jahn@sunstone.idbsu.edu (Greg Jahn) (06/28/90)
We were just given an HP9000 series 520, 3 processors, 8Mg memory, HP7937 disc drive, with HP-UX (uname -a says 5.21 B?), ... something called Network Services/9000 (with things like NFT??), and a HP27125A Interface card (it says ethernet and IEEE802.3). Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'd like to find a corner in some department where it could be of use, ... it appears to be sysV-like, and has the C compiler. Can this thing talk TCP/IP without spending money? I'm 'open for suggestions', as Tom Waites would say .... thanks in advance, - Greg -- Greg Jahn, Boise State Univ. | " Some get strong, some get strange, / jahn@sapphire.idbsu.edu / | sooner or later, it all gets real, / dosjahn@idbsu.bitnet / | walk on. " - Neil Young / (208)385-3891.thephone / |
fritz@hpfcbig.SDE.HP.COM (Gary Fritz) (07/06/90)
> We were just given an HP9000 series 520, 3 processors, 8Mg memory, > HP7937 disc drive, with HP-UX (uname -a says 5.21 B?), ... something > called Network Services/9000 (with things like NFT??), and a HP27125A > Interface card (it says ethernet and IEEE802.3). Yow. Let me dust some cobwebs out of the ol' grey matter and see if I can remember anything about this. Warning: I haven't seen one of these beasties in about 6 years; caveat emptor. What you have there is (as far as I know) the first system capable of fully multi-tasking Un*x -- i.e. even kernel calls can run simultaneously. The catch is, it's not *exactly* a "real" Un*x kernel. This system was HP's first Un*x product, first implemented about 8 years ago, and as such had to fit in with existing HP products. One of those was another OS on the 500 hardware which used an underlying kernel called the "Sun kernel". (This was before a certain company became a major competitor in the workstation market. :-) The Sun kernel was used as the foundation for the 500's HP-UX OS, with a System III (at that time) veneer on it. This approach, while producing such benefits as much higher reliability than comparable Un*ces at the time and the aforementioned multi-tasking, unfortunately resulted in some slightly non-standard operation. As I recall, the networking was one of those non-standard things. This was before TCP/IP was widely accepted outside the university/BSD arena, and I don't remember if the 500 ever got completely TCP/IP-compatible. I think the Network Services product was a non-TCP-based protocol. I also don't remember when the 5.21 release came out, so I don't remember what features, performance enhancements, etc. you have, but I believe it was one of the last releases of HP-UX on the 500. Bottom line: if my foggy memory is correct, you probably can't connect your 520 to TCP/IP systems without an investment, and possibly not at all. You'll have to use UUCP to transfer files to/from the 520. (Which might require the purchase or begging of an RS-232 card.) You won't be able to run any recent software -- X, for example. The system is quite usable as a C development station, and is a pretty good system for running multi-tasking problems. But remember that this CPU was designed before the first 68000 came out! If you're used to a 68030-based system or something like that, it might seem a bit slow. Maybe someone with more recent 500 experience can shed some more light on this. Good luck, Gary Disclaimer: these ramblings are the vague memories of someone who worked on this system a decade ago. I don't guarantee their accuracy.
al@cs.strath.ac.uk (Alan Lorimer) (07/09/90)
In article <7540057@hpfcbig.SDE.HP.COM> fritz@hpfcbig.SDE.HP.COM (Gary Fritz) writes:
-> We were just given an HP9000 series 520, 3 processors, 8Mg memory,
-> HP7937 disc drive, with HP-UX (uname -a says 5.21 B?), ... something
-> called Network Services/9000 (with things like NFT??), and a HP27125A
-> Interface card (it says ethernet and IEEE802.3).
-
-Yow. Let me dust some cobwebs out of the ol' grey matter and see if
-I can remember anything about this. Warning: I haven't seen one of
-these beasties in about 6 years; caveat emptor.
-
-
-Bottom line: if my foggy memory is correct, you probably can't connect
-your 520 to TCP/IP systems without an investment, and possibly not at all.
-You'll have to use UUCP to transfer files to/from the 520. (Which might
-require the purchase or begging of an RS-232 card.) You won't be able
If you are really interested in resurrecting this machine I have a
current and transferrable licence for the WIN/9000 TCP/IP product for
this machine. It will run with the above ethernet card and give you
FTP, TELNET and SENDMAIL.
The software seems to work quite well, and I can supply you with a
the software and the licence. We no longer have the machine since we
traded it up to an 825, but the licence is valid for another 7 years.
I've got a number (3 I think) of 8 port Serial Cards which are also up
for grabs to *anyone* who makes a reasonable ( i.e. almost any ) offer for
them.
Alan
--
____________________________________________________________________________
Alan G. Lorimer, Strathclyde University, 26 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XH.
UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!al DARPA: al%cs.strath.ac.uk@nsf.ac.uk
Tel. +44 41 552 4400 Ext. 3592 JANET: al@uk.ac.strath.csjrc@hpdmd48.HP.COM (Jim Conrad) (07/11/90)
The 500s were a stack machine with a multi-processor kernel. The old HP Network Services (NS) have a number of problems that were corrected around 1986 or so when we came out with the ARPA services on the 300s. These problems included... 1) Addresses were resolved with a neat but nevertheless proprietary protocol called PROBE --- not ARP. 2) Use of a proprietary file transfer protocol called NFT instead of FTP. 3) Use of 802.2/3 instead of EtherNET. 4) Use of the TCP "push bit" to indicate end-of-message. 5) No socket library, telnet, rcp, ... While as far as I know, HP never implemented a "real" TCP/IP for the 500s, a third party (Wollongong sp?) has done so. Jim Conrad jrc@hpbsrl
rer@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Rob Robason) (07/17/90)
jahn> We were just given an HP9000 series 520, 3 processors, 8Mg
jahn> memory, HP7937 disc drive, with HP-UX (uname -a says 5.21 B?),
jahn> ... something called Network Services/9000 (with things like
jahn> NFT??), and a HP27125A Interface card (it says ethernet and
jahn> IEEE802.3).
jahn> Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'd like to find a corner in
jahn> some department where it could be of use, ... it appears to be
jahn> sysV-like, and has the C compiler. Can this thing talk TCP/IP
jahn> without spending money?
With the offer of the gentleman in a previous response to give you
WIN/9000 Berkeley/ARPA services, this will make a nice system. You are
running the 5.2 version of the OS which, with the exception of a few
minor defect fixes in 5.3, is the latest version (in fact you may
actually be running 5.3, since I'm not sure the output of uname changed
with 5.3).
The 500 was a very nice system and was the first to provide symetric
multi-processing with up to 3 identical processors. With the 8MB of RAM
you have, and the 3 processors, it should serve you well, though at
about 3MIPS it doesn't hold a candle to todays latest workstations.
The 520 Desktop system was replaced by the 300 series workstations,
while the 530/540/550 were replaced by our later PA-RISC 800 series.
They're all 9000s and run HP-UX, thus supporting a high degree of
portability.
A few limitations which you'll might want to be aware of:
* The display is not bitmapped (i.e. does not support X Windows),
though it can still do some pretty impressive graphics and screams
as a terminal.
* The CPU is a stack based, segmented architecture. Segments, by
default, consist of TEXT (one per .o file linked in), GLOBAL DATA
(heap where memory is malloc'ed, among other things, and the STACK
(limited to 500 KB). TEXT and STACK segments are swapped whole,
while GLOBAL data is paged.
* Processes can only run on one processor at a time. There is not
provision to automatically co-process, though you can do this
programmatically if you use shared-memory. The best and easiest use
of the multi-CPU capability is with multi-tasking, where the OS
manages the scheduling of the 3 CPUs.
* The Network Services package may be needed for WIN/9000. Other than
that, they are only useful for connecting to other HP systems
including the 1000 and 3000 with Network File Transfer (NFT), a sort
of HP-only, pre-ARPA, ftp.
You may want to pick up some sort of backup device like a cartridge tape
drive, since you didn't describe one above. You may also wish to add an
8 channel MUX for terminal connection or a 6 channel MUX for
modem/terminal connection.
With the 550 MB disk you mentioned you have, this system is still very
usable today.
Good Luck!
Rob "Old 500 user and SE" Robasonguest@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (Guest) (07/31/90)
At the PCS Center For Enhanced Learning out in Nampa, they have a s520 machine which was donated to that school. There is a nice setup there with MANY old diskdrives, including some 7914's with cart. Backup capabilities, and other things. We have hooked a plotter up to it, as well as 3 line printers, and 3 modems. The system has onlt 4.5 megs of memory, but we have a graphics accellorater and some other things like that. If you wish to contact someone there, they would be happy to help you. Contact James Clough @ 465-1883. He is is the system administrator out there. Also, you might want to look at the system a little closer by visiting the school. It is on the corner of Dewey and Garland on the NNC campus. (It is not affiliated with NNC in any way) They might have an extra line printer or two...or maybe a terminal or two that you are certainly welcome to...Tell them that Luke told you about it. The phone number of the school is (208)465-5443. Thanks.
rollow@xmos.cis.upenn.edu (Tad Rollow) (08/01/90)
Well, I don't get a chance to read this newsgroup too much so maybe this is old news, BUT, we have a couple of these machines. We got them cheap and they were given to me to play with to see if they do anything useful. I have them running and doing interesting tasks, although because we have the more modern series 300 machines we don't power up the 500 series machines much. Lessee, we have a few 520s (color and mono) running BASIC exclusively, and we have a few 540s with multiple processors and mucho memory and 150Mb disks running HP-UX v 5.? We also have documentation if you need me to look anything up. I post this as an offer of help because I need help as you will see if you read my next posting......... Tad Rollow Sort of SysAdmin kinda person for Eventide Inc, Little Ferry, NJ (201) 641-1200 replies: rollow@xmos.cis.upenn.edu OR eventid!rcf@uunet.uu.net