rich (11/22/82)
Friday November 19, 1982 I attended a product introduction session today for the new Hewlett-Packard 9000 series computer, just announced. It is a very impressive machine in its price/performance and its design. It utilizes NMOS-III technology, developed by HP for this machine. This technology represents an order-of- magnitude increase in circuit density: 500,000 transistors on one chip! It is a true 32-bit machine with virtual memory, running the HP port of Bell Labs System III UNIX* (including some Berkeley programs, like "vi"). The machine's guts fit in what HP refers to as the "lunch box", and it really is the size of your standard size lunch pail! (The power supply fits in another box about the same size.) The "lunch box" holds up to 12 boards, with 4 being the minimum configuration: CPU, I/O processor, and 2 memory boards (256k each, utilizing 20 *128k* chips). The boards are only about 6" by 9". The 9000 series machines come in three flavors: * model 20 integrated workstation * model 30 System II rack-mount enclosure * model 40 stand-alone cabinet (table height) The initial marketing thrust appears to be engineering applications - the demos were all CAD/CAM graphics. All three models can have single-user or multi-user Unix; the model 20 can have the HP BASIC Language System in addition to (or (gasp!) instead of) Unix. A very interesting feature of the machine is that it will accept one or two additional CPU boards and one or two additional IOP boards; the rest of the slots can be used for memory. HP claims that each additional CPU gives a 90% improvement in processing speed. Thus, with three CPUs a 9000 will run at 2.8 times a single-CPU unit (and there is no system reconfig- uration - just plug in the board and go). Here is a brief list of features (no warranty, expressed or implied, as to accuracy): * 350 KIPS with 1 CPU (Whetstone B1D benchmark) * 1 MIPS with 3 CPUS (Whetstone B1D benchmark; VAX/780 = ~750 KIPS) * 36MB memory processor bus * virtual memory (1000MB per-user address space; 500MB/500MB data/code) * instruction pipelining (CPU fetches next instruction while executing current one) * 55ns basic instruction time * 10.4 micro-second 64-bit floating-point multiply (100k/second) * 8 DMA channels per IOP (each DMA channel supports up to 8 terminals) * up to 2.5MB of multi-ported memory (256k/board) * single-bit memory error detection/avoidance (it doesn't correct errors, just records location and tries elsewhere, periodically re-trying previous error locations when internal error-recording buffer fills up) * full System III (licensed) Unix with some Berkeley utilities (more coming all the time) * power-up diagnostics that will busy out blocks of memory with hard failures * C, Fortran 77, Pascal * IMAGE/9000 DBMS, GRAPHICS/9000 (3D) * large disks up to 404MB * Ethernet supported today (to hang systems and device servers together) Delivery for the Unix multi-user system (currently only HP-BASIC systems are being delivered) is scheduled for April 1983. Prices quoted: 9040A Base System in stand-alone cabinet $24,115 (includes 1 CPU, 512KB RAM, 1 IOP, power supply) (note that minimum recommended configuration is 1MB RAM) Additional IOP 1,010 Additional CPU ?NA ($3,000?) HP-IB I/O Interface (for system disk) 1,010* 8-channel Multiplex card ?NA* 60MB disk with DEI cartridge tape backup 17,000 404MB disk (with cartridge tape??) 26,700 9-track tape drive 11,200 256KB RAM board 3,025 HP-UX Multi-User Operating System (Unix) 7,565* Fortran 77 6,055* Pascal 6,055* GRAPHICS/9000 (DGL & AGP) 7,500* IMAGE/9000 5,045 9040S Multi-User Bundled System $44,900 (includes 1 CPU, 1MB RAM, 1 IOP, power supply, plus all items above with asterisks) (the basic monthly maintenance charge for this configuration is $150) All in all, it was an impressive presentation of an impressive machine! Rich Baughman ...decvax!cca!ima!cfib!rich * Unix is a registered trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc.