Paul Pierce <prp_at_hf.intel.com> wrote:
> The A-series computers are stack machines. Its a very interesting
> architecture. At the time of the B5000 series it was considered ahead of
> its time, but now that architecture is essentially dead. The most recent
> new stack machine I know of is the original HP 3000 minicomputer from
> the late 70's early 80's.
The "classic" HP 3000 is identified by its series. Numbers <= 70, no
designation at all, and the letters "CX" alone mean it's the classic
stack machine. Numbers >= 900 mean it's a PA-RISC 3000.
The first HP 3000s were shipped in November 1972, and were pretty much
a disaster -- HP ended up recalling them. But they kept plugging at
it and turned it into what I think is one of the finest
transaction-processing systems available. I'm not sure when the last
classics were introduced, but I think HP continued to sell some of the
low-end ones (Micro 3000 GX/LX/RX) into the early 1990s, certainly
into the late 1980s. The last of them go out of support life over the
next year or so, though.
HP 9000 series 500 (520, 540, 550, was there a 530?) are 32-bit stack
machines inside, with the potential for multiple CPUs and IOPs on the
larger systems. I think HP now has something called a T500 that is
PA-RISC based; the old series 500s are pretty much forgotten (but not
all gone, I have a 520 in storage that I need to reanimate). HP sold
these from the early-to-mid 1980s before they were superseded by fast
Motorola 680[23]0s and PA-RISC systems (series 300/400 and 800/700).
-Frank McConnell "I want my MPE" (w/apologies to Dire Straits)
<fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Received on Fri Sep 05 1997 - 14:12:59 BST