HP 9000/C100 & C110

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

Quick Facts
CPU	PA-7200 100-120MHz
Cache	256KB L1
RAM	1GB
Drives	3 SCSI 1 FD
Expansion	1 GSC 3 EISA/GSC
Bandwidth	CPU 800MB/s (C100) CPU 960MB/s (C110) Mem 400MB/s (C100) Mem 480MB/s (C110) I/O ?
I/O	10E 2 SCSI 2 serial 2 PS/2 HIL audio

Overview

The C100 and C110 are graphics workstations with the PA-7200 processors. They have a similar case to that of the old 735 — built of interlocking modules of the I/O and MPU board.

Model numbers: both the C100 and C110 have the HP 9000/777 model number.

Internals

CPU

C100: PA-7200 100MHz with 256/256KB off-chip I/D L1 cache and 2KB on-chip assist L1 cache
C110: PA-7200 120MHz with 256/256KB off-chip I/D L1 cache and 2KB on-chip assist L1 cache

The assist cache is not really a true cache.

Chipset

LASI ASIC, which features:
- NCR 53C710 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
- Intel 82596CA 10Mb Ethernet controller
- WD 16C522 compatible parallel
- Harmony CD/DAT quality 16-bit stereo audio
- NS 16550A compatible serial
U2 I/O adapter Runway to GSC bridge
MMC/SMC memory controllers
Wax chip
- EISA bus converter (GSC-to-EISA)
- Second RS232 serial
- HP HIL interface
GSC graphics
Intel 82C503 Ethernet transceiver, media auto-selection
CS4215 or AD1849 programmable CODECs
WD37C65C Floppy controller
NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide high-voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2

» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the chipset.

Buses

Runway CPU/memory bus (100MHz 800MB/s peak data rate on C100, 120MHz, 960MB/s on C110)
GSC general system-level I/O bus
EISA additional expansion I/O bus
SCSI-2 single-ended bus
SCSI-2 Fast-Wide high-voltage differential main storage I/O bus

Memory

72-pin ECC SIMMs, 60ns or faster
Bus width: 128 data bits with 16 check bits
Up to 8-way interleaving
400MB/s (C100), 480MB/s (C110) peak bandwidth
Takes 16-128MB modules
Eight slots
32MB (2×16) minimum, 1GB (8×128) maximum

Expansion

One slot for a GSC (EISA formfactor) card
Three slots for either GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
I/O slot layout (from top to bottom):
1. EISA or GSC
2. EISA or GSC
3. EISA or GSC (for secondary graphics)
4. GSC (for primary graphics)

Drives

The disk-slider can accomodate up to three SCSI drives and one floppy drive simultaneously, the internal cabling (usually) includes one Wide-SCSI cable with three 68-pin connectors and a HVD-terminator at the end, one Narrow-SCSI with one 50-pin connector and one cable for the floppy.

The Narrow-SCSI cable is normally used for the external-accessible half-height 5.25″ CD/DAT drive, although it is of course also possible to connect a 50-pin SE hard drive. The cable can also be easily replaced with a variant with more connectors to use up to three 50-pin SE hard drives. The PDC can boot off these SE drives.

The Wide-SCSI cable is normally used for the internal 3.5″ 68-pin Fast-Wide high-voltage differential system drives. Up to three hard drives can be installed in the cage, which leaves no room for an external-accessible CD/DAT drive though. The Fast-Wide drives are also bootable from the PDC.

A standard configuration could look like this:

Two 3.5″ 68-pin Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI hard drives,
One 3.5″ Floppy drive and
One external-accessible half-height 5.25″ SCSI drive (CD/DAT).

External connectors

50-pin HD SCSI-2 single-ended
68-pin HD SCSI-3 Fast-Wide differential (HVD)
Two DB9 male RS232C serial (up 460.8Kb/s)
DB25 female parallel
TP/RJ45 10Mbit Ethernet
15-pin AUI 10Mbit Ethernet
Graphics port depend on installed video adapter
Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse
HP-HIL for input device loop
Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)

ROM update

There is a firmware update available for the C110, which contains the latest version (1.3).

PF_CC110013.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
PF_CC110013 contains the patch.

There is also a firmware update available for the C100 and C110, which contains the latest version (1.2).

PF_CC1X0012.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
PF_CC1X0012 contains the patch.

Operating systems

HP-UX: every 32-bit release from 10.20-11.11 works.
- 10.20: runs very nicely.
- 11.00 and 11i: runs nicely
Linux: works fine.
OpenBSD works fine (the 53C720 Fast-Wide HVD SCSI controller is supported since release 4.2).

References

Manuals

C100/110 Owners Guide (PDF, 1.6MB)
Service Handbook C Class (PDF, 1.5MB)

Benchmarks

Model	SPEC95, int	SPEC95, fp	SPECrate95, int	SPECrate95, fp
C100	4.98	6.59	44.8	59.4
C110	6.00	8.14	54.0	73.3

Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.

Physical dimensions/Power

138×539×447 mm height/width/depth
16.7kg net weight, 21.1kg fully loaded
555W max. power input
5.0A max. RMS at 240V
9.5A max. RMS at 120V

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