HP 9000/745i & 747i VME Workstations

Overview
Internals
External connectors
References
Operating systems
Benchmarks
Physical dimensions/Power

Quick Facts
CPU	1 PA-7100 50-100MHz
Caches	128-512KB L1
RAM	128MB (/50) 256MB (/100)
Drives	2 SCSI 1 FD/SCSI
Expansion	4 EISA (745i) 747i: 2 EISA 1 SGC 6 VME
Bandwidth	?
I/O	10E SCSI 2 serial parallel VGA HIL HP-IB audio

Overview

These Pace named models were one of the first PA-RISC workstations for industrial/medical use. They are technically very similar to the older 715 workstations and 725 workstations while being built in ruggedized, rack-mountable cases. The CPU and I/O controllers sit on a VME SBC (single board computer) which is identical on both 745i and 747i. The latter systems are built in an even bigger case and feature VME slots, which the 745i do not have. Both have a HP-IB interface, which was used mainly for controlling and/or instrumental use. Interestingly these machines have two pairs of LED banks, one at the front and the other directly on the CPU board on the back.

Internals

CPU

745i/50: PA-7100 50MHz with 64/64KB off-chip I/D L1 cache
747i/50: PA-7100 50MHz with 64/64KB off-chip I/D L1 cache
745i/100: PA-7100 100MHz with 256/256KB off-chip I/D L1 cache
747i/100: PA-7100 100MHz with 256/256KB off-chip I/D L1 cache

Chipset

ASP chipset, featuring:
- NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596DX 10Mb Ethernet controller
- WD 16C552 parallel
- NS 16550A compatible serial
- 512KB EPROM - the Boot ROM
- 8KB EEPROM for storing system configuration status etc.
- Intel 8042 microprocessor controlling:
  - battery backed RTC
  - system & user timers
  - audio generator
  - HP-HIL interface
  - frontpanel system status LEDs
Viper memory and I/O controller
Intel 82501AD Ethernet transceiver
Intel 82350 EISA bus adapter chipset (EISA to GSC)
CRX graphics, 8-bit
HP-IB controller
747i: VME controller
PSB2160 CODEC for 8-bit mono audio

Buses

PBus processor/memory bus
VSC main system bus
GSC system-level I/O bus
EISA I/O expansion bus
HP-IB bus (IEEE-488); peripheral bus
SCSI-2 narrow single-ended bus
747i: SGC expansion of the mainbus to the SGC expansion slot
747i: VME bus

Memory

72-pin ECC SIMM
8-32MB modules (/100 models take 64MB modules)
Four sockets
/50 models: 16MB (2×8) minimum, 128MB (4×32) maximum
/100 models: 16MB (2×8) minimum, 256MB (4×64) maximum

Expansion

745i:
- Four EISA expansion slots
747i:
- Two EISA expansion slots
- One SGC (DIO-II formfactor) expansion slot
- Six VME slots

Drives

One bay for an external-accessible 5.25″ half-height SCSI drive
One bay for an external-accessible 3.5″ SCSI drive or floppy
One bay for a 3.5″ SCSI drive

External connectors

50-pin HD SCSI-2 single-ended
Two DB9 male RS232C serial
DB25 female parallel
15-pin AUI 10Mbit Ethernet
HD 15 VGA
HP-HIL connector for input devices
HP-IB for peripherals
Three phone jacks (microphone-in, headphone-out and speaker-out)

References

Manuals

745i/50, 745i/100, 747i/50, and 747i/100 Owner’s Guide (.pdf, 1.7MB) Hewlett Packard (August 1993: First edition)

Operating systems

HP-UX: every release from 10.01-10.20 works.
- 10.20: runs nice on them.
- 11.00: also works, but a) it is unsupported, b) it is slow and c) some HP-UX patches can leave the system in an unrunnable state.
NeXTSTEP: Version 3.3 could work.
Linux: works.
OpenBSD: works.

Benchmarks

Model	SPEC92, int	SPEC92, fp	SPEC95, int	SPEC95, fp
/50	36	72	1.53	2.46
/100	81	138	3.22	4.06

Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.

Physical dimensions/Power

745i:

175×425×412mm height/width/depth
18.6kg net weight
350W max. power input

747i:

310×425×412mm heigth/width/depth
29kg net weight
700W max. power input

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