Charon-PAR PA-RISC Emulator

Charon-PAR is a hardware virtualization layer running under Linux on industry-standard servers. It emulates a range of historic PA-RISC hardware systems and allows existing users of such systems to move to modern Intel-based server hardware.

This is accomplished on industry-standard Intel x64 servers running one of two supported Linux distributions: Red Hat 7.x and CentOS 7.x or under VMware running one of the two supported Linux distributions as a guest operating system.

With the Charon-PAR solution, you can securely transfer your PA-RISC systems to a state-of-the-art environment. Stromasys’ solution enables third-party applications and user-developed software to run without modification.

HP recognizes Charon-PAR software as a valid platform to run MPE and HP-UX, and Charon-PAR passes the original MPE hardware qualification tests.

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Charon-PAR Configurations

The Charon-PAR product family is a range of fully compatible virtualized PA-RISC systems running on industry-standard Intel x64 (Core i7 and Xeon) servers. Virtualization technology takes advantage of technological advantages since PA-RISC systems were built, translating PA-RISC instructions on-the-fly into optimized sequences of Intel CPU instructions. Charon-PAR servers run 100% unmodified copies of MPE/iX 7.5 and allow you to restore your applications and third-party software onto modern, reliable, high-performance hardware, providing a “best of both worlds” solution. Charon-PAR family performance ranges through A400 and A500 series equivalence at the low-end, to mid-range multi-processor N4000 series equivalence at the high-end.

Charon-PAR provides several virtual hardware families that support the following guest operating systems:

Charon-PAR/PA3: supports the following guest operating system: MPE/iX 7.5.
Charon-PAR/PA9-64 and Charon-PAR/PA9-32: PA9-64 emulates 64-bit models, PA9-32 emulates 32-bit models.
The currently implemented 64-bit models support the following HP-UX versions as guest operating systems:
HP-UX 11v1 (11.11), 11v2 (11.23), and – rp34xx and rp44xx only – 11v3 (11.31)
In addition, emulated systems configured with 360 and 440 MHz CPUs can also run HP-UX 11.00 (e.g., rp2400-1-360, rp2400-1-440, rp7400-1-440)
The currently implemented 32-bit models support the following HP-UX version as guest operating system:
Model 720: HP-UX 9.05, 9.07, 10.20, and 11.00
Model B132L: HP-UX 10.20, 11.00, and 11v1 (11.11)

Customers Talk About Working with Stromasys

Hear what our customers have to say about working with Stromays, and the difference legacy system migration made in their business.

What Customers Say About Stromasys!

"We needed a way forward, and Charon provided that, and more. Using the Charon software allowed us to reduce energy consumption, increase our available floor space, and save on maintenance costs."

Graham Wayne

Resource Manager at Canadian Department of National Defence

"Confidence in Charon-VAX at the Minden site continues to grow, and even long-serving employees are convinced by the reliability of the Swiss-made virtualization software. ABB immediately benefited from the flexibility.."

Krückemeier Horst

CTO at ABB Minden

"Space is a big commodity. Using Charon-VAX, we went from refrigerator-sized VAX hardware that also required a refrigerator-sized array, to a modern, rackable HP DL 2U server."

Steve Olson

VMS Systems Manager at Fidelity National Financial

Let's explore how Charon-VAX can help your business.