PA-RISC

PA-RISC, which stands for Precision Architecture RISC, is a type of computer design used in many important computers made by Hewlett-Packard. It was created to help computers work faster and more efficiently by using a special way of giving instructions to the computer’s brain, called an instruction set architecture.

The first computers to use PA-RISC came out on February 26, 1986. These were the HP 3000 Series 930 and HP 9000 Model 840. Over the years, many powerful business computers used PA-RISC to handle big tasks and run complex programs.

Hewlett-Packard continued to make and sell PA-RISC computers until the end of 2008. They kept supporting these computers until 2013, helping people who still used them. After that, PA-RISC was replaced by a new design called Itanium, which was made together by HP and Intel. This change allowed computers to become even more powerful and better suited for modern needs.

History

In the late 1980s, Hewlett-Packard (HP) wanted all their computers to use the same type of brain, or processor. This led to the creation of something called the Precision Architecture. It started as an internal HP project named Spectrum.

Work on this new computer design began in 1982. By 1986, HP launched new computers like the HP 9000 Series 840 and HP 3000 Series 930 that used this new design. These computers could run different operating systems, like MPE-XL for HP 3000 machines and HP-UX and Unix for HP 9000 machines.

Over time, HP kept improving this design. In 1996, they updated it to support 64-bit processing, calling it PA-RISC 2.0. This made the computers better at handling complex tasks. Many operating systems, such as Linux, OpenBSD, and NetBSD, were able to work with these computers too.

CPU specifications

PA-RISC, or Hewlett Packard Precision Architecture, was a set of computer instructions made by Hewlett-Packard from the 1980s to the 2000s. The first computers using this technology came out on February 26, 1986, with the HP 3000 Series 930 and HP 9000 Model 840. HP stopped selling these computers in 2008 but kept supporting servers with PA-RISC chips until 2013.

Image	Model	Marketing name	Year	Frequency [MHz]	Memory Bus [MB/s]	Process [μm]	Transistors [millions]	Die size [mm2]	Power [W]	Dcache [KB]	Icache [KB]	L2 cache [MB]	ISA
	TS-1	?	1986	8	?	?	—	—	?	64	64	—	1.0
	CS-1	?	1987	8	?	1.6	0.164	72.93	1	—	0.25	—	1.0
	NS-1	?	1987	25/30	?	1.7	0.144	70.56	?	16-128	16-128	—	1.0
	NS-2	?	1989	25/30	?	1.5	0.183	196	27	512	512	—	1.0
	PCX	?	1990	50/60	?	1.0	0.196	?	?	?	?	?	1.0
	PCX-S	PA-7000	1991	66	?	1.0	0.58	201.6	?	256	256	—	1.1a
	PCX-T	PA-7100	1992	33–100	?	0.8	0.85	196	?	2048	1024	—	1.1b
	PCX-T	PA-7150	1994	125	?	0.8	0.85	196	?	2048	1024	—	1.1b
	PCX-T'	PA-7200	1994	120	960	0.55	1.26	210	30	1024	2048	—	1.1c
	PCX-L	PA-7100LC	1994	60–100	?	0.75	0.9	201.6	7–11	—	1	2	1.1d
	PCX-L2	PA-7300LC	1996	132–180	?	0.5	9.2	260.1	?	64	64	0–8	1.1e
	PCX-U	PA-8000	1996	160–180	960	0.5	3.8	337.68	?	1024	1024	—	2.0
	PCX-U+	PA-8200	1997	200–240	960	0.5	3.8	337.68	?	2048	2048	—	2.0
	PCX-W	PA-8500	1998	300–440	1920	0.25	140	467	?	1024	512	—	2.0
	PCX-W+	PA-8600	2000	360–550	1920	0.25	140	467	?	1024	512	—	2.0
	PCX-W2	PA-8700(+)	2001	625–875	1920	0.18	186	304		1536	768	—	2.0
	Mako	PA-8800	2003	800–1000	6400	0.13	300	361	?	768/core	768/core	0 or 32	2.0
	Shortfin	PA-8900	2005	800–1100	6400	0.13	?	?	?	768/core	768/core	0 or 64	2.0