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Compaq SystemPro

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The SystemPro from Compaq , released in November 1989, is a computer capable of running server-based computer operating systems and was arguably the first true PC based server. It supports Intel 's 486 chip, a 32-bit bus, RAID disk and dual-processor support well before its main rivals.

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30-582: The SystemPro, along with the simultaneously released Compaq Deskpro 486, was one of the first two commercially available computer systems containing the new EISA bus. The SystemPro was also one of the first PC-style systems specifically designed as a network server , and as such was built from the ground up to take full advantage of the EISA bus. It included such features as multiprocessing (the original systems were asymmetric -only), hardware RAID , and bus-mastering network cards. All models of SystemPro used

60-568: A UEFI boot option. Starting August 28, 2014, HP ProLiant Gen9 series were available based on Intel Haswell chipset and DDR4 memory. First were the HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 Server and HP ProLiant BL460c Gen9 Blade. Servers in this generation support both BIOS and UEFI . On November 1, 2015, HP split up into two separate companies, HP Inc. , and HPE . As part of the spilt, HPE inherited the ProLiant line of servers from

90-664: A balance between density and computing power. SL server models are rack-based. These models are mostly used in data centers and environments where a maximum of computing power is desired. BL server models are enclosure-based. They are made specially for use in a blade enclosure and cannot be used without such. Blade systems aim towards maximum density and manageability at limited rack space. There are two models of blade enclosures: HPE BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure (8 Bays for Blades), and HPE BladeSystem c7000 Enclosures (16 Bays for Blades). One advantage of HP/HPE Blade Enclosures compared to competitors (such as IBM Blade Systems) has been that

120-486: A full-height tower configuration, with eight internal hard drive bays . As well as the provision for an 80387 maths coprocessor chip, the processor card also included a socket for a Weitek maths coprocessor chip. Support for the Weitek function needed to be especially provided in the application, it did not use the same instruction set as the 80387 chip. The Weitek socket (empty) is the multi-pin triple-row socket to

150-474: A restructuring of its existing line of ProLiant servers into two separate and distinct lines to suit different needs in the server market. The ML (Modular Line) line of servers features a modular design that is designed for maximum system expansion while the DL (Density Line) line of servers consists of powerful, density-optimized servers designed for rack mounted use. In May 2002, Compaq was acquired by HP. As part of

180-634: A result, it was considerably faster than the original IBM PC , the XT and the AT , and had a much better quality text display compared to IBM PCs which were equipped with either the IBM Monochrome Display Adapter or Color Graphics Adapter cards. Its hardware and BIOS were claimed to be 100% compatible with the IBM PC, like the earlier Compaq Portable . This compatibility had given Compaq

210-575: A separate logical drive to the operating system, however), providing a grand total of 1.2 GB using RAID 5, or 1.6 GB using non-redundant striping ( RAID 0 ). Another option called the IDA Expansion Array provided support for up to 7 drives in a single array (housed in an external tower chassis looking virtually identical to the SystemPro itself), using an early (and very proprietary) form of differential SCSI . Note that all hard drives in

240-613: The 500 and 600 series comprise quad socket capable systems, and the 700 and 900 series comprise eight socket capable systems. The 900 series supports up to 80 CPU cores and up to 4 TB of RAM. Models with a '0' in the last digit use Intel processors while models with a '5' in the last digit use AMD processors. The ProLiant forms part of the HP Converged Systems , which use a common Converged Infrastructure architecture for server, storage, and networking products. Designed to support 50 to 300 virtual machines ,

270-640: The IBM PC/AT . In September 1986, the Deskpro 386 was announced after Intel released its 80386 microprocessor, beating IBM by seven months on their comparable 386 computer, thus making a name for themselves. The IBM-made 386DX machine, the IBM PS/2 Model 80 , reached the market almost a year later, PC Tech Journal honored the Deskpro 386 with its 1986 Product of the Year award. The Deskpro 386/25

300-585: The Presario line of personal computers, and the iPAQ line of personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. In February 2012, HP announced the ProLiant generation 8. In July 2013, HP announced a new blade server -based ProLiant, the HP Moonshot Server. The ProLiant DL580 Gen8 is a "middle generation" between Gen8 and Gen9. It has some of new features introduced in Gen9, primarily the availability of

330-519: The ProLiant series, which introduced hot swappable drives and the rack mount chassis now popular in data centers . However, the SystemPro is notable for having established the PC-based server market, and setting a high-water mark for the servers that followed. Compaq Deskpro The Compaq Deskpro is a line of business-oriented desktop computers manufactured by Compaq , then replaced by

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360-763: The DL line comprises general purpose rack mount servers. The BL line comprises blade servers which fit within the HP BladeSystem , the SY comprises the Synergy Blades, and the XL (also known as Apollo) line comprises servers for scale out and High Performance Computing environments. The MicroServer product line addresses small and home businesses. ProLiant servers are also split into several series which denote processor configuration. The 100, 200, 300 and 400 series comprise single and dual socket capable systems,

390-587: The Evo brand in 2001. Models were produced containing microprocessors from the 8086 up to the x86 -based Intel Pentium 4 . The Deskpro name, in an inverted fashion as " ProDesk ", is still in use by HP , which Compaq merged with in 2002. The original Compaq Deskpro (released in 1984), available in several disk configurations, is an XT-class PC equipped with an 8 MHz 8086 CPU and Compaq's unique display hardware that combined Color Graphics Adapter graphics with high resolution Monochrome Display Adapter text. As

420-718: The HP ConvergedSystem 300 is configured with ProLiant servers. A system administrator can manage ProLiant servers using HP OneView for converged infrastructure management. HP also provide drivers a software for managing servers such as Management Component Pack which includes hp online configuration utility (hponcfg), Agentless Management Service amsd, Smart Storage Administrator (SSA) ssa, Smart Storage Administrator (SSA) CLI ssacli and Smart Storage Administrator Diagnostic Utility (SSADU) CLI ssaducli. ML server models are tower-based. They aim towards maximum expandability. DL server models are rack-based. They aim towards

450-968: The ProLiant Gen10 Plus line of servers, which are built on third-generation Intel Xeon scalable processors. Equipped with PCIe Gen4 capabilities, the HPE ProLiant DGen10 Plus servers offer improved data transfer rates and higher networking speeds. In November 2022, HPE introduced the ProLiant Gen11 server lineup providing support for several architectures including fourth-generation AMD EPYC processors and fourth-generation Intel Xeon scalable processors. ProLiant servers are separated into four main product lines - ML, DL, BL, SY, and XL (Apollo) - which generally denote form factor. The ProLiant ML line comprises tower -based servers (convertible to rack mount) with capacity for internal expansion of disks and interconnects, while

480-464: The ProLiant brand. HP ProLiant systems led the x86 server market in terms of units and revenue during first quarter of 2010. HPE now owns the ProLiant brand after HP split up into two separate companies in 2015. The HP/HPE ProLiant servers offer many advanced server features such as redundant power supplies, Out-of-band management with iLO or Lights-out 100, Hot-swap components and up to 8-Socket systems. The ProLiant series of server computers

510-558: The SystemPro or the Expansion Array were internally mounted drives; hot swapping was not an option. System for RAID performance and health monitoring patented in 1993. The SystemPro was marketed for those who had scaled up to the top end of LAN hardware, or those who were scaling down from minicomputers — and its pricing was set accordingly. At the time of launch, the "low-end" SystemPro (a single 33-MHz 386 CPU, 4 MB RAM, and two 120-MB hard drives) listed for $ 15,999 (USD);

540-505: The SystemPro's asymmetric multiprocessing was a custom version of SCO Unix , sold by Compaq. However, when running OS/2 , certain applications (notably Sybase SQL Server ) could be offloaded to the second processor, and later, Novell NetWare SFT-III was able to offload its I/O engine. The original versions of Windows NT (3.1) included a hardware abstraction layer specifically for the SystemPro; despite NT's symmetric multiprocessing design, this HAL could offload some kernel tasks to

570-453: The first implementations of RAID (including RAID 5 ) available on a PC-based system. The original RAID card, called the IDA (Intelligent Drive Array) used a proprietary form of IDE , supporting up to 4 drives internally. At its release, the largest drive available was 210 MB. Two IDA cards could be installed, allowing all 8 hard drive bays to be filled (each IDA controller array would appear as

600-427: The first versions (other than the larger LCD screen at the front compared to the first generation enclosures, and new plastic covers and HPE branding on the 3rd generation enclosures). The HPE ProLiant MicroServer line of products are entry-level, low power, compact, and affordable servers meant for small business, home office, or edge computing. They offer user upgradable components and easy access to hard drives. There

630-418: The lead over companies like Columbia Data Products , Dynalogic , Eagle Computer and Corona Data Systems . The latter two companies were threatened by IBM for BIOS copyright infringement , and settled out of court, agreeing to re-implement their BIOS. Compaq used a clean room design with a reverse-engineered BIOS, avoiding legal jeopardy. In 1985, Compaq released the Deskpro 286, their clone of

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660-490: The merger with Compaq that year, HP discontinued their NetServer line of servers that had been produced the same year ProLiant servers debuted in the early 1990s in favor of Compaq's ProLiant line of servers. The 2002 merger also brought in other products that were made or offered by Compaq at the time, such as the NonStop line of servers (which were formerly owned by Tandem Computers, inc. and brought out by Compaq in 1997),

690-422: The older generation enclosures have been able to accommodate new generation BL servers just by upgrading the firmware for OA in the enclosure (Onboard Administrator). However improvements to back-plane of the enclosure in the new generation enclosures have enabled faster I/O capabilities (such as 10 Gbit/s Ethernet adapters and switches, and Infiniband). The physical design of the enclosures has not changed since

720-510: The original HP along with a few others such as the NonStop line of servers originally by Tandem Computers and Compaq. Starting Q4 2017, HP ProLiant Gen10 servers were available. Also in November 2017, HPE extended their Gen10 range to include AMD EPYC processors using EPYC's price v cores architectures claiming to lower cost per virtual machine (VM) by 50%. In April 2021, HPE introduced

750-493: The right on the CPU-board closeup. At its initial release in November 1989, the SystemPro supported up to two 33 MHz 386 processors, but early in 1990, 33 MHz 486 processors became an option (the processors were housed on proprietary daughterboards ). Because the system was asymmetric, 386 and 486 processors could be mixed. Single processor configurations were also available. The only operating system which fully supported

780-498: The same machine with 840 MB of storage (four 210-MB hard drives) listed for $ 25,999 (USD). A second 386 processor card cost $ 3,500 (USD), and an additional 32 MB of RAM was $ 21,999 (USD). The SystemPro line continued for several years, ending with the SystemPro XL, which was introduced in 1992. The XL was the only model that supported symmetric multiprocessing. It was replaced, also in 1992, by Compaq's ProSignia line, and later

810-403: The second CPU. This made Windows NT 3.1 the only version of Windows to support multiprocessor 386-based machines. The system used a state-of-the-art shared memory bus design, called Tri-Flex Architecture, to facilitate its multiprocessing capabilities. The original SystemPro shipped with 4MB 80 ns DRAM , expandable up to 256MB using proprietary memory modules. The SystemPro also offered one of

840-620: Was originally introduced in 1993 by Compaq to replace their former SystemPro line of servers in the high-end space, with the mid-range space of the SystemPro being succeeded by the ProSignia line of servers and business PCs . The ProLiant and ProSignia brand of servers coexisted with each other up until the ProSignia brand was discontinued in 2000. On January 31, 2000, Compaq introduced the ProLiant ML and DL line of servers as part of

870-546: Was released in August, 1988 and cost $ 10,299. The form factor for the Compaq Deskpro is mostly the desktop model which lies upon a desk, with a monitor placed on top of it. Compaq has produced many tower upright models that have been highly successful in sales, and are usually convertible to a desktop form factor. An SFF ( small form factor ) desktop version was also produced during the Deskpro's lifetime. The Deskpro

900-542: Was replaced by the Evo in 2001. The many different models include the: ProLiant ProLiant is a brand of server computers that was originally developed and marketed by Compaq , Hewlett-Packard (HP), and currently marketed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). ProLiant servers were first introduced by Compaq in 1993, succeeding their SystemPro line of servers in the high-end space. After Compaq merged with HP in 2002, HP retired its NetServer brand in favor of

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