HP confirms post-2003 3000 hardware sales plans

Despite halting its 3000 system sales, HP extends life of processors, disks, IO and network cards

HP is heading for the exits on its HP 3000 business, but the vendor is also following the lead of its customers through the next year and half — by continuing to sell everything for its newest HP 3000s except a full system.

Managers from the HP 3000 business operations — Kriss Rant, representing hardware, and Mike Schneck, covering MPE — stressed that HP hasn’t changed its mind about ending its HP 3000 business. But customers who own A-Class or N-Class HP 3000s will be able to buy most of what they need for their systems at least through October of 2004.

“We have made the commitment to add value to the existing 3000s, particularly so customers can have the latest software and hardware to run their businesses, even though customers are planning to transition away from the 3000,” Schneck said.

HP announced its plans to sell hardware processor upgrades and add-ons for the latest models of HP 3000s, including processors, embedded disks, IO cards and network cards, as well as memory modules. HP’s hardware sales will continue through most of next year. The only items customers won’t be able to purchase after Oct. 31 of this year are complete HP 3000 systems, N-Class and A-Class chassis, and power supplies for the systems.

Rant said that HP has done a forecast to estimate how much hardware stock it will need to meet customer demand through October of next year. The estimate takes into account some number of N-Class and A-Class systems which will be traded back to HP as customers move onto HP’s Unix systems.

“We always could extend [sales] beyond that, but we like to make an offer based on availability,” Rant said. The availability of the processors and components will include remarketed systems, as well as new, unsold items.

The PA-8700 class of A-Class and N-Class servers got an upgrade to core electronics to enabled support of the PA-8700 processor technology. HP has put together chassis upgrade pricing for customers who purchased the first generation of A- and N-Class servers.

Owners of older HP 3000s will have more limited options to purchase from HP after this October. The Series 9x9 systems will continue to be eligible for the user license upgrades sold by HP, since those models of HP 3000s have fixed user license counts on all but unlimited licenses of MPE/iX. Add-on MPE/iX software products, such as HP’s compilers and backup solutions, will continue to be sold through December, 2006 for the entire HP 3000 line.

HP hasn’t quite figured out how to deliver these post-2003 products to the 3000 customer, according to HP’s Schneck. “That’s information that will have to come as it’s finalized,” he said. HP said at the Valley Forge e3000 Solutions Symposium that it expects Client Systems, the North American distributor for new systems, to play a part in the post-2003 sales channel.

The processor upgrades and add-ons will be limited to the PA-8700 systems, according to HP’s Rant, meaning the very latest generation of A-Class and N-Class systems. HP 3000s purchased and installed before September, 2002 will have to be upgraded to the PA-8700 models to qualify for upgrade products.

“If you’re on a 380Mhz N-Class, you’ll be able to go to a 500 or 750Mhz,” Rant explained. PA-8500 systems of the A-Class, and PA-8600 N-Class systems, will have to be upgraded to PA-8700 systems by using chassis upgrade kits. HP will stop selling those PA-8500/8600-to-PA-8700 upgrade kits after Oct. 31, 2003.

A Spring PowerPatch

HP is also going to release a PowerPatch, its collection of patches for the 3000 operating system, for the latest 7.5 release of MPE/iX. This will be the first PowerPatch for the release, the MPE software that HP has announced will be the last version of MPE/iX that HP is engineering.

Schneck called the PowerPatch “strictly a bug fix release, a superset of the 7.0 functionality. You can look at this as HP’s commitment to the customers’ current environment, to support the businesses that rely on the 3000 platform.”

Many customers wait for the first HP PowerPatch before committing to a new release of MPE/iX, since it contains tested patches for the bugs customers discover after a release first ships.

New storage options

HP is shipping the A-Class and N-Class servers with some new disk storage devices, adding 15,000 RPM devices for both systems. On the A-Class servers a 73Gb drive runs at the faster speed, increased from the 10,000 RPM devices. The A-Class servers will also support a 146Gb drive that is new to the HP 3000 line, one that runs at the 10,000 RPM speed.

N-Class servers get new embedded drives at 36Gb and 73 Gb at the 15,000 RPM speeds. HP won’t be supporting the slower but larger 146Gb devices on the N-Class, because the company’s complementary Unix systems are already being phased out of the product line.

“The N-Class on the Unix side, the rp7400, is being replaced by the 7410,” Rant explained. “The rp7400 is already being discontinued, and the decision was made not to make any further investments in additional capacity points. On the A-Class, that server will be around until 2004.”

The drives will ship as Ultra160 devices, but MPE/iX has only been engineered to let the drives use one-half of the transfer rate of the devices. The new devices will also operate in existing HP 3000 N-Class and A-Class systems.

HP will only be charging extra for the 146Gb devices included in the A-Class systems. List price on these new drives is $4,082. The faster 36Gb and 73Gb drives in the A-Class and N-Class systems will ship at no additional charge, another free upgrade to the 3000 line.

Stan Sieler of Allegro Consultants pointed out that HP is offering the 146Gb device at a considerable increase over the price for base disk unit alone. “That’s for a drive I can buy off the shelf for about $770?” he said. “I can’t even find any 146Gb Ultra160 drives for sale… if any existed, they’ve been replaced by Ultra320 drives.”

The new HP drives will consolidate storage choices for the A-Class systems. HP used to offer storage points at 18-, 36- and 73Gb at 10,000 RPM, and 18- and 36Gb at 15,000 RPM. It’s now going to offer just three storage points, and no options smaller than 36Gb on the A-Class servers.

In contrast, N-Class embedded storage will have only two drive sizes, 36Gb and 73Gb, both operating at 15,000 RPM. HP will continue to offer 18Gb 10,000 RPM devices for the N-Class servers until it exhausts inventory, as well as selling out the rest of its 36Gb and 73Gb 10,000 RPM drives.