A180c Memory Upgrade

[Stefan Schulz]

Hi all,

i have an old A180C which i want to set up as a testing system. Therefore i need to upgrade the momory to at least 1GB RAM. I found a shop which sells 1GB for an reasonable price.

Question is:

In the Docs to this server ( http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/hw/class_a/Aclassdoc00.pdf ) there are only modulse with max. 512MB (2 * 256MB SIMM) stated. This shop offers only one 1GB Module ( 2 * 512MB SIMM).

I couldn't find any documents if this is supported or if i can install a firmware upgrade to support this Module.

Can anyone give me a hint or a source for more information?

Thanks in advance.

Regards Stefan

[Jesse Dougherty · Accepted solution]

I think they might be quoting you the wrong memory.. the 1Gb A5841A is for the A400 & A500 and not the A180 box, it looks like the best you can do is a 512MB kit and that HP ordering part number is A5808A - The A180 memory is more on the K, D, C, 9x9, style of memory. You can probably get away with buying a A3717A 512MB kit for around $275.00 each that will work in your A180 box.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Stefan,

It's not looking good. PartSurfer is only showing 128, 256 & 512 MB DIMM-pair products:

http://www.partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/spi/main?sel_flg=partlist&model=A180UX&HP_model=&modname=9000+Server+-+A180&template=main&plist_sval=Memory+%28DIMM%29&plist_styp=subcat&dealer_id=&callingsite=&strsrch=&keysel=Memory+%28DIMM%29&catsel=%3F

for both the A180 (A5182A) & the A180C (A5183A). But according to the A180 User's Manual:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/Z4045-90002/Z4045-90002.html

there are 8 DIMM slots so 4 pairs of the 512 MB memory products (A3717A) will give you a max of 2GB memory. OR 4 pairs of the 256 MB (A3564A) will give you 1 GB.

But one thing to remember about the A180 is that it used the PA7300 CPU & therefore is 32-bit only. It was one of the last 32-bit only systems.

HTH,
Jeff

[Jesse Dougherty]

Hi Stefan, can I get the rabbit for that answer - I usually wouldn't ask but I'm 11 points away from my cap / Pro status.

[Stefan Schulz]

Hello Jesse,
Hello Jeff,

thanks a lot for your help and the provided Partnumbers and links. This cleared s lot of questions.

Also this helped me to end some inhouse discussion. (Something like "buy this, it is for an A-Class").

Kind Regards

Stefan

BTW: Congratulations to your hat, Jesse.

[Jesse Dougherty]

thanks for the points Stefan, I just have 19,750 to go..

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

Hi Stefan,

the only reason for using A180C is the need to have HP-UX 10.20. If you don't need 10.20 and you can use HP-UX 11.0 or 11i, you can buy very cheap remarketed rp2430 machine and 1GB RAM for rp2430:

A6889AR Rmkt HP server rp2430 Solution - ca. $850

A5841AR Rmkt 1024MB HD SyncDRAM Memory Mod - ca. $800

or

Kingston KTH-LSVR/1024 - $750

License for HP-UX 11i is bundled with the server.

Regards,
Zygmunt

[Stefan Schulz]

Hi Zygmunt ,

the reason for me to use this old A180C ist that my boss bought it :-(

We have arp2470 as database server which hosts the oracle instances for our old, our new and our test EDM/PDM databases.

Our new database is growing fery fast as we migrate the data at the moment. Therefore we thought about moving the testdatabase to an seperate server.

I would have prefered to move the new database to a new and bigger/faster server and use the existing rp2470 as the testserver.

But ebay had an A-Class server for a very low price. And as a server is a server and A-Class is A-Class i have a problem now.

Also, of course, there has been no need to ask me first befor buying :-(

Regards Stefan

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

Hi Stefan,

OK. I understand it. But note that the lowest price is not always the best buy. Here are the estimated performance results:

A180C PA7300 180MHz - 2800 tpm

rp2430 PA8700 650MHz - 16000 tpm

tpm = transaction per minute

Regards,
Zygmunt

[Stefan Schulz]

Hi Zygmunt,

i am aware of the performance difference. Also i am not the one who bought this thing. But i'm the one who has to live with whats available for me.

Better stop this discussion as i totally agree with you.

Regards Stefan