Series Ii General-purpose Computer Systems: Designed for Improved Throughput and Reliability

A larger, faster memory system with error correction and error logging, a faster central processor, an expanded in struction set, and a more efficient operating system are the major technological advances. Benchmark studies rate the new HP 3000 Series II Computer Systems at two to four times the throughput of earlier versions. LIKE EARLIER VERSIONS OF THE HP 3000 Com puter System,1 the new HP 3000 Series II is a vir tual-memory, multilingual, multiprogramming com puter system capable of performing batch operations and multiple-terminal on-line functions simul taneously. The Series II has the same basic architec ture and input/output hardware as its predecessors, and software compatibility has been preserved. Vir tually everything else is new. To the user, the principal difference is in perfor mance. Overall throughput has increased by a factor of two to four for a "typical" job mix, and some pro grams have run as much as ten times faster (see page 14). A larger main memory address space is the reason for most of the performance improvement, but there are also operating system enhancements, added in structions, firmware improvements, and some hard ware changes. Series II main memory is all semiconductor, based on 18-pin 4K RAM chips. An unusual feature is a new fault control system that detects and corrects memory errors with no reduction in speed. 3000 Series II ma chines automatically log each error corrected along with the identity of the component that caused it. Failing parts can be weeded out of the system to mini mize future errors and assure continuous operation. Thus the Series II is expected to be much more re liable than earlier systems. There are three compatible models in Series II, ranging from the basic Model 5 to the highest-perfor mance Model 9 (Fig. 1). Model 7 is intermediate in performance and cost. All three models can compile and execute programs written in any or all of five lan To understand what's been done in the new Series II, it's helpful to have some knowledge of HP 3000 ar chitecture. Here is a brief review. There are two principal modes of operation of the CPU. "User" mode is one in which all operations per formed are strictly checked by the hardware to ensure that only the user's own data may be accessed. Any code executed in user mode is completely safe in the sense that it cannot affect the …