About the HP 3000

Robelle Continues Support for MPE

HP has announced that after the end of 2006, they will no longer support the HP 3000, but Robelle confirms continued support for MPE. Of course, we are ready to help you plan for the future, and our products also support HP-UX.

Read our wide-ranging collection of news stories, links and articles about the issues raised by HP's decision to cancel the 3000.

Staying on the 3000

It is quite feasible to keep some or all of your applications on the 3000 even as HP departs and keep the applications fine-tuned for an indefinite future.

Click the link above to find out about independent software and hardware support, sources of hardware, and much more.

No Rush To Migrate, Until You Are Ready

Here is a Robelle Press Release: Migrating an application can be complex, expensive and risky. There is no rush to move before you are ready. Robelle will help you extend the life of your 3000s and make your eventual migration easier as well.

Migrating off the 3000: The Robelle Information Site

We have gathered into one page the links to publicly available information on migrating off MPE/iX, especially to HP-UX.

Robelle's Migration Page

3000 Reference Information

As Hewlett-Packard loses interest in the HP 3000, it is important that end users start taking responsibility for their own systems. Toward that end I have compiled a list of useful reference web sites on the HP 3000 (excluding the topic of migration).

Robelle's Consultant Directory

Robelle has built a list of consulting resources for our customers - people who know the HP 3000, Suprtool and Suprtool-based applications. These can be a big help to anyone who is homesteading, since 3000 expertise within the company will thin out over the years.

3000 Manuals

A lot of links for manuals have stopped working however, our own Neil Armstrong stored off some of his manuals and collected many from various DVDs and internet sources and placed here:

Neil Armstrongs HP 3000 Manual and Paper Collection

Some other vendor's 3000-related manuals are on the web as well:

Robelle: http://www.robelle.com/library/manuals/

Lund: http://www.lund.com/support/

Adager: (HTML) www.adager.com/AdagerGuideTOC.fm.html

Powerhouse: Online.

However, many vendor web sites have no obvious sign of user documentation for their HP 3000 software products. For example, Cognos and DISC. So for these products, you should ensure that you carefully file copies of the documentation.

The 3000 Newswire

Another great source of information is "The 3000 Newswire" magazine. As a subscriber to the magazine, you receive well thought out articles every month. They now also have a very interesting daily blog (highly recommended).

Books

Beyond RISC. This book is a guide to the PA-RISC version of the HP 3000 and the software of the MPE operating system. It is slightly dated, since MPE has had many releases since the conversion to RISC architecture, but it is still very useful. The book is out of print, but a few copies are still available at Allegro. Email to cindy@allegro.com if you would like to buy one.

MPE/iX System Administration Handbook by Jon Diercks. This book was published in 2002 by Prentice Hall. It "covers the essential tools and skills required for successful MPE/iX system management. Diercks presents hands-on examples, solutions to common problems, and dozens of tips for streamlining operations and making the most of your HP e3000 system." Very useful. http://diercks.net/mpe/

TurboIMAGE

TurboIMAGE (or IMAGE for short) is the database included with MPE. The user manuals are on-line at docs.hp.com and here are some other useful links:

The IMAGE FAQ answers the most common questions about this database and points to useful vendors, tools, etc.: http://beechglen.com/pub/imagefaq.txt

Robelle's IMAGE Programming Tutorial teaches how to write programs that access IMAGE databases: http://robelle.com/library/tutorials/pdfs/imgprog.pdf

Robelle's IMAGE Performance Analysis explains how to use HowMessy, DBLoadng, Adager and DBGeneral to monitor and improve the performance of your database: http://robelle.com/library/tutorials/pdfs/imgperf.pdf

Robelle's IMAGE Encyclopedia Page on the IMAGE database: http://www.robelle.com/library/smugbook/image.html

3000-L Mailing List

The 3000-L mailing list is a place where users can post and answer questions. It will probably continue to be a place where the confused system manager can go for help with his HP 3000.

UTC archives: http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html

Other lists at UTC: http://raven.utc.edu/archives/index.html

Other mailing lists: http://www.techgroupmd.com/TGU%20-%20CyberCafe.htm

Robelle's Smugbook

Robelle's Encyclopedia of HP 3000 and related topics, is an excellent resource of cross-linked articles: http://www.robelle.com/library/smugbook/

Technical Papers

Allegro has an excellent guide for new 3000 users as "Learning MPE": http://allegro.com/papers/learnmpe.html

Robelle has 14 papers and 14 tutorials on-line at http://www.robelle.com/library/ covering topics from the System Debugger to programming the CI.

Allegro has 13 papers on-line at http://allegro.com/papers/ covering topics from "what to do when your system is hung" to "setting up a network printer".

Adager has most of the database papers written by their staff over the years, plus guest papers from Vesoft and others: http://www.adager.com/TechnicalPapers.html

Beechglen has a very useful archive of technical tips that you should bookmark for future reference. Dozens of topics, including Traceroute from MPE, Speeding Up Backups, using CI variables with FTP, and much more.

News

Of course The 3000 Newswire is the premier source of news.

However, Robelle also posts 3000-related news and links to its home page and archives them via monthly newsletters. http://www.robelle.com/

HP Web Servers

HP On-line Manuals
CSY, the HP division responsible for the HP 3000
Hewlett-Packard Support

Other Useful e3000 Web Pages

Virtual HP3000 from Stromasys.
HP Encyclopedia: Line Drawing Characters. You may have to delve into some old code that uses HP Line Drawing characters. Here is an article from our Encyclopedia that compares them with other line drawing characters.
"History of the 3000" by Robelle's Bob Green.
Winhelp file for VeSoft's MPEX Also, read this profile of Eugene Volokh. As you probably know, VESoft was founded by Vladimir Volokh and his son Eugene, who is also a Law Professor at UCLA (link to publications). The link above is to an interesting sketch of Eugene on the UPI web site. You can also follow Eugene's interests on his daily weblog.

Software for the HP 3000

Suprtool - high-speed database extract
Qedit for Windows - easy Windows edit for host files without downloads
Host-Based Qedit - classical favorite of 3000 programmers
Telamon contributed library (freevt3k, etc.) excellent introduction to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Curtis Larsen explains that LDAP allows you to create directories of information similar to what you would see in a telephone book. Any information you want to store for later quick retrieval: names, telephone numbers, conference room capacities, addresses, directions � even picture or sound files. Using directories such as these is an incredible time-saver (can�t you think of company applications for one already?), but LDAP can do so much more. The directories you create are wholly up to you, so the sky�s the limit.
Adager User Manual: widely-used tool for restructuring IMAGE databases
VisImage - visual report writer that uses Suprtool
Apache/iX Documentation - world class web server

HP 3000 Vendors

A: Adager; Allegro Consultants, Inc. DEFRAG, SPLASH; Atlantic Tech Services Hardware maintenance and repair
B: Beechglen Development Consulting - Help desk/web enabling; Bradmark Technologies, Inc. DBGENERAL, SUPERDEX
C: Cerius Technology Group Integrator; Cognos POWERHOUSE; Computer Design & Integration (CDI) Integrator; Computer Solutions, Inc. Integrator; Cypress Technology Inc. HP reseller
D: Denkart Inc. WINGSPAN, VIA NOVA; Design 3000 Plus tools for lights out operation; Dynamic Information Systems Corporation OMNIDEX
F: Fluent Edge Technologies Consulting - MACS
G: GBSI Reseller, consulting
H: Hire Experience Consulting - Ecometry/MACS; Horner Consulting, get extreme with MPE
I: id enterprises, inc. Accounting, manufacturing, consulting
K: Kubler Consulting Performance and capacity planning consulting for HP-UX and MPE
L: Lund Performance Solutions SOS, DEFRAG
M: M.B. Foster Data Express, ODBCLink; Melillo Consulting Inc. HP reseller, Consulting; MiniSoft MS92, FRONTMAN
N: Network Systems Company Employment; Nobix JobRescue, data center management, document-enabling
O: Odin Technologies Consulting - Ecometry/SGA; O'Pin Systems REVEAL, HOTKEY; ORBiT Software BACKUP; Orion Group Software Engineers Integrator
P: Paul Edwards & Associates HPe 3000 Consulting, Suprtool training; Pharmacy Computer Services Rx/3000
Q: Quintessential School Systems K-12
R: ROC Software Maestro, Spoolmate, TapesPlus, Formation, DCM/Pak, Backpack/iX.; Robelle Solutions Technology Inc. Qedit, Suprtool, Qedit for Windows.
S: ScreenJet Ltd. ScreenJet; S.M. Gorden & Assoc Data Warp; SolutionSoft Systems Inc. Disc Space Manager, Compression Storage Manager; The Source Remarketed HP 3000 and HP 9000; Speedware 4GL; The Support Group Manufacturing support and software, MANMAN
T: Taurus Software, Inc. WAREHOUSE; Triad Computers new and used HP equipment
W: AttachMate/WRQ REFLECTION