@skanman The PA-8200 processor was code-named “Vulcan.” Very fitting!

@true_mxp oooh those chips were almost 64-bit... Not very common.. usually for special use.

@skanman Not just almost :-)

@true_mxp they could execute 64-bit code, but the chip wasn't natively 64, it could natively do 40 I think, and used extensions to preprocess 64 instructions into executable code. I'm not a 100% sure. But I know it's extended instruction set was magical for scaling, it's a monster for it's time.

@skanman I think it’s only one of the address buses that was only 40 bits wide. But I’m no expert either ;-)

@true_mxp I'm just guessing you have one which makes me way more of an expert than me. I've worked with some uncommon machines before, but never one of those. What was primarily run on it?

@skanman Thanks :-) Wikipedia says on the PA-8000 (which also applies to the PA-8200): “The external interface is the Runway bus, a 64-bit address and data multiplexed bus. The PA-8000 uses a 40-bit physical address, thus it is able to address 1 TB of physical memory.”
HP 9000 (later branded “Visualize”) workstations were designed to run HP-UX. The C200 can run either version 10.20 (32 bit) or 11.x (64 bit). Good overview: https://www.openpa.net/systems/hp-visualize_c200_c240_c360.html.

@true_mxp Wow look at that!.. full 64-bit. I bet those machines could crunch back in the day.. I see where my confusion came in. The only exotic chips I played with were from Alpha Digital, and some Power PCs. But you know what's a shame? Later in life I got into Unix / Linux but all those exotic computers only had NT or 2000. There were some slick OS's I wanted to play with but never got the chance.