VAX 7000/10000

Introduction

The VAX 7000 and VAX 10000, code named Xenon, are a discontinued family of high-end multiprocessor minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), introduced in July 1992. These systems use NVAX microprocessors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture, and run the OpenVMS operating system.

They were designed in parallel with the DEC 7000 AXP and DEC 10000 AXP server computers, and were identical except for the CPU modules used and the supported I/O bus interfaces. Digital intended customers of the VAX 7000/10000 to eventually upgrade to the Alpha-based configuration, the AXPs, by simply swapping the VAX-based CPU module(s) for those based on the Alpha.

The VAX 7000 could support very large databases (VLDB) and was ideal for transactional processing applications; such as those used by banking, stock trading and point of sale (POS) systems.

The VAX 7000 got its fast processing speed from a design that took the VAX instructions, translates them into RISC operations, then executes them on a high-performance four-stage RISC pipeline. Each VAX 7000 could accommodate up to 6 processors (Model 760). Each CPU ran at 137.5 MHz. These systems were designed to support high performance I/O. A high-speed SBI buts linked processors and memory that could sustain a bandwidth of 640 MBytes/sec. For high-speed I/O operations this system could support up to four, 100 MBytes/sec XMI I/O channels. The VAX 7000 Model 710 provided an estimated 314 TPS (Transactions Per Second) while the Model 760 achieved 1,004 TPS, on par with the largest IBM mainframes of the time.

The VAX 7000/10000 supported a maximum of 3.5 GB of memory. This was a limitation of the VAX architecture, which had 36-bit addressing which was common to all VAX hardware. With the Alpha upgrade, memory could be expanded to 14GBytes.

There were three models of the VAX 7000 line.

• Model 6x0 - The Model 6x0, code-named Laser/Neon, was announced on 7 July 1992 in Zurich, Switzerland with the United States announcement on 15 July. It supported one to four 90.91 MHz (11ns cycle time) NVAX+ microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 4, e.g. VAX 7630. The initial Model 600 used the KA7AA CPU module, which contained a 90.91 MHz (11ns cycle time) NVAX+ microprocessor with 4 MB of B-cache (L2 cache). Later, the clock frequency of microprocessor featured was increased.
• Model 7x0 - The Model 7x0, code-named Laser/Krypton, was introduced in August 1994. It supported one to six 137.5 MHz NV5 (also known as NVAX++) microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 6. The Model 700 used the KA7AB CPU module containing a 133.33 MHz (7.5ns cycle time) NVAX++.
• Model 8x0 - The Model 8x0, code-named Laser/Krypton+, supported one to six 170.9 MHz NV5 microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 6. Model 800 used the KA7AC CPU module featuring a 170.9 MHz NVAX++.

VAX 10000

The VAX 10000 was essentially a larger configuration of the VAX 7000. Both shared the same System Cabinet, but the VAX 10000 was configured as standard with one Expander Cabinet housing storage devices, and one Battery Cabinet housing an interruptible power supply. These were optional for a VAX 7000 system.

There was one model of the VAX 10000, the Model 6x0. Code-named Blazer/Neon, it supported one to four 90.91 MHz (11ns) NVAX+ microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 4.

Further reading on the VAX 7000 and VAX 10000 can be found in the DEC Technical Journal from 1992, Volume 4, Number 4; available on this site.

Sources:

• wikipedia.org