pen@lysator.liu.se (Peter Eriksson) (03/01/91)
We just got a HP3000 Series 37 with a 400MB disk and a tape drive. With it we got the MPE V/E operating system, without any compilers, interpreters or whatsoever... Any suggestions what we should do with it? Are there C compilers available for it? Would it be possible to port Minix to it? How powerful is it? -- Peter Eriksson pen@lysator.liu.se Lysator Computer Club ...!uunet!lysator.liu.se!pen University of Linkoping, Sweden "Seize the day!"
mike@UC780.UMD.EDU (Mike Santangelo) (03/05/91)
In article <526@lysator.liu.se>, pen@lysator.liu.se (Peter Eriksson) writes: >We just got a HP3000 Series 37 with a 400MB disk and a tape drive. >With it we got the MPE V/E operating system, without any compilers, >interpreters or whatsoever... > >Any suggestions what we should do with it? Are there C compilers >available for it? Would it be possible to port Minix to it? How >powerful is it? > > > >-- >Peter Eriksson pen@lysator.liu.se >Lysator Computer Club ...!uunet!lysator.liu.se!pen >University of Linkoping, Sweden "Seize the day!" Peter, The HP3000 Series 37 was HP's answer originally to DEC's MicroVAX II. It is somewhat more powerful in terms of transaction throughput, but that is it. It is meant to be a departmental commerical transaction server based system, typical user load in the 8-16 category (depending on how much memory you have in it). It is NOT a number cruncher. This is one of the original architecture HP3000's, e.g. CISC based stack oriented, 16 bit, segmented memory model systems. It will ONLY and FOREVER run MPE. There is a 3rd party C compiler for MPE, I think from the same company who makes a product called 'SPLash!' for RISC based HP3000 systems. If you want to do database work, using its built in network-model (but a very GOOD network model) database system than you have something. Same goes for doing COBOL development. Still want it? +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Michael F. Santangelo + Inet: mike@uc780.umd.edu VMS / UNIX Systems + mike@socrates.umd.edu Academic Computing UMUC + Bnet: MIKE@UC780 (The University of Maryland, + MIKE@UMUC (not visited often) University College) +<Your clever net-phrase here>
bmp@hp-ptp.HP.COM (Brian M. Perkin) (03/06/91)
Peter, you have acquired an entry level HP business computer. I was on the development team for it several years ago. It had a 16 bit memory adressing scheme, full stack architecture, full powerfail and recovery hardware, and firmware support for a segmented virtual memory scheme. It was the first HP multi-user business computer that passed the FCC requirements for installation in an office. I have never heard of anyone porting UNIX to it or any of the 16 bit architecture classic HP 3000's. There are commercially available C compilers, although if you really want access to the full rich intruction set, you really want to get an SPL compiler which was/is the language that most fully exploits the instruction set. You also will need an instruction set manual and a theory of operation manual whose official name escapes me and is probably out of print. I have seen some Unix-like tools ported to the system, I don't know if any ever became commercial products. Practically speaking, making it run unix will be a very big job. It will be a major intellectual challenge suitable for a master's project for a group of people. The I/O system is very different than what you would find under the typical unix system. Redoing the drivers is a very big job. Newer, HP Risc based systems can run both UNIX and our MPE-XL operating system as well. We never did that with the 3000 architecture. Good luck. Brian Perkin Cooperative Object Computing Division
glowell@leland.Stanford.EDU (gary lowell) (03/09/91)
In article <526@lysator.liu.se> pen@lysator.liu.se (Peter Eriksson) writes: >We just got a HP3000 Series 37 with a 400MB disk and a tape drive. >With it we got the MPE V/E operating system, without any compilers, >interpreters or whatsoever... >Any suggestions what we should do with it? Are there C compilers >available for it? Would it be possible to port Minix to it? How >powerful is it? The Series 37 also known as "mighty mouse" was the low end of HP's commercial computer line. It's probably comparable in power to a top end PC, however the disk and terminal I/O is better than one usually sees on a PC. The architecture is a stack machine, and is fairly well described in available HP publications. HP also sells the source code for MPE V, on magnetic tape for about $500. This dosn't include the compilers though. The operating system is written in SPL, an algol like machine dependent language. There are two third party c compilers available. As far as porting Minix, it would be a fun project but I expect the complexity of the IO system on the 37 would make it impossible without access to the MPE V source. Every periperal uses proprietary interfaces and protocols. Also, since MPE V does not have provisions for keeping more than one bootable operating system on a disc it will be difficult to do developement without a second disc, or access to another system that supports either HP cartridge tape or disc. Gary Lowell glowell@portia.stanford.edu