HP X-Terminals

Hewlett Packard built a line of X-Terminals in the early- to mid-1990s,including the 700/X and 700/RX, Envizex and Entria, and the Envizex II and Entria II,which were often sold alongside PA-RISC-based HP 9000 Unix systems.The primary use case was connecting several graphical consoles to a singleserver or workstation to allow multiple users access the same (expensive)processing system from (more inexpensive) terminal systemsThese X-Terminals all allowed high-resolution, color-graphics access to the mainserver from which they downloaded their operating system andnecessary program files.All models featured limited expandability, in most cases additionalI/O options for peripherals and memory for more programs or local storage.HP did not use its own PA-RISC platform for these systems, the first designused an Intel CISC processor, while all later systems used RISC platforms, first Intel i960 and later the popular MIPS.

These 1990s X-Terminals, together with offerings from many other vendors from thattime, were early implementations or precursors to the now again popular conceptof Thin computing — small dumb front-end systems for I/O anda larger processing system as backend, shared by many concurrent users.

700/X

These were the first X-Terminals HP produced, featuring a similar case to that of some HP 9000/300(Motorola 68000-based) workstations.They were driven by a pretty obscure CPU combination, an Intel 186 (sic!) with a TI DSPas video coprocessor.

*CPU: 16MHz Intel 80186 with a 60MHz |Texas Instruments DSP as video processor
*RAM: 1MB onboard, 9MB maximum; one slot takes up to 8MB modules of unknown type
*Video RAM: Unknown
*Maximum video resolution/color-depth: 1024×768/8-bit
*I/O connectors: RS232 serial, HIL and two PS/2 for keyboard/mouse devices, AUI and BNC 10Mbit Ethernet connectors and VGA video connector
*Expansion: Unknown

700/RX

These are the direct sucessors to the 700/X line of X-Terminals and changed the architecturesignificantly.They were the first in a line of terminals to be driven by an Intel i960 RISC CPU and introduceda case which also was used on later systems. They have a (albeit very quiet) fan.

Several submodels were available, featuring different video-options:

*16Ca: 1MB Video RAM, max. 1028×768 resolution, 8-bit color-depth
*19Ca: 2MB Video RAM, max. 1280×1024 resolution, 8-bit color-depth
*14Ci/16Ci/17Ci: 1MB Video RAM, max. 1028×768 resolution, 8-bit color-depth
*19Mi: 0.2MB Video RAM, max. 1280×1024 resolution, monographics

All models have these base features in common:

*CPU: 22MHz Intel i960CA with 1KB instruction cache
*RAM: 2MB onboard, 34MB maximum; two slots take each up to 16MB 72-pin non-parity SIMMs
*I/O connectors: RS232 serial, HIL and two PS/2 for keyboard/mouse devices, parallel for printer, AUI and BNC 10Mbit Ethernet and VGA video connector
*Expansion: slot for a Boot-ROM cartridge

Entria

The Entrias were the low-cost line of X-Terminals, featuring the same architecture as the 700/RXterminals, but in a plastic case the same style as the HP 9000/712 workstation.They are very small and quiet.

The Entrias were available in different video configurations, depending on the exact model:

*0.6MB Video RAM: max. resolution of 1024×768 with grayscale graphics
*1MB Video RAM: max. resolution of 1024×768 with 8-bit color depth
*2MB Video RAM: max. resolution of 1280×1024 with 8-bit color depth

Common:

*CPU: Intel i960CA with 1KB instruction cache
*RAM: 4MB onboard, 68MB maximum; two slots take each up to 32MB 72-pin non-parity SIMMs
*I/O connectors: RS232 serial, two PS/2 for keyboard/mouse devices, parallel for printer, TP and BNC 10Mbit Ethernet and VGA video connector
*Expansion: none

Envizex

The Envizex were the sucessors to the 700/RX terminals, featuring the same flat pizzabox case and aslightly modified architecture with a faster version of the Intel i960 RISC CPU.They have a (very quiet) fan inside.

Three different series were available which featured different speeds of the CPU:

*i SERIES: 25MHz Intel i960CF with 4KB instruction and 1KB data cache
*a SERIES: 28MHz Intel i960CF with 4KB instruction and 1KB data cache
*p SERIES: 33MHz Intel i960CF with 4KB instruction and 1KB data cache

Common aspects:

*RAM: a and i SERIES: 4MB onboard, 132MB maximum; four slots take each up to 32MB 72-pin non-parity SIMMs. p SERIES: 6MB onboard, 102MB maximum; three slots take each up to 32MB 72-pin non-parity SIMMs
*Video RAM: 2MB
*Maximum video resolution/color-depth: 1280×1024 (i SERIES might do only 1024×768) 8-bit
*I/O connectors: two RS232 serial, HIL and two PS/2 for keyboard/mouse devices, parallel for printer, TP, AUI and BNC 10Mbit Ethernet and VGA video connector
*Expansion: They offer a range of expansion options:
**3.5 PC floppy drive
**CD-quality audio support
**Either one of the following three cards:
***SCSI/ROM adapter card
***Token Ring adapter
***100VG AnyLan adapter (HP-proprietary 100MBit networking)
**They also have two PCMCIA sockets for:
***Boot-ROM card
***SRAM cards which contain fonts or a local copy of the X server (no network download necessary)

Entria II

These were the successors of the low-cost Entria X-Terminals, keeping their HP 9000/712-style small footprint plastic case.The system architecture was changed completely and is shared with the later Envizex II terminals. It is based around a NEC R4300 MIPS CPU and PCI-based I/O devices.

*CPU: 100MHz NEC R4300
*RAM: 64MB maximum; two slots take each up to 32MB 168-pin DIMMs (PC66/100/133 DIMMs in different sizes can be used, but only 8MB of each module will be available; the larger modules (16 and 32MB) were HP-proprietary)
*Video RAM: 2MB
*Maximum video resolution/color-depth: 1280×1024/8-bit
*I/O connectors: RS232 serial, two PS/2 for keyboard/mouse devices, parallel for printer, TP Ethernet (probably 10Mbit) connector and VGA video connector
*Expansion: none

Envizex II

These are the bigger brothers of the Entria II X-Terminals, driven by the same R4300 MIPS CPUand PCI I/O architecture.The case was redesigned, is very easy to open and does not have any fans, making the terminal rather quiet.

*CPU: 133MHz NEC R4300
*RAM: 96MB maximum; three slots take each up to 32MB 168-pin DIMMs (PC66/100/133 DIMMs in different sizes can be used, but only 8MB of each module will be available; the larger modules (16 and 32MB) were also HP-proprietary)
*Video RAM: 2 or 4MB VSIMM
*Video chipset: ATI Mach64
*Maximum video resolution/color-depth: 1600×1200/16-bit
*I/O connectors: two RS232 serial, two PS/2 and USB for keyboard/mouse devices, TP Ethernet connector and EVC video connector (requires an adapter-cable to use standard VGA monitors)
*Expansion:
**3.5 PC floppy drive
**Audio Kit with telephone I/O
**Flash DIMMs card for booting and storing configuration and font files
**100VG AnyLan PCI card
**100Mbit Ethernet PCI card
**Combined BNC and AUI card (expands the onboard NIC)

oftware

These X-Terminals/stations run a proprietary operating system from HP — Netstation,formerly Enware, with some versions apparently based on VxWorks (probably those withRISC support] .

This software runs on theoretically any Unix system, native support is available for HP-UX 10, HP-UX 11, IBM AIX and Solaris 2.x. A generic installation image is provided for other Unix flavors; this can be used to install the software via the provided installation shell script on for instance various Linux or BSD flavors.

Netstation Version 7.1

The older Enware/Netstation Version 7.1, HP product B.07.11, supports the following i960-based Terminals:

*700/RX
*Entria
*Envizex

It "was" downloadable from a public HP FTP service (hprc.external.hp.com/B.07.11/), which however was apparently discontinued. [Last tested September 2008.]

Read the included documentation/technical reference and refer to the installationinstructions. Generally, an Unix server is needed from which the station can boot its kernel and load its X server.This is done via TFTP; the station can be managed local via a configuration screen orremotely on the server via customizable configuration files.

Netstation Version 9.0

The most current available Netstation version is 9.0, HP product B.09.11. This versionsupports the newer MIPS-based X-Terminals:

*Entria II
*Envizex II

Same as with the older Netstation software, version 9.0 was available from a HPFTP service, which was discontinued. (See above)

The newer X-Terminals (IIs) can boot in different ways, over a NFS mount, a SMB share or plain TFTP.Included in the Netstation software is a native Java environment which makes execution of local Java applets on the terminal possible.

Notes

References

*This page was originally contributed by the original author from [http://www.openpa.net OpenPA.net] .

External Links

* [http://www.fmf.nl/~dopheide/hp/ 700/RX and envizex Terminal password unlocking] (Bart Dopheide: n.d. Accessed September 2008)
* [http://envizex.arganite.nl/ Setting up the Envizex] (N.a.: January 2008. Accessed September 2008) Installation instructions for the HP X-Terminal software
* [http://www.ductape.net/~brianm/xterm/ Information and Software for HP Envizex, Entria, and 700/RX X-Terminals] (Brian McElroy: April 2000. Access September 2008)