Service Manuals, User Guides, Schematic Diagrams or docs for : HP 3000 HP_3000_Performance

The HP-3000 series of computers dates back to 1972 with the first model, the HP3000/CX which ran 
the MultiProgramming Executive, MPE-C operating system with 64K bytes of core memory (addressed 
as 32K 16-bit words). Subsequent models (Series II, Series III) added additional addressing 
capabilities to include additional "banks" of 64Kb memory and each model brought out a new 
operating system (MPE II, MPE III). All models were and have continued to be object-code 
compatible (at least forward-compatible) with few exceptions (most notably the change in 
floating-point format from the CX). 

Microprocessor-based 3000's were introduced with the models 30 and 33 concurrent with a 
changeover of the prevalent I/O architecture to HP-IB. Later models expanded the product 
line to the models 40, 44, and 64 and correspondingly the MPE IV operating system. 
Shortly thereafter, "disc cacheing" came into being and the controversial "MPE V" operating 
system. MPE V was eventually delivered in three flavors: 

* MPE V/P for existing 3x, 4x, and 6x models which was marketed as an upgrade 
  (40-42, 44-48, and 64-68) but involved no hardware (if the memory expansion was omitted). 
  This provided disc cacheing software. 

* MPE V/E which *did* require hardware upgrade (to support extended CST tables, among other 
  things) providing disc cache and extended tables. 

* MPE-V R for the series II/III to give MPE-V functionality without the disc cacheing option 
  (they were considered too memory constrained). This was the last release of MPE for these
  systems (now unsupported). 

HP experimented with a 32-bit version of the HP3000 CISC-based processor code named "Vision" 
but it never came to market; instead they opted for the RISC-based "Spectrum" machines where 
the current HP3000/9xx systems have their roots. Although radically different in architecture 
and in their instruction sets, the "Spectrum" series maintained an imbedded "Compatibility Mode" 
facility which (largely but not completely) kept the forward-compatibility object code concept 
alive. The underlying operating system (initially called HPE internally) became MPE/XL. 

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THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS from the FAQ document, available for free via the Internet 
(instructions at end). Each answer also lists the question number from the FAQ document. 
An outline of all the questions and answers, grouped by topic area, appears at the 
beginning of the FAQ document. 

How does the performance of various HP 3000 models compare? 

From question 2.1.6.3 in the FAQ document, several HP3000-L members contributed 
to the following list; some of the numbers came from various HP marketing pieces, 
some were extrapolated (BIG CAVEAT; relative performance numbers are very rough 
approximations and are only for general comparisons--your mileage will vary). 

Relative HP 3000 System Performance 
HP 3000 System 	Relative Performance

HP 3000                         1/1973
3000/CX                         11/1974
Series II                       6/1976                            MPE II
Series 30, 33       0.5         10/1978 (33) 10/1979 (30)
Series III          0.6         6/1978                            MPE III
Series 37, 37XE     0.6         11/1984
Micro 3000 RX       1.3         11/1986                           MPE V
Micro 3000 LX, GX   1.3
Series 39, 40, 44   1.0         1980 (44) 10/1981 (40)            MPE IV
Series 42, 48       1.3         5/1983 (42) 5/1983 (48)           MPE V
Series 42XP, 52, 58 1.7         9/1985 (42XP)                     MPE V
Series 64           3.2         10/1981
Series 68           4.0         5/1983   9/1985 (68C)             MPE V
Series 70           4.4         2/1986


Series 920	        1.9
Series 922	        3.2
Series 932	        5.0
Series 948	        10.7
Series 958	        13.3
Series 925	        2.9
Series 935	        5.9
Series 949	        11.7
Series 950	        6.5
Series 955	        10.0
Series 960	        14.7
Series 980/100	    22.0
Series 980/200	    37.0
Series 980/300	    49.0
Series 980/400	    59.0
Series 917LX	    10.0
Series 937	        10.0
Series 947	        10.0
Series 957	        16.0
Series 967	        20.0
Series 977SX	    26.0
Series 987	        32.0
Series 987/150	    45.0
Series 987/200	    60.0
Series 918	        10.0
Series 928	        14.0
Series 968	        21.0
Series 978	        25.0
Series 939SK	    28.0
Series 959KS/100	35.0
Series 987/150	    45.0
Series 987/200	    60.0
Series 959KS/200	62.0
Series 988	        39.0
Series 959KS/300	86.0
Series 959KS/400   110.0


Corporate Business System 990	28.0
Corporate Business System 992/100	5.0
Corporate Business System 992/200	60.0
Corporate Business System 992/300	81.0
Corporate Business System 992/400	100.0
Corporate Business System 991	33.0
Corporate Business System 995/100	42.0
Corporate Business System 995/200	71.0
Corporate Business System 995/300	96.0
Corporate Business System 995/400	118.0
Corporate Business System 995/500	139.0
Corporate Business System 995/600	160.0
Corporate Business System 995/700	180.0
Corporate Business System 995/800	200.0


The HP 3000 Story.

	The HP 3000 Computer family 

(From the book: "Beyond RISC!" by Software Research Northwest)

Before beginning a detailed look into the newest HP 3000s, it is worthwhile to look at where 
they came from. After all, their ancestors stretch back a lot of decades (a long time in 
computer-years), and several members of the previous generations look like they will still 
be around for years to come.

The HP3000 for half a century! 

As most of us know, HP's first computer (actually an "instrument- automator") was introduced 
in 1966. By 1969, a project was under way to develop a brand new, general purpose computer. 
Code-named the Omega-32, this machine was to be a 32-bit-per-word computer featuring up to 
4 megabytes of memory, a complex instruction set, and a hardware stack. Unfortunately, the 
project never made it past the paper stage. 

A year later the Alpha project was born, resurrected from the remains of Omega-32. This time, 
however, the design had been sealed down to a 16-bit-per-word, 128- kilobyte computer. 
Still remaining, however, were the complex instruction set and stack, which would be 
implemented in the firmware via microcode. 

In the meantime, the HP software designers, many of them from a Burroughs background, set out 
to design the system's software. Burroughs' operating system, the MCP, was written in a 
high-level language called "ESPOL", a special version of its ALGOL language. In a similar
 manner, HP began to design POS (Primary Operating System) in another variant of ALGOL that 
they dubbed SPL, for Systems Programming Language. 

The First Generation
Unlike the ill-fated Omega, the Alpha project survived. The hardware was given the product 
name HP 3000, and the POS operating system was called "MPE", for Multi- Programming Executive. 
Aimed at the market for administrative and business computing, this computer was introduced in 1972. 

These first years were rough ones for HP. Early on, the hardware and software were so plagued 
with reliability problems that it was difficult to get any work done on them. A few years later, 
when the machine began to settle down, users began to realize that 128 kilobytes was just not 
very much memory, considering the sophisticated operating system and the needs of multiple users. 

Relief came in May 1976 with the introduction of the HP 3000 Series II. Through the addition 
of the concept of "banks" of memory and bank registers, the machine was new capable of 
supporting 512 kilobytes of memory. 

It was around this time that HP announced its objective to decrease the HP 3000's price/performance 
ratio by 30 percent per year. In other words, at any given time, you could assume that a year 
from now you would be able to buy either a computer comparable in performance to today's computer 
at a price 30 percent less than today's, or buy a computer 30 percent more powerful for 
the same price as today's. 

1978 saw the release of two new models, the HP 3000 Series III and the HP 3000 Series 33. The 
Series III was much like the Series II but the bank concept was expanded to allow up to 2 megabytes 
of memory. The Series 33, on the other hand, was a departure from the HP 3000. This was a brand 
new processor, based on hardware technology known as SOS (Silicon-on-Sapphire). Though generally 
slower than the Series III in overall throughput, the Series 33 was the first HP 3000 to support 
terminal speeds in excess of 2400 baud. 

In 1979, HP introduced the Series 30, a sealed-down version of the Series 33. While it had an 
identical SPU (System Processing Unit) to the Series 33, the Series 30 had lower limits in 
maximum memory and peripherals than its big brother. 

The next year saw the announcement of the next significant SPU enhancement with the introduction 
of the HP 3000 Series 44. Supporting up to 4 megabytes of memory and built with the fastest SPU 
to date, this computer offered the highest throughput yet seen on a HP 3000, with terminal support 
up to 9600 baud. 

In 1981, HP introduced two new models: The Series 40, using the same SPU as the Series 44, but 
with lower limits analogous to the Series 30, and a new machine at the high-performance end, 
the Series 64. The Series 64 offered several enhancements over all previous HP 3000s. For one, 
memory was increased to 8 megabytes; but much more important, you could order a Series 64 
with not one, but two InterModule Buses (IMBs). By now, many sophisticated, database-oriented 
commercial applications had been written for the HP 3000, and the vast majority were I/O-bound. 
That is, the number of inputs and outputs to disc was the most limited resource; total system 
throughput was determined by the bottleneck in getting data to and from the disc. By adding an 
additional IMB, the 1/0-to-dise rate was effectively doubled, assuming that multiple discs 
were spread over the two buses and that accesses to discs on both buses were required 
concurrently. Together with the faster SPU, the Series 64 brought the HP 3000 to a new level, 
by its ability to support as many as five times the number of users a Series II could -- with 
equal or improved performance. 

The Series 64 also added something else to the HP 3000 family. Until this time, the firmware 
that contained the microcode was etched into ROMs (Read-Only Memories). ROMS, after all, had 
traditionally been faster than RAMs (Random Access Memories), which could not only be read 
but also written to. However, taking advantage of the new, faster RAMs that had recently been 
developed, the microcode of the Series 64 was put on RAM. 

Typically, a new floppy disc arrives with each new release of MPE and the microinstructions 
are then loaded from the floppy into the RAMS. If it becomes necessary to change the firmware, 
say to fix a bug, add a new machine instruction, or speed up an existing instruction, the 
customer would merely get a new floppy. With ROM-based HP 3000s, however, a Customer Engineer 
would have to come and change chips inside the computer to accomplish the same upgrade. 

Over the next few years, with the surge of technology brought on by the advances of large-scale 
integration techniques, the new models continued to be introduced at a rate approximating the 
calling of numbers at a bingo parlor. Here's a list of the HP 3000 models introduced between 
the years 1983 and 1986: Series 42, Series 39, Series 48, Series 68, Series 37, Series 70, 
Series 42XP, Series 52, Series 48XP, Series 58, Series 37XE, the Micro 3000, and the Micro 3000XE. 

The Series 37, code-named "Mighty Mouse", extended the HP 3000 family at the entry level. 
This computer, which is about the size of a small file cabinet, is designed to fit into 
the office environment. Unlike most computers of its power, it does not require a special 
"computer room" environment with special air conditioning, humidity control, conditioned 
electrical power, and raised flooring. Typically, it is placed right in the office next 
to someone's desk, plugged into the wall, and immediately begins supporting five or ten 
users with excellent response time.
I was so fortunate to get the first "Mighty Mouse" installed in Denmark. In fact, it was 
my very first HP 3000 and of cause we needed an upgrade within the first year.

At the high end of the MPE V-based HP 3000 family is the Series 70. Through a number 
of enhancements, this computer averages about a 40 percent performance improvement over 
the Series 68. Memory is expandable up to 16 megabytes, a 144-fold increase over the original 
Series I. In addition, a 128 kilobyte memory cache is included. This memory cache holds 
both data and instructions. When a required word is available in this cache, it can be 
obtained in a single machine cycle. Additional improvements came from recoding certain 
frequently used operating system routines in microcode. 

From a software point of view, an analogous history has also unfolded. Along with the 
hardware enhancements of the Series II came MPE II, a major new release of the operating 
system. Through the years, regular updates to MPE have been released, usually at the rate 
of between one and four per year. Every two or three years, a major release comes out. 
The most recent, MPE V, added (among other enhancements) disc caching. Remembering that 
most sites were, in fact, I/O-bound before the advent of disc caching, this turned out 
to be a major performance enhancer for many systems. By adding more memory and using 
spare CPU cycles that used to be wasted waiting for disc I/Os to complete, many sites 
are able to eliminate 50 or 60 percent of the physical I/Os to disc, satisfying the 
I/0 request out of a cache domain. This technique has proved so successful that for 
the first time since the introduction of the HP 3000, many sites are finding that their 
machines have become CPU-bound, and are no longer I/O-bound. 

These releases of MPE are commonly called "MITs" (Master Installation Tapes). The 
identification of the various MITS, however, is not an easy thing to understand or 
explain. Through the years, HP has tried several different naming methods to keep 
track of the various versions. None seems to have worked very well, and with each 
change in the naming method, the confusion grows greater. Certain names, such as 
"MPE VIT-Delta 5" or "MPE V/UB-Delta l", are commonly known among users, but the 
actual software that these names correspond to use identifications such as "G.A1.06" 
or "G.02.BO". Unfortunately, it is unlikely that a definitive naming system will 
be implemented soon. Perhaps the most impressive fact about all of these versions 
is that with very few exceptions, programs written and compiled years ago will 
run without modification on the current MIT. 

The Second Generation
From the mid-eighties, HP produces new computers based on HP Precision Architecture 
(HPPA). Because there seems to be a lot of confusion over names, it is important 
to initially get a few definitions straight. Even though the new machines are quite 
different, from an internal perspective, than the HP 3000s described above, HP has 
chosen to call some of the new ones HP 3000s as well. This makes sense because 
from an external perspective they look quite similar. These machines run the next 
generation of the MPE operating system, called "MPE XL"; they look like HP 3000s 
when you log on; and they run almost the same software as all other HP 3000s. To 
distinguish them from the HP 3000s described above, HP refers to the new machines 
as MPE XL-based HP 3000s, and to the others as MPE V-based HP 3000s. Later on when 
MPE got its Posix-interface the name of the operating system switched to be MPE/iX, 
to tell the world that these machines would be able to run UNIX-programs as well.

As previously stated, some of the new HPPA machines are called HP 3000s, but what 
about the others? Well, although in some cases the hardware is nearly identical 
to the hardware of the MPE/iX-based HP 3000s, these other machines use the HP-UX 
operating system, instead of MPE. These machines are known as HP 9000 Model 800s. 
Though full-fledged HPPA computers, they are not members of the HP 3000 family. 

As usual, the MPE/iX-based HP 3000s will run virtually all of the software from the 
MPE V-based HP 3000s in an emulation mode known as Compatibility Mode (CM). The 
software that will not run tends to be Privileged Mode programs that rely on 
system tables or other hardware aspects of the MPE V- based machines that have 
no counterpart on the MPE/iX-based machines. It is possible to write programs 
that better utilize the features of HPPA. Instead of running in the Compatibility 
Mode, these programs run in what is known as Native Mode (NM), and as such, will 
not always run on MPE V-based systems. 

With the introduction of this new generation of HP 3000s, HP will continue to meet 
its price-performance and compatibility objectives through the end of the century. 
This new lease on life has undoubtedly contributed the HP 3000 to be one of the 
most successful and popular computers of all time. In June of 1987, HP celebrated 
"30K the 3000 Way"; 30,000 HP 3000s -- in banks, in lumber mills, on oil rigs, 
in drug stores, in colleges, and in almost every type of business environment imaginable.

A great day
In 1997 the HP 3000 has been around for 25 year, and large parties where celebrated 
all over the World, me for my part; I celebrated The success story in Stuttgart in 
Germany (Boeblingen (the European headquarter) is a suburban of Stuttgart).
The Third Generation
In 1998 HP was working together with Intel (the PC motor manufacture) on a classified 
project called "Mersed". The known technology of today