Stromasys Launches Charon-PAR 4.0 - A Major Advancement to Its PA-RISC Emulator

Stromasys announces a major milestone for its PA-RISC emulation technology, releasing a new version designed to boost performance.

RIVERSIDE, CA, UNITED STATES, February 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Stromasys has officially launched Charon-PAR 4.0, a remarkable advancement to its existing PA-RISC emulator. This release introduces major architectural improvements aimed at enhancing performance for mission-critical HP-UX and MPE/iX workloads.

As highlighted, the key feature of this update lies in the architecture. This was made possible mainly by the introduction of DIT2 (Dynamic Instruction Translation, tier 2).
DIT2 delivers performance gains for specific guest application workloads by handling instructions more efficiently.

Admins now have three ways to set this up. Firstly, the Local Configuration run DIT2 on the same systems as the emulator. Next is the Dedicated Server, which offloads DIT2 to a separate system. This is interesting because one dedicated server can handle multiple Charon-PAR instances. It’s a smart move for distributed processing. Finally, there is Flexible Tuning with Multiple tunable parameters to optimize performance for specific workloads.

Further, version 4.0 adds a simplified licensing approach to facilitate deployment and administration. It should be noted that the previous Charon-PAR 3.x versions were incompatible and need to be updated for version 4.0 and later.

In this version, improvements have also been made to the emulated Intel E1000 Ethernet controller. Firstly, the independent operation of the checksum offloading settings in HP-UX.

Then, there are improved stability and reliability across all PCI expansion slots. Finally, the model comes with better compatibility with various network configurations.

Stromasys added a script called charon-par-sizer.py to help administrators determine optimal host system specifications for different deployment scenarios. Basically, it is a sizing tool that analyzes your actual requirements and looks at required RAM for the emulated system, CPU count, and the impact of DIT1-only versus DIT2 deployment options.

Nobody loves managing licenses. But you need to know this: Charon-PAR 4.0 changes the licensing model.

It’s streamlined now, which makes deployment easier. However, licenses from version 3.x are incompatible. If you upgrade, you must update your license. No exceptions.

On the configuration side, things got tidier. All config file templates are now standardized. Options and descriptions are consistent across all supported models.

Backward compatibility is still there. Your old config files will work. But the new templates make administration less of a headache for new setups.

What’s Supported?
Before you plan an upgrade, check your compatibility.

Emulated Models:
• rp34xx series
• rp44xx series
• B132L workstations
• 720 servers

Guest Operating Systems:
• HP-UX (9.0.5 through 11.31, depending on the hardware model)
• MPE/iX

Host Operating Systems:
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, 9, and 10
• Rocky Linux 8, 9, and 10

Evaluating the Right Moment to Upgrade
The updates in Charon-PAR 4.0 offer tangible benefits for performance and administration. The DIT2 architecture and improved network stability can address common bottlenecks in legacy environments. If you are running mission-critical workloads on PA-RISC systems, evaluating this version is a logical step.

About Stromasys
Stromasys offers legacy server emulation for VAX, Alpha, SPARC, DEC PDP-11, HP 3000 and HP 9000 servers. With our Charon software, customers can move off of their aging hardware to modern industry standard platforms (x86) or to the Cloud and keep not only their original operating systems (OpenVMS, Tru64, Solaris, MPE, HP-UX) but also related applications without any changes.

Since our founding in 1998, we have completed installations with industry leaders all over the world to the tune of thousands.

We cater to customers across many industries, including nuclear power, telecommunications, financial services, rail networks, government, industrial automation & healthcare, among others. We make sure all your legacy applications remain operational with modern hardware. It’s a risk-free, cost-effective, and frictionless alternative to typical application modernization projects.

David Leroy
Stromasys
+1 919-239-8450
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