Introduction to the HP 3000

The HP 3000 is a general-purpose multiprogramming machine, designed for the interactive, transaction processing environment of business and industry. The HP 3000 family of computers includes several models of the machine, each with a different series number.

900 Series HP 3000

The newest high performance members of the 900 Series HP 3000 family are based on HP Precision Architecture (HP-PA), a highly flexible computer design that can meet current user requirements and requirements arising during future growth.

HP Precision Architecture (HP-PA)

HP Precision Architecture (HP-PA) is based on Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) concepts with added extensions for a complete system. This increases computer performance by reducing and simplifying the computer instruction set. HP-PA eliminates system overhead associated with conventional computer microcode by directly implementing computer instructions in hardware. The uniformity of HP-PA instructions enhances pipelining, providing higher performance by overlapping execution of multiple instructions. Many technologies can implement HP-PA; highly integrated VLSI designs can be achieved by eliminating the chip space required for microcode.

High performance from HP-PA architecture results from the memory hierarchy design and the use of optimizing compilers. Processor waiting time for memory accesses is minimized due to the following architectural characteristics:

Frequently used instructions and data are stored in a large number of CPU registers.
High-speed buffering of code and data occurs.
Optimizing compilers generate efficient object code, allocate registers, and schedule instruction sequences to maintain efficient pipeline operation.

Introduction to the HP 3000

Technical documentation

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900 Series HP 3000

HP Precision Architecture (HP-PA)