HP told high-end HP 3000 users that they can order upgrades for Series 99x systems which will employ the new PA-8000 processor, with delivery scheduled for later this year. HP also increased the number of processors immediately for the existing top end of the 3000 line.
The upgrades, the new Series 997s, are due to ship in September along with the Express 3 release of MPE/iX 5.5. The systems use the same basic form factor and backplane layout as Series 995-996 systems, but will be powered by the same PA-8000 chips that are in the Series 979 midrange systems.
The juxtaposition with the Express 3 release isn't coincidental. HP needed to make changes in the operating system to accomodate the new chips in HP 3000s. And there are additional tuning changes HP will need to make in MPE/iX to get even more capability out of the Series 997s, such as the ability to support more than five processors.
HP is announcing only prices for the Series 997 as an upgrade to the Series 996 at this time. Pricing for standalone Series 997s will be announced in September when the hardware actually begins shipping.
The Series 997 makes use of the 8-Mb second level cache in the PA-8000 to help deliver increased performance over its predecessors. HP said a Series 996/500 -- a 5 way system, according to industry terms, using the PA-7150 processor -- would deliver 72 percent more performance when a customer upgraded it to Series 997/500. Such an upgrade is priced at $160,000.
Other upgrades deliver less of a performance boost. Converting a single-processor 996 to a 997 yields a 58 percent boost for $40,000; upgrading an 8-way Series 996 to a 5-way Series 997 yields a 25 percent improvement for $115,000. All upgrades require the return of processor boards.
HP admitted that much of the reason for limiting the new systems to a 5-way configuration lies in the MPE/iX operating system. Changes to MPE/iX beyond version 6.0 are likely to be required before more than five processors could be accomodated in the Series 997, according to HP's Dave Snow. HP eliminated some limitations in the 996 hardware, redesigning chips that connect I/O channels to the processor memory bus and chips that connect processor cards to the bus. HP has active work on extending the limits of MPE/iX in future mainline releases.
However, HP believes its customers are more likely to use multiple systems connected through the Shareplex/NetBase clustering technology than reach for a single, larger system. "To put more data on a single processor creates a single point of failure," Snow said.
Power enough for now
While a 25 percent improvement at the top of the line may not seem overwhelming, HP believes its most likely prospects for the upgrade will be able to manage well enough with the boost. Jack Snyder, manager of planning and technical support at American United Life in Indianapolis, Ind., said he'll be upgrading his Series 996/800 systems to the top of the 997 line in the fall.
"I can't tell you how excited we are about the whole idea of the processing power we'll get from the 64-bit architecture," Snyder said. "From everything I've calculated, I can go to two 997/500s and have dramatically more power than I have today from my two 995/800s."
Snyder said the two production HP 3000s at American United Life process 100 million IMAGE/SQL database transactions each month. Each of the systems supports more than 1,000 sessions. The workload at the company is growing at a rate of 30 percent yearly, he added.
A new 160-Mb/second high speed Precision Bus (HP-PB) I/O bus in the new 997s will offer 50 percent more I/O connectivity. Expansion slots increase from 112 to 168 with the new systems.
HP says its high-end customers are adding more storage and need the faster bus to transfer information. The new systems support up to 2 terabytes of disk storage, and the new bus architecture opens the door to future use of HP's Fibre Channel connectivity for periherals. Snyder said the faster processors in the 997 -- HP's reduced the clock rate from 8.3 nanoseconds down to 5.6 nanoseconds -- are an essential match for higher performance peripherals he's installing.
"I want 64-bit processors to push the RAID storage we're bringing in," Snyder said of choosing the new 997 systems. "I've looked at going to Unix, but HP has told me I'd need three truckloads of T-500s to do the work we're getting done with these two HP 3000s."
More ways for 996s
HP also announced that customers can immediately install more processors in the Series 996 systems. The current top of the HP 3000 line, the 996s, increased from 8-way to 12-way systems, with stops along the way at 9-, 10- and 11-processor systems. HP is increasing the number of processors at the current cost of $70,000 per processor board. The increased number of processors is supported under both the 5.0 and 5.5 releases of MPE/iX.
HP will include performance consulting services -- performed by CSY engineers -- to customers who add processors to existing 996 servers. The services, bundled with the price of the hardware upgrade, are meant to ensure that customers' applications can scale upward with the upgrade.
HP isn't providing benchmark numbers on the new systems except to compare them to existing HP 3000s. HP said 997 systems with one processor are 7.6 times faster than a Series 918, while the 996 systems are 4.8 times faster.