From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: kim kubik Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 References: <200310031632.h93GWUj06889@augusta.math.psu.edu>, Subject: Re: [9fans] Newbie: life without rio Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 09:01:44 +0000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Topicbox-Message-UUID: 616044ac-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 rminnich@lanl.gov (ron minnich) wrote in message=20 > On Fri, 3 Oct 2003, Dan Cross wrote: >=20 > > I don't know about you, but if *I* saw a solid gold heat sink, I'd > > buy it, take it home, melt it down, and sell it at a bank, and then > > replace it with something made out of some other metal. > I worked at HP as in intern in the good old (gold) days when many HP di= vs=20 > made their own boards. There was a room in it with lotsa gold bars for = the=20 > boards.=20 Alright, I checked best I could, it seems to have been a large chunk of copper (no wonder I don't have any money: "Wow, you'll give me ALL those pennies for this little handful of gold coins?"). =20 But I still remember the badges reading, "The Joy of SUN", part of the=20 company's nascant marketing effort. Too bad they can't do anything now. ---------------------------------------------- First some info on the original HP 9000 series and cpu: www.gaby.de/e9ktxt.htm www.openpa.net/history.html and two postings from people with functioning brain cells: =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D A little bit of HP 9000 history: The 500 series, announced 12/1982: Deep down inside they ran an OS called SunOS, before Sun Microsystems existed. On top of that they ran either HP-UX or HP Basic. These were bas= ed on HP's own 32bit 1.um NMOS CPU, it was the first 32bit microprocessor. 1.um= might not sound that much, but the company I worked for at the time had just go= t there 5.um technology out of the labs and sent it to production, and we w= eren't that far behind the big boys. The HP9000 model 520 was a workstation, before the name existed. It had= so many fans in it that if you put one on a trolly it would move around the = lab. Heat was such a problem on these chips, that the whole of the MB was a large copper heat sink. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Newsgroups: net.works Date: 1982-12-12 HP's SuperDesktop System, the HP9000 Today in Palo Alto, Hewlett Packard presented a seminar highlighting Computer Aided Engineering applications of its small computer products. =20 The HP9000 is obviously HP's new pride and joy. One of the presentations had been a glossy video taped presentation which recounted some of the history of the 9000. HP's primary representative, Mike Radisich of HP Ft. Collins CO (the home of the 9000), introduced the video tape. The 9000 is described by HP as a real technological breakthrough. =20 The HP processor chips are not mounted in ceramic or plastic casings to be attached to boards. Rather, the little (1/4") chips themselves are mounted directly on the teflon coated copper boards. Using this technique, the 9000 boards pack a great deal of power into a small area. For example, the memory boards support 256KB of memory in an area of approximately 30 square inches. In that area are mounted, 16 memory chips as well as some other interface and integrity support chips. The copper substratum of the boards is required to help dissipate heat.