HP 9836U processor mystery...

Josh Dersch derschjo at gmail.com
Mon Nov 6 22:52:02 CST 2017


Hi all --

I mentioned a few weeks back that I picked up an HP 9836CU workstation.  
The "U" variant differs from the normal 9836 in that it contains an 
upgraded CPU board that allows it to run early versions of HP-UX.  (The 
"C" indicates that this machine has a color display, which is also cool 
but not what I want to talk about here today.)

Information on the Internet varies about what microprocessor the 9836U 
actually contains -- some sources say it's a 12Mhz 68010, some say it's 
a 12Mhz 68000.  I found some internal HP marketing text that 
corroborates the straight-68000 story.  I'd link it here, but 
hpmuseum.net appears to be having technical issues at the moment.

My 9836CU has the 12Mhz 68000 (HP internal part number 1820-3288) fitted 
in a socket on an 09836-66511 board (with the expected 16K SRAM cache 
and MMU logic) and the processor is identified at power-up as a 68000.

Just for fun, I swapped the processor with a PGA 68010 and it powers up 
and runs just fine, and identifies the processor as a 68010.  (Still 
won't boot the copy of HP-UX 5.0 on the hpmuseum site, though...)

I'm curious if other people out there with 9836U's can confirm whether 
their machine has a 68000 or a 68010 in it, I'd just like to settle the 
internet discrepancy once and for all :).

- Josh



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