Chapter 4 PA-RISC Computer Systems - OpenPA.net

PA-RISC Linux
3.3 PA-RISC Linux
3.3.1 Overview
The PA-RISC Linux 22 port runs on a broad range of both 32-bit and 64-bit workstations and servers.
Most of the “unlettered” (the HP 9000/700s) and B/C/J-Class workstations are supported, both 32bit
(based on PA-7x00 processors) and 64-bit (PA-8x00) systems in the same distribution. SMP is
supported, though not as smooth as on other Linux platforms or HP-UX and not necessarily with the
theoretical maximum of CPUs. PA-RISC Linux runs on most server systems, although several which
use proprietary I/O and CPU/memory combinations are unsupported.
Originally started by “The Puffin Group” in 1998, the port of Linux 23 to HP PA-RISC gained momentum
after HP started helping with equipment and more importantly, documentation, in 1999 and
quickly superseded the earlier Mach-based MkLinux. Because of HP’s assistance, the machines targeted
at that time were newer than what other ports (e.g., OpenBSD or MkLinux) supported, like the
A180, B180 and 64-bit PA 2.0 systems. Nevertheless, PA-RISC Linux also supports older HP 9000/700
systems like 712, 715 and 735.
3.3.2 Supported systems
� 705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 730, 750, 725, 735, 755
� 742i, 743i, 744, 745i, 745, 747i 748i, 748
� A180, A180C, A400 (rp2400/rp2430), A500 (rp2450/rp2470)
� B132L, B160L, B132L+, B180L+, B1000, B2000, B2600
� C100, C110,C132L, C160L, C160, C180, C200, C240, C360, C3000, C3600, C3650, C3700,
C3750
� D210, D220, D230, D250, D270, D280, D310, D320, D330, D350, D370, D380, D390
� E-Class (very limited support)
� J200, J210[XC], J280, J282, J2240, J5000, J6000, J6700, J7000
� K100, K200, K210, K220, K250, K260, K370, K380, K400, K410, K420, K450, K460, K570,
K580
� L1000 (rp5400), L2000 (rp5450), L3000 (rp5470)
� N4000 (rp7400)
� R380, R390
� RDI PrecisionBook
� SAIC Galaxy 1100
Performance is not quite on par with original HP-UX — 50% is a fair rough estimate of the relative
peak performance, although the overhead of a complete running HP-UX probably consumes much of
this advantage, especially on older systems.
22 http://www.parisc-linux.org
23 http://www.kernel.org
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