PA-RISC

Revision as of 12:48, 24 May 2025 by imported>PaulBoddie (→‎History: Added VLSI reference. Rearranged paragraphs somewhat.)
(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox CPU architecture

File:HP PA-RISC 7300LC.jpg
HP PA-RISC 7300LC microprocessor

Precision Architecture RISC (PA-RISC) or Hewlett Packard Precision Architecture (HP/PA or simply HPPA), is a general purpose computer instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Hewlett-Packard from the 1980s until the 2000s.

The architecture was introduced on 26 February 1986, when the HP 3000 Series 930 and HP 9000 Model 840 computers were launched featuring the first implementation, the TS1.<ref>"One Year Ago". (26 February 1987). Computer Business Review.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> HP stopped selling PA-RISC-based HP 9000 systems at the end of 2008 but supported servers running PA-RISC chips until 2013.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> PA-RISC was succeeded by the Itanium (originally IA-64) ISA, jointly developed by HP and Intel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

In the late 1980s, HP was building four series of computers, all based on CISC CPUs. One line was the IBM PC compatible Intel i286-based Vectra Series, started in 1986. All others were non-Intel systems. One of them was the HP Series 300 of Motorola 68000-based workstations, another Series 200 line of technical workstations based on a custom silicon on sapphire (SOS) chip design, the SOS based 16-bit HP 3000 classic series, and finally the HP 9000 Series 500 minicomputers, based on their own (16- and 32-bit) FOCUS microprocessor.

The Precision Architecture is the result of what was known inside Hewlett-Packard as the Spectrum program.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> HP planned to use Spectrum to move all of their non-PC compatible machines to a single RISC CPU family.

In early 1982, work on the Precision Architecture began at HP Laboratories, defining the instruction set and virtual memory system. Development of the first TTL implementation started in April 1983. With simulation of the processor having completed in 1983, a final processor design was delivered to software developers in July 1984. Systems prototyping followed, with "lab prototypes" being produced in 1985 and product prototypes in 1986.<ref name="fotland198703">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The first processors were introduced in products during 1986, with the first HP 9000 Series 840 units shipping in November of that year.<ref name="fotland198703"/>Template:Rp They were also used in a new series of HP 3000 machines in the late 1980s: the 930 and 950, commonly known at the time as Spectrum systems, the name given to them in the development labs. These machines ran MPE-XL, whereas HP 9000 machines employing the PA-RISC processor ran the HP-UX version of Unix. The first implementation of the Precision Architecture was the TS1, a central processing unit built from discrete transistor–transistor logic (74F TTL) devices. Later implementations were multi-chip VLSI designs fabricated in NMOS processes (NS1 and NS2) and CMOS (CS1 and PCX),<ref>Paul Weissmann. "Early PA-RISC Systems" Template:Webarchive.</ref> beginning with the HP 3000 Series 950, HP 9000 Model 850S and HP 9000 Model 825, introduced in late 1987.<ref name="hpjournal198709_vlsi">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The HP Precision Architecture has thirty-two 32-bit integer registers, sixteen 64-bit floating-point registers, and has a single branch delay slot. This means that the instruction immediately following a branch instruction is executed before the program's control flow is transferred to the target instruction of the branch.<ref name="hpjournal198608_processor">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref> An HP Precision processor also includes a Processor Status Word (PSW) register. The PSW register contains various flags that enable virtual addressing, protection, interruptions, and other status information.<ref name="hpjournal198608_processor"/>Template:Rp The number of floating-point registers was doubled in the 1.1 version to 32 once it became apparent that 16 were inadequate and restricted performance. The architects included Allen Baum, Hans Jeans, Michael J. Mahon, Ruby Bei-Loh Lee, Russel Kao, Steve Muchnick, Terrence C. Miller, David Fotland, and William S. Worley.<ref>Smotherman, Mark (2 July 2009). Recent Processor Architects Template:Webarchive.</ref>

Other operating systems ported to the PA-RISC architecture include Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, OSF/1, NeXTSTEP, and ChorusOS.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>

An interesting aspect of the PA-RISC line is that most of its generations have no level 2 cache. Instead large level 1 caches are used, initially as separate chips connected by a bus, and later integrated on-chip. Only the PA-7100LC and PA-7300LC have L2 caches. Another innovation of the PA-RISC is the addition of vector instructions (SIMD) in the form of MAX, which were first introduced on the PA-7100LC.

Precision RISC Organization, an industry group led by HP, was founded in 1992, to promote the PA-RISC architecture. Members included Convex, Hitachi, Hughes Aircraft, Mitsubishi, NEC, OKI, Prime, Stratus, Yokogawa, Red Brick Software, and Allegro Consultants, Inc.

The ISA was extended in 1996 to 64 bits, with this revision named PA-RISC 2.0. PA-RISC 2.0 also added fused multiply–add instructions, which help certain floating-point intensive algorithms, and the MAX-2 SIMD extension, which provides instructions for accelerating multimedia applications. The first PA-RISC 2.0 implementation was the PA-8000, which was introduced in January 1996.

CPU specificationsEdit

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 Notes
TS-1 ? 1986 8 ? ? ? 64 64 1.0 <ref name="cpu-early">"PA-RISC Processors"</ref>
CS-1 ? 1987 8 ? 1.6 0.164 72.93 1 0.25 1.0 <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
NS-1 ? 1987 25/30 ? 1.7 0.144 70.56 ? 16-128 16-128 1.0 <ref name="cpu-early" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Unified L1 cache
File:HP-HP9000-PA-RISC-NS2-CPU-Board-A1027-26510-RevB 03 (cropped) NS2-CPU HPC5 1FJ5-0005.jpg NS-2 ? 1989 25/30 ? 1.5 0.183 196 27 512 512 1.0 <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
PCX ? 1990 50/60 ? 1.0 0.196 ? ? ? ? ? 1.0 <ref name="cpu-early" />
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA7000-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-S PA-7000 1991 66 ? 1.0 0.58 201.6 ? 256 256 1.1a
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA7100-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-T PA-7100 1992 33–100 ? 0.8 0.85 196 ? 2048 1024 1.1b
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA7150-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-T PA-7150 1994 125 ? 0.8 0.85 196 ? 2048 1024 1.1b
File:Ic-photo-HP--PA-7200--(PA-RISC 7200 PCX-T CPU).JPG PCX-T' PA-7200 1994 120 960 0.55 1.26 210 30 1024 2048 1.1c
File:KL HP PA RISC 7100LC.jpg PCX-L PA-7100LC 1994 60–100 ? 0.75 0.9 201.6 7–11 1 2 1.1d
File:HP PA-RISC 7300LC.jpg PCX-L2 PA-7300LC 1996 132–180 ? 0.5 9.2 260.1 ? 64 64 0–8 1.1e
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8000-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-U PA-8000 1996 160–180 960 0.5 3.8 337.68 ? 1024 1024 2.0
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8200-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-U+ PA-8200 1997 200–240 960 0.5 3.8 337.68 ? 2048 2048 2.0
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8500-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-W PA-8500 1998 300–440 1920 0.25 140 467 ? 1024 512 2.0 <ref name="l1000">"HP L1000 & L2000 (rp5400/rp5450) Servers" Template:Webarchive, openpa.net</ref>
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8600-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg PCX-W+ PA-8600 2000 360–550 1920 0.25 140 467 ? 1024 512 2.0 <ref name="l1000" />
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8700-CPU 002 (cropped).jpg PCX-W2 PA-8700(+) 2001 625–875 1920 0.18 186 304 <[email protected] V 1536 768 2.0
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8800-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg Mako PA-8800 2003 800–1000 6400 0.13 300 361 ? 768/core 768/core 0 or 32 2.0
File:HP-HP9000-PARISC-PA8900-CPU 001 (cropped).jpg Shortfin PA-8900 2005 800–1100 6400 0.13 ? ? ? 768/core 768/core 0 or 64 2.0

See alsoEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:RISC-based processor architectures Template:CPU technologies