Sun shows a new 'Sparc.'

Electronic News,  Nov 13, 1995  by Jim DeTar

Tags: Sun Microsystems Inc., Sun Sparc

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Menlo Park, Calif.--At an event here that looked more like a small trade show in size and scope than a product launch, Sun Microsystems presented the first system implementations of its 64-bit UltraSparc 1 architecture, details of which were first unveiled earlier this year at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco (EN, Feb. 13).

Sun is trying to position the rollout as an indication that the company is back in the workstation/server market as a major contender after stumbling a few years ago. Sun says it has overcome acknowledged performance limitations in the earlier Sparc architecture that kept it from achieving significant market acceptance.

Surrounded by hundreds of hardware and software partners in booths under a large circus tent at the company's campus here at a gathering which Sun called the UltraComputing event, the company introduced three board-level products for intelligent network applications: an entry-level 143MHz Sparcengine Ultra motherboard and two 167MHz versions of its UltraSparc-I MPU. Sun also introduced the UltraServer 1 family of advanced workgroup servers incorporating the Sparcengine boards; and two workstation lines, a single-processor line of workstations--the Ultra 1 line--as well as a two-processor workstation, the Ultra 2.

Sun's OEM partners, including National Semiconductor, Netscape, Oracle, Parametric Technology, Cadence, Adobe and Mentor Graphics, demonstrated a variety of software tools and applications developed on various UltraSparc-I platforms. At the same time, Sun disclosed it is currently sampling a 200MHz version, 64-bit UltraSparc-I processor and expects to ship that chip in dual two-way set associative systems by 2Q96.

Sun also revealed plans to also begin sampling chips based on its follow-on UltraSparc-II architecture in 2Q96 at the 250MHz operating frequency.

In addition, Sun discussed plans to expand use of its Java Internet access tools. Sun has made Java available at no charge but intends to make money on the Internet protocol by selling tools to Java developers.

In a broad-ranging interview, Chet Silvestri, president of Sparc Technology Business (STB), acknowledged that the company had lackluster sales with the Sparc architecture and said the performance of UltraSparc is designed put Sun back into competition in the network server/workstation markets that have traditionally been the company's strongest markets. Sun estimates UltraSparc-II will reach an estimated SPECint92 performance benchmark rating of 420, and a SPECfp92 rating 660.

Mr. Silvestri also downplayed Intel's recent strategic thrust into the server/workstation markets with the Pentium Pro microprocessor (EN, Nov. 6). At the Pentium Pro introduction, Intel said it will target those markets with the process and will not push the chip in the PC market until 1997. Mr. Silvestri also questioned the viability of Intel's x86 architecture, saying it is common knowledge that the Intel/Hewlett-Packard alliance to develop a follow-on architecture to Intel's x86 and HP's PA-RISC has "fallen apart."

Mr. Silvestri pointed out that Intel has traditionally targeted the high-end market initially with its previous-generation Pentium, 486 and even 386 processors but quickly moved back to the mainstream PC market which has been Intel's stronghold.

Regarding the increased performance of UltraSparc, he said "Manufactured benchmarks are no longer good enough. Today's ante must include three things--balanced compute performance for general purpose processor demands, high data bandwidth for networked applications and new-media processing for the visualization demands on the net."

The 5.2-million transistor UltraSparc-I is the first generation of the UltraSparc microprocessor family. It features integrated "New-Media" (Sun's term for multimedia-like features) support for desktop videoconferencing, real-time MPEG-2 decode, video effects and texture mapped triangle rendering.

When the company first unveiled the UltraSparc-I architecture at ISSCC in February, it said the device would have an estimated 240 SPECint92 and 350 SPECfp92 performance. On actual performance benchmarks, Sun said the UltraSparc Ultra 1/170E achieves SPECrate int92 of more than 250 and SPECrate fp92 of more than 350.

The Ultra boards are also equipped with Sun's proprietary VIS instruction set, designed to speed new-media networking, graphics, security and error checking operations. Block Load/Store instructions are said by Sun to deliver high data bandwidth, to as much as 1.3-gigabytes/second, and the instruction set supports real-time MPEG-2 decoding.

Sun is currently sampling the Sparcengine Ultra boards to key customers and undergoing independent software vendor testing. The Sparcengine Ultra boards are expected to be available in production quantities next month and in January 1996, depending on models. Prices start at less than $6,000 in quantities of 100 for the 143MHz Ultra 1/140 board; $7,600 for the 167MHz model 1/170 board and $8,200 for the 167MHz model 1/170E board in same quantities.