Glossary

GLOSSARY

There are a lot of different codewords and jargon involved with HP hardware. This page attempts to help.

Artist

GSC Graphics Accelerator

ASP

Host bus adapter used in older workstations. The predecessor to [#lasi Lasi].

Astro

Integrated Runway to Ropes bridge, Memory controller, and IOA.

Bravehawk

The PA-8200 based K class servers.

CIO

Channel I/O. The predecessor to [#hppb HP-PB].

Crayon

Also a graphics thingy (thanks to Martin Petersen for this answer)

Cujo

[#dino Dino] with a 64-bit data path. Doesn't support dual address cycle.

Dino

GSC to PCI Bridge. Integrated PS/2, Serial port, and fire extinguisher.

ELF

Executable & Linking Format. Linux/PA-RISC executables & libraries all use this format. HP-UX uses it for 64-bit executables.

Elroy

Ropes to PCI Bridge. Used in current B/C/J/L/N-class machines. Supports 4X PCI and dual address cycle.

EPIC

Excalibur PCI-bus Interface Chip. Integrated IOA. Used in V-class.

Gecko

The codename for the 712 series of workstations.

GSC

HP proprietary bus. Initially used for I/O, but PA-7100LC & PA-7300LC processors connect directly to the GSC bus. GSC comes in several variants:

GSC-1X

The original GSC bus implemented on PCX-L and used in the Gecko, Mirage and Electra computers. Peak Bandwidth 142MB/s w/DMA, 106 MB/s with PIO writes.

GSC

Enhancements added for KittyHawk/SkyHawk (U2 chip) that allow for pending transactions. GSC enhancements are orthogonal to the GSC-1.5X and GSC-2X enhancements. Aka "Extended GSC" or "EGSC".

GSC-1.5X

GSC-1X with an additional variable length write transaction.

GSC-2X

GSC-1.5X with a protocol enhancement to allow data to be sent at double the GCLK rate (Peak bandwidth = 256 MB/s)

Harmony

Lasi sound device

HIL

Human Interface Loop. A HP proprietary interface for connecting I/O devices like keyboards, mice or tablets.

HPMC

High Priority Machine Check. Fatal system error. PDC saves machine state in the [#pim PIM].

HP-PB

Hewlett Packard-Precision Bus. HP proprietary I/O bus. Aka NIO.

IOA

IO Adapter. Aka "I/O MMU". Generally handles I/O coherency.

ITE

Internal Terminal Emulator. Describes the text display at machine startup.

Kittyhawk

The PA-7200 based K class servers.

Lasi

An integrated IO controller (serial, parallel, SCSI, PS/2 keyboard and mouse) found in many workstations.

LPMC

Low Priority Machine Check. Generally a recoverable system error.

Mirage

The codename for the later series of 715 workstations.

Mohawk

The PA-8000 based K class servers.

Mongoose

The EISA bus adapter found in 715/720/725/730/735/750/755 machines.

Nova

The codename for the F, G, H and I class servers.

NIO

See [#hppb HP-PB]

PDC

Processor dependent code. Machine specific assembler code from flash memory or ROM.

PIM

Processor Internal Memory. Machine state is saved here for [#hpmc HPMC], [#lpmc LPMC], and [#toc TOC]'s. See PDC_PIM in "PDC Procedures" chapter of PA I/O ACD.

Runway

PA-7200, -8000, -8200, -8500 processors connect directly to the Runway bus.

SAGA

[#epic EPIC] with a 64-bit data path. Doesn't support dual address cycle.

Scorpio

The codename for the earlier series of 715 workstations.

SGC

Systems Graphics Connect.

Snakes

The original HP workstations; the 705, 710, 720, 730 and 750.

SOM

Spectrum Object Format. This is the executable & library format used by HP-UX for 32-bit executables. Spectrum was the codename for PA-RISC.

STI

Standard Text Interface.

SuckyIO

National Semiconductor PC87560UBD, aka "SuperIO". Provides IDE, USB 1.1, Floppy Disk Controller, parallel port, 2 serial ports, UIR (infrared), etc. But since National denies the existence of this chip and HP was the only client for this buggy PoS, the name "SuckyIO" has stuck.

Summit

A proprietary bus used in the T-class.

Summit96 / Summit98

Codename for chipset of the Visualize-FX graphic card series.

SuperIO

See [#suckyio SuckyIO].

TOC

Transfer of Control. On workstations which have it, basically a "RESET" button. Servers may have more advanced features.

U2

Runway to GSC Bus bridge & IOA. Found in some C/D/J/K/R-class systems.

UltraLight

The codename for the D class servers.

Uturn

[#u2 U2] follow on. Differences not visible to OS software.

Venom

Graphics Accelerator found in older workstations

Viper

Memory controller

Wax

GSC to EISA Bridge found in older systems (including B/C/D/R-class). Has often one integrated [#hil HIL port] and one serial port.

Wright Brothers

The codename for the E class servers.