Customers might wonder what difference a faster network card could make on an older HP 3000. The Series 9x9s, called "K-Class" machines in the HP PA-RISC world, seem a prime candidate for such an investment.

To start, this faster card is cheaper than ever. HP used to charge a premium for moving from 10 megabits to 100 megabits. No more. Of course, you'll need to find it on the third party market. Not really a problem.

Tracy Johnson of the manufacturing site Measurement Specialties testified to the whether the upgrade earns its keep.

We added a 100mb card to our 959/KS400 several years ago and couldn’t do without it.

Given the promulgation of large bandwidth uses such as:

1) datasets are downloaded wholesale with ODBC; 
2) data-warehousing applications perform similarly;
3) client-server daemons (like XACTMAN) add a GUI, and 
4) FTP of entire backup files to other HP 3000s,

our old 10mb port just wouldn’t cut it. A useful retention of the 10mb port keeps our DTC alive, however.