> To: port-hp300@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: HP9000 Model 715?
> Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 17:55:23 -0700
> From: "Michael K. Sanders" <msanders@aros.net>
> 
> The web site indicates that the PA RISC machines are not currently 
> supported, but it's not clear how much activity/interest there is 
> in suporting them.  So, just as an FYI if there are people interested
> in working on support, ONSALE.COM has a number of 9000/715 machines
> currently being auctioned that are in the $200-300 range.

Just some quick thoughts from someone who has used these models:
[ I can't get back to the onsale page right now but as I recall there were
712/80, 715/50, 715/100s out there. ]

The 715/50 is older technology and slower though the packaging is the same
as the 715/100.  Both have SE SCSI (room for two internal 3.5" disks and a
CD-ROM drive), Centronics parallel, 2 serial ports (up to 256k baud), HIL,
10Mbit ethernet (AUI), 8-bit color (1024x768 or 1280x1024 depending on option),
ECC RAM, and a single EISA slot for expansion.  715/50 is 72Hz refresh only,
715/100 (and 712s) supports several refresh rates.  So multi-sync monitors
work just fine on all.

The 712s are non-expandable (no useful slots), have only a single serial
port, room for only one hard drive (and a floppy!), TP ethernet, and a
PC-style mouse/keyboard interface (no HIL).

Here are the relative VMIPS of the machines as measured by the ever-accurate
dhrystone benchmark (1 VMIP == ~1600 dhrystones):

HP 715/50:	 61.39 50Mz PA-RISC 7100	(circa 1992)
HP 712/80	 98.00 80Mhz PA-RISC 7100LC	(circa 1994)
HP 715/100:	123.31 100Mz PA-RISC 7100LC	(circa 1994)

The numbers are slightly more meaningful than usual as they all were measured
using the same binary of dhrystone (compiled with HP-UX 8.05 compiler).  For
comparison, the fastest stock hp300:

HP 433:		 20.20	33Mz 68040

so they don't suck.  32MB is a little light for a PA-RISC machine however.
In theory, the 7100LC is a dual-issue machine for some combos of operations,
but you need the product HP compiler to exploit it.  7100LC also has
"multimedia" instructions (HPs version of MMX).

As for BSD, our non-distributable HPBSD runs on these with support for most
of the stuff (in fact I have a 715/75 at work and at home).  The exception is
the 715/100 where we have had inexplicable problems with high-priority
machine checks to the point of being unusable.  I say inexplicable because
that 715 is essentially the same architecture as the 712 and the 725, both
of which work just fine.  It is a stupid problem I am sure, but we never
found it.

Mach will run for sure on the 715/50.  We had a host of minor but annoying
problems with Mach on the 712 however, so it might take some work to get
going.  We never tried the 715/100 due to the above BSD problems.  Mach has
all the same device support as our BSD.

For code that is available see:

http://www.cs.utah.edu/projects/flux/mach4-parisc/html/pamach.html

which now contains a pointer to the OSF MkLinux stuff.