HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Chapter 1 Introduction
Management Overview
The HP 3000 family offers a broad range of compatible systems and servers
optimized for online transaction processing (OLTP). Well known for
reliability and ease of use, the HP 3000 products offer a superior
solution for business-critical information, facilitating improved
operational efficiency and better, faster decision making. The HP 3000
delivers outstanding price/performance system solutions with effortless
growth in computing capacity.
Recent independent user polls have rated HP 3000 computers the top
minicomputers in the industry. The HP 3000 900 Series rated number 1
overall, including number 1 in 13 of 15 categories in COMPUTERWORLD's
Buyers' Scorecard1 and shared top honors in the PC WEEK Poll of Corporate
Satisfaction2.
The HP 3000 incorporates advanced software and hardware technologies to
provide an excellent open foundation for OLTP applications. The HP 3000
incorporates HP Precision Architecture-RISC (PA-RISC), which is based on
reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology. The HP 3000
combines PA-RISC hardware architecture with an advanced operating system
specifically designed for the high-performance and functionality demands
of OLTP applications and traditional batch processing. In fact, the HP
3000 is the only computer system in the industry that combines the
benefits of a RISC hardware architecture with an operating system
specifically designed for commercial processing. In addition, the HP
3000 supports a wide range of industry and de facto standards in order to
provide the open systems benefits of application portability and
multivendor interoperability.
A common, open operating environment is provided across the entire family
of HP 3000 systems, ranging from systems for fewer than 10 users to
products offering mainframe-class performance and functionality. The HP
3000 can serve the needs of the entire enterprise. HP 3000 systems are
very easy to use, as illustrated by the midrange and low-end systems,
which are fully office-compatible and can be used and managed by
non-computer specialists. This ease of use is complemented by robust
functionality and high system availability, appropriate for the
large-scale, business-critical applications supported on the
mainframe-class HP 3000 products.
1 Hewlett-Packard Cleans up in Mini
Sweepstakes,
COMPUTERWORLD, September 24, 1990, pp 80-81
2 Minicomputer Buyers Expect a Lot for Their Money, PC WEEK,
December 24/31, 1990, pp 48-50
Thousands of industry-leading
applications are available for the HP 3000 worldwide. These solutions
are available for a wide range of industries and functional areas,
including manufacturing, distribution, state/local government, finance,
and human resources. New applications, including client-server and
enterprise solutions, are continually becoming available on the HP 3000.
In addition, for organizations that seek a competitive advantage through
developing their own application solutions, the HP 3000 supports a
comprehensive set of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools and
database products that are optimized for peak performance. HP's data
management systems, relational-model HP ALLBASE/SQL and network-model HP
TurboIMAGE, are tightly integrated with the HP 3000 operating environment
to deliver superior performance and data integrity.
HP offers a wide array of multivendor networking capabilities, quality
peripheral devices, personal computers, and PC integration products
across the entire line of HP 3000 computers. All these are delivered by
a worldwide HP sales and service organization that is recognized, year
after year, as one of the best in the computer industry.
HP 3000 strategy
The HP 3000 strategy consists of the following key elements:
A. A broad family of PA-RISC-based compatible systems and servers
The HP 3000 offers a very broad family of compatible computers,
ensuring that customers can easily select the system providing the
optimal price/performance for a specific application environment.
Beyond providing object code software compatibility, HP 3000
systems provide easy growth in capacity via simple, cost-effective
upgrades consisting simply of faster processor boards. A common
operating environment across the HP 3000 family ensures that not
only is software compatibility maintained as applications expand,
but that the end-user, the programmer, and the system
administrator interfaces also remain the same. This approach of
software compatibility and easy hardware field upgrades ensures
that customer investments in software, hardware, and personnel are
protected. PA-RISC provides scalable systems to serve the needs
of the entire enterprise.
B. Optimized for OLTP
The HP 3000 has been specifically tailored to meet the demanding
needs of online transaction processing (OLTP). OLTP environments
require fast access to up-to-date, reliable data, and systems that
are highly available so that the data can be accessed when needed.
The efficiency of the operating system, coupled with powerful
PA-RISC processors, provides fast response time and high system
throughput. In the area of reliability, industry surveys
continually rank the HP 3000 as one of the most reliable products
on the market. This high level of reliability is complemented
with high availability extensions that provide virtually
uninterrupted 24-hour operation. And the
HP 3000 provides mainframe-class systems management functionality
while dramatically lowering operating costs and improving staff
productivity through both centralized and remote operations.
Hewlett-Packard was the first in the industry to publish results
of the Transaction Processing Council's TPC-A industry-standard
benchmark and remains a price/performance leader.
C. Open systems and industry standards
The HP 3000 will support an open operating environment that
provides UNIX application programming interfaces (APIs)
together with extensive commercial OLTP capabilities in 1991.
Hewlett-Packard is committed to industry standards that provide
customers maximum application portability, interoperability, and
ease of integration with multivendor environments, including UNIX
and IBM System Application Architecture (SAA). This means that
applications written for UNIX and POSIX are highly portable to the
HP 3000. HP has taken a leading role in developing virtually
every major industry standard in use today. The HP 3000 supports
industry and de facto standards in the operating system,
networking, database, user interface, and compiler products. With
HP's commitment to supporting X/Open-compliant and X Window System
interfaces, the HP 3000 provides a high degree of application
portability and better leverages customers' investments in
software, hardware, and personnel.
D. Multivendor networking
HP 3000 systems support a wide variety of multivendor networking
standards that allow information to be easily distributed and
accessed in local-area and wide-area networks. Hewlett-Packard is
committed to simplifying multivendor communications and
interoperability via a commitment to industry-standard networking
protocols such as Open Systems Interconnect (OSI), and key de
facto standards such as Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA)
and System Network Architecture (SNA). With a comprehensive
offering of networking capabilities, HP 3000 systems integrate
effectively with networks of personal computers, midrange
computers, and mainframes from HP and other vendors.
E. Client-server computing
Hewlett-Packard is recognized as providing leadership products in
PC integration and client-server computing. Server database
information can be downloaded to PC applications via a simple,
intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). The HP 3000 provides
centralized administration for functions such as PC software
distribution, electronic mail, and shared workgroup resources,
data files, printers, scanners, and plotters, and consistent,
powerful window-oriented interfaces across both PC and OLTP
applications. The HP 3000 application servers support both Novell
NetWare and Microsoft LAN Manager.
F. Application solutions
HP's Value-Added Business (VAB) program has been rated number 1
for three straight years. Together, HP and these business
partners offer thousands of industry-leading solutions for a
variety of worldwide industries and functional applications,
including manufacturing, distribution, state and local government,
finance, human resources, and a host of others. These solutions
are complemented by an extensive network of sales and service
experts in specific markets and business functions, ready to
assist customers in selecting the solution best suited to their
business needs.
G. Support and consulting services
Hewlett-Packard has long set the standard for effective customer
support among computer vendors. For the last eight years
customers have rated HP support number 1 in the Datapro survey. A
wide array of customer support and consulting services are
designed to ensure long-term, productive use of HP 3000 systems.
Coupled with HP's worldwide sales and support organization, which
has many years of helping customers more easily collect and access
information to better run their businesses, the HP 3000 allows
customers to use information as a competitive advantage.