HP rolls out its last upgrade of 3000 line

8700-based systems boost performance at no extra cost

It may have taken the ultimate demise of HP’s 3000 business to prompt the offer, but the company is now rolling out a performance deal hard to deny: more speed for no extra cost.

By placing the PA-8700 processors in its existing A-Class and N-Class servers, HP increased performance on the line from 35 to 100 percent, all at prices no higher than existing N-Class and A-Class models, and some at significant discounts.

HP will be halting sales of those existing PCI-based A-Class and N-Class servers on Nov. 1 — although customers’ comparison of price for performance will probably stop purchases of the old models much sooner than that. Both the entry-level A-Class models and the enterprise-grade N-Class servers have been refreshed with the PA-8700 chips, with HP introducing three new A-Class models and eight new N-Class servers.

All systems include unlimited MPE/iX licenses. US priced, without disk or tape.

PA-8500/8600					PA-8700
	Speed MHz	CPUs	Rel. Perf.	List Price		Speed MHz	CPUs	Rel. Perf.	List Price
A-Class (Old)					A-Class (New)
A400-100-110	110	1	2.2	$15,900	A400-100-150	150	1	4.8	$15,900
A500-100-140	140	1	3.2	$36,900	A500-100-200	200	1	6.4	$36,900
A500-200-140	140	2	5.4	$42,800	A500-200-200	200	2	11	$41,800
N-Class (Old)					N-Class (New)
N4000-100-220	220	1	9.0	$69,900	N4000-100-380	380	1	15	$69,900
N4000-100-330	330	1	13.0	$119,900	N4000-200-380	380	2	27	$82,800
N4000-100-440	440	1	18.0	$210,900	N4000-100-500	500	1	20	$210,900
N4000-200-440	440	2	33.0	$241,180	N4000-200-500	500	2	37	$230,800
N4000-300-440	440	3	46.0	$399,900	N4000-300-500	500	3	52	$252,535
N4000-400-440	440	4	57.0	$430,180	N4000-400-500	500	4	65	$272,435
N4000-300-550	550	3	58.0	$499,900	N4000-300-750	750	3	79	$499,900
N4000-400-550	550	4	72.0	$538,180	N4000-400-750	750	4	100	$524,800

HP also announced that it’s started the road to supporting Ultra160 SCSI connectivity in the HP 3000, installing these cards in the new N-Class and A-Class systems but leaving out actual MPE/iX support of the faster transfer rate for a future. The move seemed to suggest that HP has released its last lineup of HP 3000s, but the company isn’t completely done extending the value of the product line.

“We are staying the course on our plans, and there’s no change in them,” said HP 3000 business manager Dave Wilde. “We will be continuing to track and make specific investments in storage roadmap and customer-focused enhancements.”.

While he was adamant that HP won’t be offering any other HP 3000 systems, further changes in peripheral support, including the use of HP’s Ultrium tape technology, still are under consideration. SDLT is another technology that HP is still studying for support on HP 3000s, offering a higher reliability alternative to the DLT 8000 tape drives sold for the 3000 today.

Wilde also said HP won’t be creating another mainline release of MPE/iX — but the operating system is where future peripheral support will surface if HP finds its customers want to buy things like Ultrium and SDLT tape units.

“We don’t any plans for another major operating system roll,” Wilde said. “But we’ll give customers the chance to purchase peripherals right up to the end of 2003, and in some cases beyond.” HP will pull its resellers out of the new system sales business on Oct. 31 of next year, but HP-brand peripherals would be sold through the normal HP sales channel of resellers and direct sales beyond that date.

N-Class rises up

HP went to higher clock speeds for its processors at the same time that it upgraded the HP 3000 chips in its new N-Class systems. Two models are offered at 380-MHz, four at 500-MHz and two at 750-MHz. The older N-Class systems using PA-8500 and PA-8600 processors were clocked at 220-, 330-, 440- and a 550-MHz chip at the old top end.

Using these faster processors — in some cases, clocked down from their peak performance through slowdown code in MPE/iX — drives the 3000’s relative performance units way up in some models. The HP 3000 N-Class line used to start at 9 performance units, where 1 is the power of a Series 918. Now the line starts off with a rating of 15 in the single-CPU N4000-100-380, and runs all the way up to the 100 performance units of the four-CPU N4000-400-750. The old top of the N-Class line was 72 performance units.

The new systems have enough changes in their support of the new chips to demand the latest MPE/iX 7.5 release. “It wasn’t easy to support on a PowerPatch,” said Kriss Rant, HP’s e3000 Server and Storage product manager. This is the second straight HP 3000 model release that has required customers to upgrade their operating systems at the same time they install new hardware.

HP also increased the minimum amount of memory in some models of the N-Class, doubling the RAM included in a minimum configuration of selected models. The 380-MHz systems now include 1Gb of RAM, while the 750-MHz systems come shipped with 6GB of RAM.

Price points remain the same for more performance. List price on the smallest of the new N-Class processors is $69,900, the same as the old N4000 running a single 220-MHz unit. The new computer is 60 percent faster than the old model for no extra increase in cost.

Since the N-Class servers were only introduced about a year ago with full multiple processor features, HP had to extend generous return credits to avoid penalizing customers who’d bought into the N-Class line over the last year. One sweet spot appears to be for customers who got a 220-MHz version of the N4000. they can upgrade to a 380-MHz single-processor model for $13,625 after return credits and get 60 percent more performance.

Even the least attractive upgrade, moving from the prior top of the N-Class line 4-way 550-MHz systems to the four-way 750-MHz N4000-400-750, only costs about $35,000, or about 7 percent of the original purchase price. The upgrade promises 35 percent performance improvement.

Chassis and backplane designs haven’t changed on the new systems, so customers won’t have to trade in existing N-Class servers to get to the higher-performing models. There’s been some change in IO capability, however. The 8700-based servers can now directly support the browser-based Secure Web Console, so customers won’t have to use up an IO slot. The console hardware is now supported natively on the IO card.

Higher performance on low end

HP more than doubled the performance rating on the bottom of its A-Class line, putting PA-8700 processors in the entry-level systems for the first time. While an older PA-8500-based A-Class box ran 2.2 times faster than a Series 918, the new A400-100-150 model is clocked at 4.8 performance units. The new low end sells for the same price as the model that ran less than half as fast, listed at $15,900.

The A-Class line now runs up to a performance rating of 11 at its top end with the two-processor, 200-MHz A500 model. HP hasn’t changed the base memory (128Mb) or the number of IO slots for the A-Class. The A400 has two IO slots, the A500 has four. Prices on the A-Class line remain at their prior levels, with a top-end of $42,800 for the twin-CPU A500 model.

Trade-up credits are also high for those customers who bought the A-Class systems over the last year. Moving from the A500’s previous 140-MHz single processor to the 200-MHz processor speed costs $5,125 off list price once a customer gets return credits. The upgrade doubles performance at a cost of less than 15 percent of the original A500 purchase price.

Wilde ruled out the possibility of the A-Class line getting another performance boost over the next year through changes to its software. The systems have their processor clock speed reduced significantly by MPE/iX, cutting the speed of a PA-8700 chip that runs at 650-MHz down to 150-MHz or 200-MHz. But customers using the A-Class have few complaints about the performance of their computers. HP has said it has slowed the A-Class processors to create needed price points for the HP 3000 line.

Beginning of HP’s endgame

Wilde said that customers have been surprised the vendor would offer more new models of a product line it will stop selling in a year or so, but pleasantly surprised.

“It’s not universal, but there are people who are pleasantly surprised about how long we’re selling and supporting the system, and additional things we’re doing to enable customers to have some flexibility as they transition,” Wilde said.

Customers shouldn’t be holding out for a better lineup of HP 3000s from the vendor, he added. “My advice would be for customers to make decisions based on the information currently available,” Wilde said. “We’re continuing to evaluate customer needs, and in the remaining time where we’ll be shipping systems we’ll be continuing to evaluate things on the storage roadmap, and customer-focused enhancements on the System Improvement Ballot.”

The rest of the products for the HP 3000 that HP plans to sell to 3000 customers in November of 2003 and beyond will be offered through what Wilde called “the aftermarket. And what that aftermarket looks like is an ongoing topic of discussion.”