OpenPA.net

Information resource on PA-RISC based workstations and servers.

Second Edition of the OpenPA Print Edition - (Found July 2, 2008 )

The Second Edition of the OpenPA Print Edition was released with much new content additions and typographic improvements. In all about 70 new pages have been added since the First Edition, and almost all pages have been updated and revised. Additionally, many changes and improvements to the formattingconversion process have been made. The Second Edition 2.0 is available as PDF, for more details see the Print Version page linked to above or download the PDF directly (.pdf, 1.4MB, 351 pages).
http://www.openpa.net/print.html

OpenBSD support for four-digit 64-bit systems - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Support for the newer 64-bit PA-8x00 systems has been recently added to OpenBSDhppa. This includes popular workstations such as B1000, B2x00, C3x00, J5000J7000, J6x00 and various newer 64-bit D- and K-class servers.
http://openpa.net/obsd.html

IPv6 Connectivity - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Operational note: OpenPA can now also be reached via IPv6. Connectivity (in the form of a tunnelno native IPv6 yet) is kindly provided by SixXS. Your friendly NOC.
http://openpa.net

PA-RISC HistoryEarly PA Days - (Found July 2, 2008 )

A second attempt at a page detailing the roots and origins of PA-RISC has been made, starting with a subsection on the (very) early days of PA-RISC processors and systems at the time of the original PA 1.0 architecture, including lesser known CPUs as TS, NSPN and PCX. The original plan called for a complete picture of the PA-RISC lifetime and the various aspects of the architecture and systems design. Due to limited time, however, the page was never completed and thus the decision was...
http://www.openpa.net/history.html#early_days

C8000 workstation page - (Found July 2, 2008 )

The C8000 is probably the last PA-RISC powered HP-UX workstation, featuring one or two of the dual core PA-8800 or PA-8900 processors. System design is apparently quite close to previous Itanium offerings from HP, as the workstation uses the Itanium 2 systemmemory bus and HP's zx1 chipset.
http://www.openpa.net/systems/c8000.html

PA-8900 processor entry - (Found July 2, 2008 )

The PA-8900 is more or less only a slightly improved PA-8800 (Mako) and will supposedly be the last processor of HP's PA-RISC family. Much of the very scarce available documentation seems to suggest that the PA-8900 can be fit in most of the newer rp-series servers. Basic design and features are very close to the PA-8800.
http://www.openpa.net/cpu.html#8900

PA-8800 processor entry - (Found July 2, 2008 )

The Mako is the integration of two PA-8700+ processor cores onto a single die in combination with a very large off-die 32MB L2 cache, placed on the CPU module. The PA-8800 makes use of the Itanium 2 systemmemory bus and many systems supporting the Mako apparently can be upgraded to Itanium-family CPUs. As all processors after the original 64-bit PA-8000, Mako does not introduce any significant architectural enhancements, main extensions are based largely around better process...
http://www.openpa.net/cpu.html#mako

Improved PA-RISC Linux page - (Found July 2, 2008 )

The page on the Linux port to PA-RISC did not really contain much useful information, so it finally has been rewritten and the content on supported hardware, history and development greatly extended.
http://www.openpa.net/linux.html

Multimedia Acceleration eXtensions (MAX-1 and MAX-2) article - (Found July 2, 2008 )

HP was the first to introduce Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions tailored for the accelation of multimedia applications on a general purpose processor. These instructions operated on so-called subword data and were introduced as MAX-1 on the PA-7100LC processor and subsequently enhanced and featured as MAX-2 on all 64-bit PA-8x00 processors.
http://www.openpa.net/arch.html#max

Other PA-RISC CPUs: Winbond and Oki Embedded Processors - (Found July 2, 2008 )

In the mid- to late-1990s Winbond Electronics designed and sold a range of 32-bit PA-RISC embedded processors, targeted at set-top boxes and Internet Appliances. The chips of the W89K and W90K lines were based on a PA-RISC 1.1 Level 0 implementation which features no MMUvirtual adressing. The W89K and W90K feature a pin-out similar to that of Intel 80486DX which should faciliate an easy integration of these chips into existing embedded motherboard designs. Oki Semiconductors introduced in...
http://www.openpa.net/pa-risc_processors.html#other