He was careful to tell attendees "these are only possibilities," but HP 3000 platform planning manager Dave Snow reported in a Platform Direction talk that much of what's being deployed on other HP systems is still a candidate for future HP 3000 releases.
Snow gave the details of what's still in HP's basket of possibilities for 3000 technology in a remarkable slide show during his talk at the Chicago HP World show. Cautioning customers that HP hadn't yet committed to using all of the technologies he was discussing, Snow showed the following candidate list "of technologies that we are looking at" below:
-- Next generation PA-RISC chips (PA-8500 chips available in small quantities late in 1998, and processors such as the PA-8700 beyond it);
-- IA-64 processor chips (Merced and beyond);
-- Next-generation platforms, such as the V-Class systems;
-- Higher ways of SMP (16- to 32-way, which will require significant redesign of MPE/iX to improve scalability);
-- Memory sizes ranging from 4 to 32Gb or greater (64-bit memory addressing, which HP is now designing for HP 3000s according to GM Harry Sterling's talk);
-- Very high performance crossbar (parallel) backplanes (current HP backplanes transfer at a 1-Gb rate, Snow said, "and that doesn't cut it when you go to 16Gb of storage -- you need to have backplanes in the 4-Gb to 8-Gb range");
-- HP-HSC and/or PCI I/O bus structures (HP is already including HSC support in its Series 997 systems being released this fall, but no HSC devices are yet announced for the HP 3000);
-- FibreChannel and/or Ultra-SCSI for device connections (Snow said HP was making a commitment to moving to FibreChannel for the 3000s in the first half of 1999).
-- 1-Gbit LANs, ATM and FibreChannel networking links; and
-- I2O I/O software architecture, "which provides common software drivers across the industry that we're actively looking at."
Snow also included MPE/iX performance tuning and scalability improvements on the candidate list, but HP has already committed to ongoing tuning of the operating system to harness all the PA-RISC 2.0 horsepower.
HP has plans beyond the V-Class platforms which could include the HP 3000, Snow said. "We have a series of other, midrange and high-performance new boxes that are being developed within the labs at HP. We would like to take ahold of these and use them as solutions for basic customer problems."
The specific technologies implemented are "less important than meeting those customer needs," Snow explained. "The key question is what are the business needs which drive technology needs which lead to these as solutions."
HP identified issues it sees its 3000 customers "wrestling with" as it ponders which of the technologies it will deploy. HP is planning a 30 percent performance increase per year for the 3000 into the next decade. Data storage capacities in "tens of terabytes is what people are looking for," Snow said, and HP wants to push the number of supported users on the system, "to drive that up into the five, six or maybe 10,000 users."
HP also recognizes it needs higher server-to-server communication between HP 3000s and other systems. Its solution is the "gigabit LANs that will be out there shortly. In a heterogeneous environment where your workstations and PCs are accessing data on the 3000, higher-speed communication is important."
Platform high-availability components are a recognized requirement for HP 3000s, including hot replacement of memory, peripherals and I/O cards inside the platform itself. HP also plans to lower prices absolutely at both low and high ends of the product line. "Our dear friends from the NT server world continue to push us to drive our price down," Snow said.