HP 9000 Model 340
Posted by thejpster@reddit | retrobattlestations | View on Reddit | 17 comments
I have an HP 9000 Series 300 workstation - a model 340. It has HP-IB but no SCSI and no internal disk drives. It also has the High Res Colour Graphics option, which means 1280x1024 at 70 Hz in 8 bit colour. Absolutely wild for 1989, when your PC was probably still EGA. It has a Motorola 68020, a 68882 FPU and 48 MiB of DRAM.
Yesterday I managed to get it network booted from an HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 machine (a Model 705) running HP-UX 9. They share the same root file-system - files appear as PA-RISC or 68K depending on ‘context’ when the file is accessed. Same for config files.
Here it is running X11R5 and the HP VUE desktop, booted over the network.
Anyone else got any 68K UNIX?
Active-Signature-816@reddit
Yes
thejpster@reddit (OP)
Turns out I have the specs wrong. It’s a 68030, but only has 16 MiB of DRAM. Still wild for 1989.
My GPIB card arrived and I was able to boot it using HPDrive to emulate a 670 MB external drive. Seems much slower than network booting though, so I’ll probably stick to that.
veeb0rg@reddit
I've got a 9000 735 myself. Need to recap the PSU though.
ken_the_boxer@reddit
I have a 9000-332 and two -375s with several pheriperals. Take a look at the HPDrive project! https://www.hp9845.net/9845/projects/hpdrive/
istarian@reddit
You can probably use one of the SCSI emulation solutions out there, even if they're intended for Macintosh or Amiga computers...
Admittedly it's gotten a little confusing with everybody and their cousin touting their own particular device/software.
SCSI2SD (sd2scsi?) http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php/SCSI2SD
https://www.scsi2sd.com/index.php?title=SCSI2SD
BlueSCSI https://bluescsi.com/ https://github.com/erichelgeson/BlueSCSI
RaSCSI https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/product/rascsi
https://github.com/PiSCSI/piscsi
https://github.com/rdmark/RASCSI-X68k
https://www.chickensys.com/products2/hardware/rascsi.html
ken_the_boxer@reddit
Yes, I have a scsi2cd running as harddisk.
Be aware that HP-UX 9 cannot be installed on disks larger than 2 GB, and that it must be a disk configuration that is present in /etc/disktab.
So you will have to program the scsi emulator to emulate one of these disks, or define one and add it to /etc/disktab.
thejpster@reddit (OP)
And my machine doesn’t have a SCSI card in it or seemingly any way to add one.
Plus I like spinning rust in all my machines. The BlueSCSI is reserved for installation media and backups.
ken_the_boxer@reddit
Yes, you mentioned. I was just answering to the previous ccommenter. I think your best (and convenient) way is HP-IB with HPDrive, unless you find something like a 7945.
thejpster@reddit (OP)
A GPIB card is in the post. I didn’t expect Cluster Mode to be that easy to set up.
hawkenhiemer@reddit
NetBSD/hp300
thejpster@reddit (OP)
You run it? What on?
hawkenhiemer@reddit
This is the respective NetBSD port for your HP workstation. I have previously run NetBSD/i386 on my AMD K6-II based PC, with X11 and Window Maker as a window manager
thejpster@reddit (OP)
I know it exists - they have excellent documentation that taught me a lot about the machine. But I want to run a period-correct OS.
glwillia@reddit
i have a 68k UNIX, a Macintosh Quadra 610 with A/UX 3.1.
gatofisch@reddit
I have a 385 (converted from a 375 with new processor, ROM and oscillator) running HPUX on a zuluscsi. I have graphics but need to build/buy a HP HIL converter
ismellthebacon@reddit
That takes me back I was able to use HP/UX back in the 90s for work. Beautiful machine in its day
compu85@reddit
I have 68k Xenix on the Lisa