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Disclaimer: Hewlett Packard does not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained herein. Although every effort has been made by the author to ensure accuracy, all dates contained herein
should be confirmed with support contracts administration.
Click here for A-Series systems.
This article will attempt to shed some light on end of support dates for
HP1000 hardware. The dates shown here were extracted from the
global pricing system.
The objective is to remove the ambiguity and confusion regarding the
various dates one sees, and offer solutions to some of the problems caused
by these ambiguities. First a history lesson on HP1000 product numbers.
(Since no systems prior to RTE-6 are still supported, we will start
this brief history with RTE-IVB, the predecessor to RTE-6)
A typical RTE-IVB system was ordered as either a 2176A or 2177A These
model numbers were "bundles" which included the CPU, various accessories
to the CPU (like Dynamic Mapping, Time Base generators, Firmware etc),
a system disk and a system console. These various pieces also had individual
product numbers which were separately orderable. So the 2176A/77A was designed
to make it easy to order "systems". And made it a nightmare when it comes
to end of support life.
The problem stems from the fact that every product entered into the
Price List eventually becomes obsolete, or is replaced by a updated product.
In our example, the 2176/77A was replaced by the 2176B/77B which in turn
was replaced by the 2176C/77C. All of these products have different EOS
dates, but in fact may contain the exact same hardware subsystems, which
may have the same or even later EOS dates.
So the first step in determining an EOS date for a particular system
is understanding what that system really consists of. In some cases the
solution to an impending EOS date is to simply change the support contract
to reflect the actual hardware subsystems in use. So even though a 2176A
RTE-IVB system was obsoleted in 1979 and its EOS date was 1984, the 2113E
computer included in the 2176A is supported until 1999.
The next section will describe the most common system model numbers
and the major subsystems which are part of those systems. For these subsystems
we will provide EOS dates as of today. Note that in all cases, the system
model number may have included certain peripherals, like system consoles
and disks. These we will not be discussing, but you need to consider them
individually in your support planning. The Peripheral Support Matrix can help you with this.
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