HP 3000 No More

From: Stan Sieler <sieler_at_allegro.com>
Date: Sat Nov 17 16:35:49 2001

Re:

> > The 16-bit HP 3000 was never multi-CPU. The HP 3000 Series III, introduced
...
> Somebody had ideas about it being a dual-CPU shared-memory system
> early on. Looking at the HP3000 Computer System Reference Manual from
> September 1973, I see that locations %10-%13 were reserved for the
> second processor's current PCB pointer, QI, ZI, and interrupt count.
>
> The Series II added two instructions: LOCK and UNLK, which were used

Thanks...I'd forgotten those were Series II and not Series III.
 
> What I don't know is whether MPE ever had dual-CPU support. If it
> didn't, I wonder how they worked out that having an in-memory
> semaphore would be a good idea.

My recollection, and it is a hazy one, is that in the mid 1980s I heard a rumor
inside HP that someone had actually tried a dual CPU Series II in the lab in
the last 1970s, but the project was dropped for some reason. I'll ask some
of the older 3000 people about it.

Stan Sieler sieler_at_allegro.com
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html www.allegro.com/sieler
Received on Sat Nov 17 2001 - 16:35:49 GMT