HP 3000

The original HP 3000 hardware was withdrawn from the market in 1973 to address performance problems and OS stability.

The HP 3000 originally used a 16-bit CISC stack machine processor architecture, first implemented with Transistor-transistor logic, and later with Silicon on Sapphire chips beginning with the Series 33 in 1979.

The HP 3000 CPU was reimplemented as an emulator running on PA-RISC and a recompiled version of the MPE operating system.

The DSI design became the basis for the HP 2116A, introduced in 1966, initially marketed as a "test and instrumentation computer".

[8] This led to a series of updated versions with better input/output to handle business workflows while removing some of the expansion capability needed only in the lab setting.

The systems ran HP Time-Shared BASIC and could support between 16 and 32 users simultaneously depending on the model.

The machines were an immediate success, quickly becoming one of the best-selling systems in the timesharing market, and propelling HP to become the 3rd largest minicomputer vendor.

Two basic systems were outlined, the "Alpha" was essentially an HP 2100 built using newer components and improved memory handling, while "Omega" was a much larger 32-bit design that would support large numbers of users.

In contrast to the 16-bit Alpha, Omega would be a 32-bit computer with up to 4 MB of main memory shared among up to four central processing units (CPUs).

This resulted in several employees wearing black-velvet armbands to mourn the death of the project, and some dismay over being reassigned to "just another 16-bit machine.

Originally conceived as an updated HP 2100, it had become essentially a small Omega, adopting its virtual memory and stack machine design that supported high level languages, but limited to a 16-bit design with a maximum of 64 kWord main memory (128 kB), only a single accumulator, and lacking Omega's powerful input/output systems.

[11] When the plan to continue the development of Alpha was presented, George Newman, who replaced Perkins as the General Manager of the computer division, was concerned that the team was once again designing a machine that could not be delivered.

It was the HP 2000's ability to perform timesharing that made it a success in a market filled with otherwise similar machines.

The ability to support multiple users running different programs was previously limited to mainframe computers, and a further expansion of this capability was a key design concept for the original Omega.

[12] When Alpha emerged as an Omega-like design, it initially followed the same model of multi-user support, which was in turn based on the HP 2000 concept.

In most respects this was a batch processing system, with much of the complexity of multi-user support being isolated in the separate front-end processor.

[12] As development re-started on Alpha, this concept was re-examined and the decision was made to expand the operating system to support multiprogramming directly.

This resulted in the system becoming three-in-one, with the main portion being dedicated to timesharing but also offering real-time support and batch mode.

[19] One customer threatened to sue the company, but were put off by the personal intervention of Hewlett who stated he would do everything in his power to fix the problems.

As part of the CX release, HP shipped IMAGE, a $10,000 database system written to the CODASYL standards.

By 1984 HP introduced the HP3000 Series 37, the first model that ran in offices without special cooling or flooring requirements.

The HP 3000 was one of the last proprietary minicomputer systems whose manufacture was curtailed by its vendor, outlasting the PDP-11-descended Digital Equipment Corporation VAX, which was acquired by Compaq and then ultimately by Hewlett-Packard.

After almost 30 years, a five-year phase-out period for the now-named HP e3000 series servers was originally announced in November 2001.

[25] For those unable or unwilling to migrate, a homesteading strategy emerged immediately after HP's announcement of the end of system sales.

[26] In 2012, the Stromasys company released a product doing full HP3000 hardware emulation on x86-64 servers running Red Hat Linux or CentOS.

Starting in 2003, HP began a plan to sell a license for the 3000's operating system,[28] which can let 3000 customers run their software on this Stromasys product, known as the HPA/3000.

Later the systems gained a wide range of languages including COBOL and FORTRAN, Pascal, C, and even a version of RPG to assist in winning business away from IBM.

So rather than you would have The 16-bit microcoded machines (Series I, II, III, 30, 33, 39, 40, 42, 44, 48, 52, 58, 64, 68, 70, 37, ...) implement a 16-bit word addressed, byte-addressable, segmented, Harvard, Stack Instruction Set Architecture (ISA).

In early 2006, Hewlett-Packard announced that limited vendor support for the HP 3000 would be extended by two years for certain clients or geographic regions.

[36] Open source software resources, including commodity tools, for the 3000's MPE/iX operating system are maintained in a website by Applied Technologies.