The HP 3000 series is a family of minicomputers released by Hewlett-Packard in 1973 after a difficult development project. The first models were withdrawn from the market until speed improvements could be made. It was intended to be the first minicomputer delivered with a full featured operating system with timesharing. It ultimately became known as a reliable and powerful business system. Early models had large cabinets with front panels, later models were made that fit into desks using only terminal consoles for diagnostics, with bootstrap routines in ROM. HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ... The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is a very large, global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

It was one of the last proprietary minicomputer systems to be retired, outlasting the PDP-11-descended Digital Equipment Corporation VAX, which was acquired by Compaq and then ultimately by Hewlett Packard. After 30 years, a five year phase-out period for the now-named e3000 series servers was announced in November 2001. No more new e3000s are being sold, though support for migration continues through Dec 31, 2008. The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ... Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering company in the American computer industry. ... This article is about the computing term VAX, not to be confused with the vacuum cleaner/floorcare manufacturer Vax. ...

Classic Memory Segments: 64K Barrier

Code and data reside in variable-length segments, code, read-only, reentrant and limited to 32,760 bytes and data to 65,528 bytes. MPE loads code segments from program files and segmented Library (SL) files as needed, up to 256 segments in one process.

There could be as much as 32k of memory in a code segment, but calling a routine was based on segment number and routine number within a segment, so a program could theoretically have 64k routines. This was compared to most 16 bit computers that had 64k of address space for everything. The bigger limitation was the data segment and stack segment, which were also 64k. Shared library routines did not permit static or global data since each process had its own data segment. The AGL graphic library got around this by requiring the caller to pass in an array from his own stack or data segment to hold all state information, similar to modern object oriented languages where methods are applied to objects passed in allocated by the caller.

Systems programming was done in SPL, an ALGOL-like language, but allowing inline assembler, and other direct access to the ISA. The standard terminals for the HP 3000 were the HP 2640 series, which supported block mode data entry from forms, as well as character mode. ALGOL (short for ALGOrithmic Language) is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which became the de facto standard way to report algorithms in print for almost the next 30 years. ... An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), describes the aspects of a computer architecture visible to a programmer, including the native datatypes, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O (if any). ... The HP2640 and other HP264X models were block-mode smart and intelligent terminals produced by Hewlett Packard using the new 8080 processor. ...

Classic and PA-RISC XL

The HP 3000 family was divided into the "Classic" (16-bit) and "XL" (later IX - 32-bit) families following the introduction of systems based on HP's PA-RISC chips in early 1984. These were not binary compatible, but would run old code at a slower rate, or run recompiled code faster. The earlier "Classic" machines were based on a custom CISC processor. From about 1988 HP 3000s using PA-RISC processors began shipping in volume and, by 1995, effectively displaced the older family of machines from use although, as with all technology shifts, there remained a significant residue of older machines in service. In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... 32-bit is a term applied to processors, and computer architectures which manipulate the address and data in 32-bit chunks. ... PA-RISC is a microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packards Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. ... A Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) is an instruction set architecture (ISA) in which each instruction can indicate several low-level operations, such as a load from memory, an arithmetic operation, and a memory store, all in a single instruction. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The 3000 series operating system was originally styled the Multi-Programming Executive, MPE (later called MPE-XL and then, after POSIX compliance was added in versions 5.0-5.5, MPE-IX). Early versions had a fairly primitive command line interpreter, without a hierarchical file system, and utilities such as compilers would resemble "run fortran.pub.sys" rather than allowing programs to be run as keyword commands. People who used the HP 3000 would notice that machines were faily reliable compared to other minicomputers of the time. MPE (Multi-Programming Executive) is an early 1980s era business-oriented minicomputer operating system made by Hewlett-Packard. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Part of the tremendous success of the HP 3000 was due to the provision of, with brief exceptions included as part of the Fundamental Operating System (FOS), a vendor developed shallow network database management system (DBMS) called Image (now called TurboIMAGE) that was reputedly inspired (if not actually based upon) the TOTAL DBMS developed by Cincom Systems, Inc. Almost uniquely in computer history, it remains a feature of MPE that forward binary compatibility of executable programs is preserved across all systems and all version of the operating system, regardless of hardware architecture. Programs that ran on the original series II in 1973 can be reloaded from tape onto the last N-Series machines produced in 2003 and run today without recompiling. A database management system (DBMS) is a computer program (or more typically, a suite of them) designed to manage a database, a large set of structured data, and run operations on the data requested by numerous users. ... IMAGE is the primary reason that the HP3000 was a success. ... Cincom Systems is a company founded in 1968, making it one of the longest-serving companies in the software industry. ...

As the market shifted towards standardized Unix systems, which HP had also been promoting, in November 2001, Hewlett-Packard announced that the official End Of Life EOL for the HP3000 would be the end of 2006, and that no new systems would be sold after 2003. In early 2006, Hewlett-Packard announced that limited vendor support for the HP3000 would be extended by two years for certain clients or geographic regions. This is one of the longest lifetimes for a proprietary mincomputer system. The computers would outlast the highly regarded PDP-11 and VAX series, although OpenVMSoperating system continued to be offered on Alpha-based systems and continues to be offered on Itanium-based systems as Hewlett Packard products. Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... The main part of this article relates to the version of Middle-earths history that is considered canon by most Tolkien fans who accept such labels (see: Middle-earth canon). ... The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ... This article is about the computing term VAX, not to be confused with the vacuum cleaner/floorcare manufacturer Vax. ... OpenVMS (Open Virtual Memory System or just VMS) is the name of a high-end computer server operating system that runs on the VAX and Alpha family of computers developed by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts (now owned by Hewlett-Packard), and more recently on Hewlett-Packard systems built... DEC Alpha AXP 21064 Microprocessor The DEC Alpha, also known as the Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor originally developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corp (DEC). ... Itanium 2 logo Old Itanium logo The Itanium is an IA-64 microprocessor developed jointly by Hewlett-Packard and Intel. ...

Registers? Who Needs Them?

Most current computer instruction sets are based on a general purpose register model. The processor and memory architecture of the classic HP 3000 were based on a stack machine model. It was said to be inspired by the famous Burroughs stack based computers such as the B5000 and its successors. Rather than having a small number of registers, for example only an AX and BX register in the case of the HP 1000, operands would be pushed on the same stack used to store local variables and return addresses. So rather than In computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of very fast computer memory used to speed the execution of computer programs by providing quick access to commonly used values—typically, the values being in the midst of a calculation at a given point in time. ... In computer science, a stack machine is a model of computation in which the computers memory takes the form of a stack. ... William Seward Burroughs (1857-1898), US inventor Augusten Burroughs (b. ... Background The B5000 was designed in 1961 by a team at Burroughs under the leadership of Robert (Bob) Barton. ... The HP 2100 was a series of minicomputers produced by Hewlett-Packards from the mid 1960s to early 1980s. ... In both conventional and electronic messaging, a return address is an explicit inclusion of the address of the person sending the message. ...

 LOAD AX, 0X0001 LOAD BX, 0X0002 ADD AX, BX 

you would have

 PUSH 0X0001 PUSH 0X0002 ADD 

Call instructions enforced a fixed number of arguments, which would have made implementation of a C compiler an interesting project. C is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. ...

The 16-bit microcoded machines (Series I, II, III, 30, 33, 39, 40, 42, 44, 48, 52, 58, 64, 68, 70, 37, ...) implement a 16-bit word addressed, byte-addressable, segmented, Harvard, Stack Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). Most of the ~214 instructions are 16 bits wide. Stack operations pack 2 per 16-bit word and the remaining few are 32 bits wide. A microprogram is a program consisting of microcode that controls the different parts of a computers central processing unit (CPU). ... Byte Addressable Memory: The basic unit of digital storage is called a bit. ... The term Harvard architecture originally referred to computer architectures that used physically separate storage and signal pathways for their instructions and data (in contrast to the von Neumann architecture). ... Simple representation of a stack In computer science, a stack is a temporary abstract data type and data structure based on the principle of Last In First Out (LIFO). ... An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), describes the aspects of a computer architecture visible to a programmer, including the native datatypes, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O (if any). ...

CISC Implementations

• III: 4 Top of stack registers, 175nS microinstruction cycle time → 5.7Mhz
• 30, 33: Silicon on sapphire, 2 Top of stack registers, 90nS microinstruction cycle time → 11MHz, instructions take 3-7 cycles
• 40, 42, 44, 48: Schottky TTL, 4 Top of stack registers, 105nS microinstruction cycle time → 9.5MHz
• 64, 68: ECL, 8 Top of Stack registers, 75nS microinstruction cycle time → 13MHz, 8kB cache, 60kb WCS, 2 16-bit ALUs
• 37: ~8000 gate CMOS Gate array, 4 Top of Stack registers

Later 32-bit models used HP's PA-RISC general register-based RISC architecture. Silicon on sapphire (SOS) is a hetero-epitaxial process for integrated circuit manufacturing that consists of a thin layer (typically thinner than 0. ... A Motorola 68000-based computer with various TTL chips. ... In electronics, emitter coupled logic (or ECL) (sometimes called current mode logic) is a logic family which uses transistors to steer current through gates to compute logical functions. ... A microprogram implements a CPU instruction set. ... Static CMOS Inverter Complementary-symmetry/metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) (see-moss, IPA:), is a major class of integrated circuits. ... A Gate array is an approach to the design and manufacture of ASICs. ...

PA-RISC Implementations

• PA-RISC 1.0 Series 925, 930, 935, 949, 950, 955, 960, 980
• PA-RISC 1.1 Series 917, 920, 922, 927, 937, 947, 948, 957, 958, 967, 977sx, 987, 990, 991, 992, 995
• PA-RISC 2.0 Series 918, 928, 968, 978, 988, 996, A and N class.

References

• Hewlett Package: HP3000 Computer Systems: General Information Manual; August 1983; 5953-7553

External links

• The Classic HP 3000 - detailed early history.
• Edler, C The Rise, Fall and Rise of the HP 3000 - more early history.
• HP3000 FAQ
• Bitsavers has PDF scans of HP 3000 hardware and software manuals - but use a mirror site.
• HP Computer Museum also has PDF scans of manuals.
• HP 3000 General Information Manual Sep 79, Oct 1984
• HP 3000 Performance (text file)
• "HP SYSTEM/3000 system description" promotional material Nov 1971
• November 19, 2001: HP Sunsets Its Proprietary e3000 Server Line
• November 14, 2001 Hewlett-Packard phases out server line, the line will be phased out over a five-year period
• hp.com: HP is committed to continued support of HP e3000 installations
• HP e3000 transition program FAQ

Pictures

• Picture of HP 3000