SAIC Galaxy 1100
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1994 |
| Period | Maturity (III) |
| Series | Portable |
| CPU | PA-7100LC 60/80 MHz |
| Caches | 64/256 KB L1 |
| RAM | 128 MB |
| Design | LASI |
| Drives | 1 SCSI 1 FD |
| Expansion | 2 PCMCIA (1 GIO 1 TSIO) |
| I/O | Ethernet SCSI serial parallel VGA 2 PS/2 audio |
SAIC Galaxy 1100 are portable PA-RISC workstations based on the HP 9000/712 workstation in a ruggedized case released in 1994. Galaxy 1100 portables are very rare, originally built by SAIC in the 1990s for military and intelligence applications.
HP was part of the US Navy TAC-4 program in the 1990s in which HP supplied PA-RISC workstations to the Navy for measurement and control. For environments where standard workstations were not robust enough, HP contracted SAIC to produce a ruggedized MIL-SPEC portable workstation for the Navy: the SAIC Galaxy 1100 based on HP 9000 712.
As these systems were produced under a military contract and sometimes used in classified environment only few became available to civilian world. Only two other portable PA-RISC computers were sold – the RDI PrecisionBook, based on HP Visualize C132L, and the Japanese Hitachi 3050RX 100C laptop; the SAIC Galaxy was not directly sold outside of military contracts and only later became available publically through resellers.
A long article on SAIC Galaxy 1100 and their VUE environment by Cameron Kaiser from 2023 expands on the background and historic usage of Galaxy.
There were a few other RISC Laptops in the 1990s, with a wide variety of processor architectures such as SPARC, PowerPC and even Alpha.
- SAIC Galaxy 1000, HP 9000 712, were introduced in 1994
- SAIC Galaxy 1100, HP 9000 712, were introduced in 1994
System architecture
Processors
| System | CPU | Speed | L1 Cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy 1000 | PA-7100LC | 60 MHz | 1 KB on-chip and 64 KB off-chip |
| Galaxy 1100 | PA-7100LC | 80 MHz | 1 KB on-chip and 256 KB off-chip |
Chipset
- HP LASI integrated chipset
- Integrated NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Integrated Intel 82596CA 10 Mbit Ethernet controller
- Integrated HP Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- HP Artist graphics, 8-bit, 1 MB VRAM (could be extended to 2)
- Integrated Other I/O (serial, parallel, floppy)
- PCMCIA controller
Display
- 10.4″ active matrix LCD
- XGA resolution, i.e., 1024×768
- 256 colors (8-bit color depth)
- 60Hz refresh
Human Input
- PS/2-compatible, 84-key integrated QWERTY keyboard with 12 function keys
- Trackball and three-button pad
System buses
- GSC system level I/O bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Narrow single-ended bus
Memory
- 72-pin ECC SIMMs, same as on standard HP 9000 712
- (Original documentation describes proprietary memory modules)
- 8-32 MB modules
- Four sockets
- 16 MB (2×8) minimum, 128 MB (4×32) maximum
- Memory has to be installed in pairs, starting from slot 0
Expansion slots
SAIC developed several specialized I/O devices for the Galaxy that attached to GIO/TSIO expansion slots. Industry-standard PCMCIA slots were available as well through a SAIC-specific extension board.
- Two PCMCIA slots, for either two Type I/II or one Type III PCMCIA card
- Proprietary SAIC modules for the standard GIO/TSIO slots
Storage
- One 3.5″ Fast-Narrow 50-pin SCSI-2 hard drive
- One 3.5″ 1.44 MB Floppy drive
External ports
- SCSI-2 50-pin Fast-Narrow single-ended
- Serial RS232C DB9 (up to 115200 baud)
- Parallel DB25
- Ethernet RJ45
- Ethernet AUI 15-pin
- VGA HD15
- Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard & mouse
- Three phone jacks (microphone, headphones and line-in)
Operating systems
Since Galaxy 1100 are technically normal
PA-RISC workstations they support standard PA-RISC operating systems and software.
- HP-UX, the original HP Unix shipped with it
- HP-UX 11i v1 in 32-bit mode, TCOE and MTOE versions
- HP-UX 11.00 in 32-bit mode
- HP-UX 10.20 32-bit
- HP-UX 10.00 and HP-UX 10.10, pre-Y2K
- HP-UX 9.07 (possibly also 9.05), pre-Y2K
- NeXTSTEP, Mach-based Unix with beautiful GUI, PA-RISC in version 3.3
- PA-RISC Linux, main Linux port to PA-RISC, supported by HP in the 2000s
- OpenBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
- NetBSD, open-source Unix-like, ported to PA-RISC
Benchmarks
| System | CPU | SPEC92 int | SPEC92 fp | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy 1000 | HP PA-7100LC 60 MHz | 67.0 | 85.3 | 2.08 | 2.66 |
| Galaxy 1100 | HP PA-7100LC 80 MHz | 99 | 122 | 3.12 | 3.55 |
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
| Sun SPARCstation 20 | Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz | 125.8 | 121.2 | 3.11 | 3.10 |
| Siemens PCE-5S | Intel Pentium 100MHz | 96.2 | 81.2 | 4.04 | 2.35 |
| SGI Indy | MIPS R4400SC 75MHz | 88.1 | 96.6 | ||
| IBM RS/6000 Notebook 860 | PowerPC 603e 166MHz | 3.94 | 2.71 | ||
| DEC AlphaStation 200 | DEC Alpha 21064 100MHz | 74.6 | 95.2 | 1.48 | 2.79 |
| Sun SPARCstation 10 | Sun SuperSPARC 40MHz | 50.2 | 60.2 | 1.13 | 1.38 |
| Digital DECstation 5000 | MIPS R4000 50MHz | 43.2 | 42.1 | ||
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3 | Sun MicroSPARC 50MHz | 26.4 | 21.0 |
Dimensions
| Height | Width | Depth | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 114mm | 412mm | 311mm | 8kg |
- Portable requirements: Navy TAC-4
- Shock: Federal Test Method Standard 101C, Method 5007.1 free-fall drop
- Airborne: MIL-STD-740-1, Grade C, Table 1
Documentation
- SAIC Galaxy 1100 product page archive.org, Old product page, Science Applications International Corporation (1996) archive.org
- RISCy BUSINESS presents the SAIC GALAXY 1100, Floodgap Systems, Cameron Kaiser (2020)
- SAIC Galaxy 1100: a pre-CDE VUE of the PA-RISC with a security clearance, Old VCR, January 2023
- RISC Laptops Archive with more information on the many RISC laptops of the 1990s
- HP/SAIC/HARRIS TEAM WINS $672 MILLION U.S. NAVY TAC-4 CONTRACT, SAIC press release, Januar 1995 archive.org