introduced in 1998, are HP 9000 C132L/C160L workstations in a portable case. A major addition to the desktop design is the integrated Cardbus controller for which Tadpole supplied a driver kit for HP-UX.
Since the RDI PrecisionBooks were technically more or less C132L/C160Ls, they supported the same standard PA-RISC operating systems and applications. Their laptop case was used for other RDI RISC laptops as well, for example the UltraSPARC.
| Model | Number | Introduced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrecisionBook 132 12″ | 9000/779 | 1998 | $11,995 |
| PrecisionBook 160 14″ | 9000/779 | 1998 | $14,995 |
| PrecisionBook 180 | 9000/779 | 1998 |
There were only two other portable PA-RISC computers produced — the SAIC Galaxy 1100, based on HP 9000 712, and the Japanese Hitachi 3050RX/100C.
System
CPU
- PrecisionBook 132: PA-7300LC 132 MHz with 128 KB on-chip L1 (and 1 MB off-chip L2) cache
- PrecisionBook 160: PA-7300LC 160 MHz with 128 KB on-chip L1 (and 1 MB off-chip L2) cache
- PrecisionBook 180: PA-7300LC 180 MHz with 128 KB on-chip L1 (and 1 MB off-chip L2) cache
The external L2 cache was optional but was supplied with most systems.
Chipset
- LASI integrated chipset
- (integrated) NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- (integrated) Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- (integrated) Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- Phantom PseudoBC GSC+ port
- Dino GSC-to-PCI bridge
- Visualize-EG (Graffiti) graphics with 2MB frame buffer memory
- 1 MB flash memory
- Two Cirrus CL-PD6832 PCI-CardBus bridges
- CMD PCI0643 IDE/UDMA33 controller
» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the system architecture.
Display
- Integrated display, option of 12.1″ (0.24mm dot pitch) or 14.1″ (0.28mm dot pitch) active matrix LCD (the 14-inch version were most popular)
- XGA resolution (1024×768), 16M colors, 60Hz refresh
- External monitor output supports VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA and 1600×1200 resolutions at refresh rates of 60, 72 and 75Hz
- At XGA resolution the LCD and external monitor can be used at the same time, with different resolutions on the external monitor the LCD blanks
Input
- PS/2-compatible, 97-key keyboard
- Three-button trackpad
Energy
- Lithium-Ion battery with 40Wh capacity, 450g, 0.5-1 hours battery time
- Recharge time of 2.5 hours when powered off
- Laptop draws about 70W continous
- AC adapter provides 19V (DC) 3.68A, non-standard pinout
Buses
- GSC-2 general system-level I/O bus
- PCI-32/33 device I/O bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Narrow single-ended bus disk I/O
- PDH bus, peripheral interface connecting to flash memory, NVRAM and PSM bus
- PSM bus, provides connection to the power-supply module
Memory
- Two sockets for 32–512 MB (2×256)
- Proprietary ECC modules, 32-256 MB modules, 60ns, 144-bit wide
Expansion
- Two Cardbus slots, for Cardbus and PCMCIA expansion cards
Drives
- Two 2.5″ IDE hard drives with SCSI converter or 2.5″ SCSI drives
- Since 2.5-inch SCSI drives are uncommon RDI used regular IDE notebook drives with a special IDE-SCSI converter from ADTX)
External
- SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended
- Ethernet RJ45
- VGA 15-pin Dsub graphics connector
- Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard/mouse
- Audio (microphone, headphones, line-in)
- 15-pin connector for external floppy
- High-pin-count connector for docking station
- Connector for an special I/O breakout cable to connect:
- Two Serial RS232C DB9
- Parallel DB25
- AUI 10 Mbit Ethernet
Operating systems
Not all devices or expansion options and modules are supported in Linux and the BSDs. OpenBSD fully supports the Cardbus controller and a range of different Cardbus and PCMCIA devices (Fast-Ethernet, WLAN etc.).
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC95, int | SPEC95, fp |
|---|---|---|
| PrecisionBook 132 | 6.49 | 6.54 |
| PrecisionBook 160 | 7.78 | 7.39 |
| PrecisionBook 180 | 9.22 | 9.43 |
References
- PrecisionBook hardware reference guide (Tadpole RDI)
- PrecisionBook user guide (Tadpole RDI)
- RDI software for HP-UX 10.20 installation guide (Tadpole RDI)
- RDI software release notes (Tadpole RDI)
- PrecisionBook Technical White Paper (Tadpole RDI: August 1999)
- ADTX SCSI-IDE converters information from Michael Shalayeff