HP Visualize C132L & C160L
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| CPU | PA-7300LC 132-160MHz |
| Cache | 128KB L1 1MB L2 |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Drives | 3 SCSI 1 FD |
| Expansion | 2 GSC/EISA 1 EISA/PCI 1 PCI |
| Bandwidth | Mem 423MB/s (C132L) Mem 427MB/s (C160L) I/O 132MB/s (C132L) I/O 160MB/s (C160L) |
| I/O | 10E EVC 2 SCSI 2 serial parallel 2 PS/2 HIL audio |
Overview
These were entry-level workstations equipped with the low-cost PA-7300LC CPU. They have a similar case to that of the old 735 — built of interlocking modules so the I/O board, MPU board etc. can be easily taken out.
Model numbers: both the C132L and C160L have the HP 9000/779 model number.
Internals
CPU
- C132L: PA-7300LC 132MHz with 64/64KB on-chip I/D L1 (and 1MB off-chip unified L2) cache
- C160L: PA-7300LC 160MHz with 64/64KB on-chip I/D L1 (and 1MB off-chip unified L2) cache
The off-chip L2 cache SRAM is optional and is installed in two DIMM slots below the CPU socket. The modules must be of equal size. Usually, these systems come with 2 512KB modules, totalling in 1MB L2 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
- Wax chip
- EISA bus converter (GSC-to-EISA)
- Second RS232 serial
- HP HIL interface
- Dino GSC-to-PCI bridge
- Phantom PseudoBC GSC+ port
- Visualize-EG graphics
- Intel 82C503 Ethernet transceiver, media auto-selection
- CS4215 or AD1849 programmable CODECs
- WD37C65C Floppy controller
- NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-Wide differential (HVD) SCSI-2
» View a system-level ASCII-illustration of the chipset.
Buses
- GSC-2 system and I/O bus (33MHz with 132MB/s peak data rate on C132L, 40MHz 160MB/s on C160L)
- EISA additional expansion I/O bus
- PCI-32/33 high-performance device I/O bus
- SCSI-2 single-ended bus
- SCSI-2 Fast-Wide 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
- Takes 16-256MB modules
- 12 slots
- 32MB (2×16) minimum, 2GB maximum
Expansion
- Two slots for either GSC (EISA formfactor) or EISA cards
- One slot for either a PCI 32-bit/33MHz, 3V or EISA card
- One slot for a PCI 32-bit/33MHz, 3V card
- Slot layout (from top to bottom):
- EISA or GSC
- EISA or GSC
- PCI-32/33 3V or EISA
- PCI-32/33
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
- EVC graphics port1
- Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse
- HP-HIL for input device loop
- Four phone jacks (microphone, headphones, line-in and ?)
- You need a special HP adapter-cable to convert this EVC-port to either BNC or HD15 VGA
ROM update
There is a firmware update available for the C160L, which contains the latest version (5.8).
- PF_CB1X0058.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
- PF_CB1X0058 contains the patch.
References
Manuals
- C160L Owners Guide (PDF, 1.6MB)
- Service Handbook C Class (PDF, 1.5MB)
Operating systems
- HP-UX: every 32-bit release from 10.20-11.11 works.
- Linux: works fine.
- OpenBSD: works fine (the 53C720 Fast-Wide HVD SCSI controller is supported since release 4.2).
- NetBSD: experimental support as of 5/2005, but the 53C720 Fast-Wide HVD SCSI controller is not supported.
Benchmarks
| Model | SPEC95, int | SPEC95, fp | SPEC95 rate, int |
SPEC95 rate, fp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C132L | 6.45 | 6.70 | 58.1 | 60.3 |
| C160L | 7.75 | 7.56 | 7.75/7.56 | 69.7/68.1 |
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
- 525W max. power input
- 5.0A max. RMS at 240V
- 9.5A max. RMS at 120V