HP 9000 - History

History

The first HP 9000 models comprised the HP 9000 Series 200 and Series 500 ranges. These were rebadged existing models, the Series 200 including various Motorola 68000-based workstations such as the HP 9826 and HP 9836, and the Series 500 using HP's FOCUS microprocessor architecture introduced in the HP 9020 workstation. These were followed by the HP 9000 Series 300 and Series 400 workstations which also used 68k-series microprocessors. From the mid-1980s onwards, HP started to switch over to its own microprocessors based on its proprietary PA-RISC ISA, for the Series 600, 700, 800, and later lines. More recent models use either the PA-RISC or its successor, the HP/Intel IA-64 ISA.

All of the HP 9000 line run various versions of the HP-UX operating system, except earlier Series 200 models, which ran standalone applications. HP released the Series 400, also known as the Apollo 400, after acquiring Apollo Computer in 1989. These models had the ability to run either HP-UX or Apollo's Domain/OS.

From the early 1990s onwards, HP replaced the HP 9000 "Series" numbers with an alphabetical "Class" nomenclature. In 2001, HP again changed the naming scheme for their HP 9000 servers. The A-class systems were renamed as the rp2400s, the L-class became the rp5400s, and the N-class the rp7400s. The 'rp' prefix signified a PA-RISC architecture, while 'rx' was used for IA-64-based systems, later rebranded HP Integrity.

On 30 April 2008, HP announced end of sales for the HP 9000. The last order date for HP 9000 systems was 31 December 2008 and the last ship date was 1 April 2009. The last order date for new HP 9000 options was December 31, 2009, with a last ship date of 1 April 2010. HP intends to support these systems through to 2013, with possible extensions.

The end of life for HP 9000 also marks the end of an era, as it essentially marks HP's withdrawal from the Unix workstation market (the HP 9000 workstations are end of life, and there are no HP Integrity workstations, so there is no longer a solution which targets HP/UX at the desktop). When the move from PA-RISC (9000) to Itanium (Integrity) was announced, Integrity workstations running either HP/UX or Windows were initially announced and offered, but were moved to end of sales life relatively quickly, with no replacement (arguably because x86-64 made IA-64 uncompetitive on the desktop, and HP/UX does not support x86-64, with HP offering desktop Linux as an alternative, not fully compatible, solution).