Last of the PA RISC Machines, Hewlett Packard PA RISC 9000 System 712/60

 Early this year (2025) I picked up a cool Unix workstation at Free Geek Twin Cities, an HP PA RISC workstation, the 712/60.  It was a project machine; missing RAM, drives and a top cover, but the logic board was there with a good power supply.  Reading online, it is very difficult to find compatible RAM for these machines.  I did try buying 72 Pin ECC SIMMS on eBay, but they were not HP branded and they were not recognized by the machine.  So the computer went into storage and the project went on hold.

In the lead up to VCF Midwest this year I read a post on the Vintage Computer Forums offering to re-home some machines from an estate.   I made a note to follow up with the person who posted and I checked in with them first thing on Saturday Morning.  They had a cool pile of machines...

I am lucky enough to have a several of these machines already, and thanks to Rick I was able to add a complete HP 712/60 machine to my collection.  The hard drives were removed from all of these machines, but during the show I purchased a couple of BlueSCSI hard drive emulators.

Back at home after resting from the long weekend away I got started on the project.  I added the BlueSCSI and it was working, but I was unable to start an installer with the machine.  After some experimentation I found this article which explains that the HP 712/60 needs a special INI file for the BlueSCSI.  Although this helped, I was still experiencing lockups with the HP-UX Installer CD ISO file.  I tried switching to a different installer, it turns out that NextStep 3.3 has a RISC version that is compatible with this hardware.  The NEXT installer generated a Kernel Panic that was a bit more verbose than the HP-UX installer.  The kernel panic made me suspect that there could be an issue with the Logic Board.  After several hours of troubleshooting (and taking a break for the evening and sleeping on the problem) I decided to get the parts system I had and try that.  It booted the installer right away!  So I swapped this newer main logic board into the complete Chassis from VCF, and it works great.

I now have a complete, working HP PA RISC machine running NextStep 3.3 in Color!  The machine looks great...

And even more important it runs great.  It does feel like "where NEXTSTEP belonged all along".

I look forward to getting it setup a bit better, I need to configure users, networking, and install more software.  I also want to go back and try to get the machine dual booting with its original HP-UX operating system, but this is a topic for a future blog article.

Do you have any memories of using these machines back in the day?  These engineering workstation computers had gone out of use before I started my first engineering job in 1996, so I'd love to hear any stories that people have to share about using this kind of hardware back in the day, please leave a comment below or find my email in my profile.

VCF Midwest 2025 Recap

It's late September and VCF Midwest #20 (2025) is in the rear-view mirror.  This was my fourth in-person visit to VCF Midwest, but I think of the online only 2020 event as my first VCF, so I've been to five total VCF events now.  It was another excellent event this year and I really enjoyed being there.

I decided a couple of months ahead of the event that I was too busy to exhibit this year so I bowed out of having a table for the first time in 2 years.  It was nice to not have to worry about prepping and I already have an exhibit idea that I'm excited about for next time.  I'll save that as a surprise for next VCF.

This year at VCF I invited along a couple of my Minnesota based retro computer friends who came for the first time.  It was more enjoyable to have a shared experience; shared meals, attending talks, and of course walking the show floor.  Of course we also talked with alot of the other Minnesota based folks that travelled to the event.

I spent a fair bit of time walking the show floor on my own looking for bits and pieces for projects.  I had planned ahead of time that I was not going to buy new projects (unless there were deals I couldn't pass up) because I already have a handful of new projects from the previous lots I purchased locally earlier this year that I haven't got too yet.  I was successful, bringing home only a small number of items from the show...

The monitor is a composite green screen that I'll pair with and resell with an Apple IIe project.  The Pizza Box computer is an HP PA RISC machine, an 712/60 from 1993.  I've been holding onto another one of these so this allowed me to get started on an HP 712/60 project which will probably be a future bLog article.  There are a couple of Apple Unidisk drives that will pair up with an Apple IIe Platinum and my IIgs systems, and most of the rest of the lot is various kits for pending or future projects.

One of the highlights of the show was the last minute addition of Lee Felsenstein.  I'd read his book earlier this year and quite enjoyed his take on the early days of home computing in the SF Bay Area.  I got to meet Lee and he signed my copy of his book...

I didn't get to talk to Lee for very long, but it was fun to meet one of the originals from the Homebrew Computer Club, certainly a highlight of the weekend for me.  One of my friends from Minnesota brought down his Sol-20 computer and Lee signed his computer manual, too.  I have an Osbourne computer, but it's a bit of a hodge-podge so I didn't bring it to show to Lee.

Sunday morning was significantly quieter at the show.  Since I didn't have a table, I just did a single lap of the show, purchased a few final items, and then headed home.  I'm already looking forward to next year.