HP FOCUS
| Industry | Computer hardware |
|---|---|
| Founded | January 1, 1939 |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | FOCUS microprocessor, HP 9000 Series 500 workstations and servers |
The FOCUS microprocessor from Hewlett-Packard, introduced in 1982, holds the distinction of being the first commercially available, fully integrated single-chip 32-bit microprocessor. During this period, rivals such as DEC, IBM, and Prime Computer relied on multi-chip bit-slice CPU architectures, whereas single-chip alternatives like the Motorola 68000 incorporated a mix of 32-bit and 16-bit components.
This microprocessor was utilized in Hewlett-Packard's HP 9000 Series 500 workstations and servers—initially the HP 9020, also referred to as HP 9000 Series 600. The single-chip CPU functioned in conjunction with an I/O Processor (IOP), Memory Controller Unit (MMU), Clock module, and several 128-kilobit dynamic RAM chips, forming the central processing core of the HP 9000 system architecture. It implemented a 32-bit adaptation of the 16-bit HP 3000 computer's distinctive stack architecture, supporting more than 220 instructions of both 32-bit and 16-bit width, utilizing a segmented memory framework and omitting general-purpose registers visible to programmers. The design was heavily influenced by HP’s proprietary silicon on sapphire (SOS) technology developed for their HP 3000 series.
The high component density achieved through HP's advanced NMOS-III integrated circuit fabrication process introduced significant thermal management challenges. To address heat dissipation, the chips were mounted on custom-designed printed circuit boards featuring approximately 1 mm thick copper cores known as "finstrates", which improved cooling efficiency.
The FOCUS CPU employs a microcoded control store sized at 9,216 by 38 bits. Its internal data buses and register files are uniformly 32 bits wide. The chip comprises roughly 450,000 field-effect transistors (FETs).