The SPARC Technohgt BusinessNewshtter v o I u m e II Number2 v SPARC:The Network Processorfor the Enterpriselnformation Highway As enterprisecomputing moves increasingly towards interna- tionally-deployed local- and wide-areanetvvorks connected Brian Knowles,Director, over the emerging global information highway, Processor Worldwide Sales.& Support technology designedfor a network environment becomes increasinglyvital to corporate productivity and profitability. SPARC@technology has alwaysbeen a network-basedarchitecture, with nearly one million network-basedcomputing workstations and serversinstalled worldwide. Nearly 70 percent of "Information the applications on the Internet, todays prototypical Highway," were developedon Sun@technology, and over one million SPARC processorshave been deployed in a variety of network computing applications. lil/hat is it about SPARCTarchitecture that makes it the best-suitedprocessor technology for network computing? SPARC technology, unlike microprocessorsemployed in personal desktop 1. The Netuorh Processor computing, is designedwith networking hardware built in and networking soffware to match! 2 New SPARCengineB oard.s Servers,routers and hubs basedon SPARC technology are being supplied by a growing number of local- and wide-area networking companies.Solutions basedon the SPARC architecture and 4 MuhiprocessingWt[E Board running the Solarist operating enyironment are the software development platform of choice 5 SPARC uiew among large telecommunications companies,accounting for over 60 percent of the installed base. To meet the demanding high-bandwidth requirements of enterprisecomputing, Sun is already "Best 6 SPARC Roadmap providing advancedSBus cards and systemssolutions such as the following recipients of of Product" awardsat ComNet 1994: . [email protected] and TCP/IP sofrwarefor multimedia communications support . Sun 100 megabit/secondEthernet, which increasesthe throughput of any local-areanetwork by an order of magnitude Moreover, Sunk technological and marketing lead is highlighted by severalindustry firsts, such as the integration of XTL Teleservicesand.multiple heterogeneousplatform Network Management support into SolarisP XTL, for example,is pirticularly well- suited for creating desktop telephony applications, such as automatic dialing and call transfers,answering systems, voice mail, computer faxing and other enterprisecomputing services. SPARC Tecltnologt Bullatin NewSun' privatecustomer premise equipment (CPE), TeleServers,and industrialtest controllers SPARCengine' installedin computer-integratedfactories. Beyond ' . Motherboards offeringperformance levels competitive with Raise Pentiurri'-and PowerPC*-basedboards, the .Pnce/ SPARCTechnology Business has SPARCengine5 offersthe disdnctadvantage of PerformanceBar announcedhigher-performance having hardwareand sofrwarethat is available (XferingsEnhance Sun's Lead and lower-costadditions to its today,and which is much richerin distributed in NetworkComputing industry-leadingSPARCengine@ networkcomputing applications. motherboards-thesame NSC CPU boardsnow poweringSun's new SPARCstation*System 5 SPARGenginePrice and System20. Intendedfor computerOEMs who embedSPARCengine boards into their end 215 products,the uniprocessorSPARCengine 5 and .E o multiprocessorSPARCengine 20 deliverup to E Eto 100 percerithigher performance than current €e 6 o SPARCengineboards. Moreover, STB delivers Z: E this enhancedperformance at lowercost relative to earlierboards. STB hasalso lowered the price 0 SPARCmgine SPARCengine SPARCengine SPARCclasit of the entryJevelSPARCclassic* engine to less 1041/61 10-i0/50 frgtne than $2,000.Combined with other recentSun & Ma1 1992 productannouncements, these SPARCengine W May I99j - May 1D4 boardssolidify Sunt acknowledgedposition as the leadingsupplier of networkcomputers for the emerginginformation highway. STB'snew SPARCengineboards will build on The SPARCengine5 boardsare the industry's Sun'swell-established base as the leadingsupplier first motherboardsto incoqporatemicroSPARC*-il of embeddedmotherboards implementing the processors,and offer twice the performance SPARC@architecture. For example,the NP-1600 of previousmicroSPARC engines for a slight PhotographicNetwork Printerfrom Codonics, pricepremium. Being made available in 70MHz Inc. is a state-of-the-artcolor and monochrome and 85MHz versions,the SPARCengine5 dye-sublimationprinter employinga Kodak@ is intendedfor local-and wide-areanetwork print engineand a SPARCclassic*motherboard. telecommunicationshubs, AIM switches, The high-endSPARCengine20 family consists of Sunt highest-performingmultiprocessor motherboards,with the latest60MHz MBus SPARCengimPerformance SupeTSPARC*modules delivering 35 percent higherperformance-at prices15 percentlower 80 -than its predecessor,the SPARCengine10. The SPARCengineModel 612 bringscost-effective d-^ 60u E to embeddedcomputing- 5 multiprocessingpower E+o c, powerwhich softwaredevelopers can easilyharness 20 0 SPARCngire LX SPARCngrrc SPARCengine 10-30/50 10-41/61 May1992 *x May1993 I May1994 SPAI?C TeL l: tto I a g, Bu i leti tt gPARGontFneBdrards usingSolaris and SPARCworkfl developmenttools. Moreover, all SPARCengine20 modelscan easily be upgradedto multiprocessing configurationsby simplyadding additionalMBus modules.The SPARCengine20 will be employed in medicalimaging and high- performanceIntelligent Network TeleServersfor companiessupplying Higlr-AvailabilityAIN Server Architecture equipmentto majortelecommuni- cationscarriers. SPARCengine 20 boardsinclude a 24-bit accelerated imaging ASIC, faster 64-bit SBus I/O and RecentSun announcements of SPARCengine multiprocessinghardwareisoftware expansion- companiontechnologies include Solaris@ sofrware superior functionality as compared with multi- incorporatingXTL Gleservicessoftware, SunAIM board VMEbus solutions from Hewlett-Packard, Q93.Bnenvork interfaces and 1OOMbitEthernet Motorola and other VMEbus vendors. SBuscards. Combined with SPARCengine OEMs using SPARCengineboards receive boards,OEMs canstart today with a significant severalsignificant benefits: advantagein developingplatforms for information . faster time-to-market yields time and cost serversand multimediaworlstations attached to savings globalinformation highways. In fact, SPARCis alreadythe processortechnolog' ofchoice in . immediate accessto the latest RISC and many CPE (CustomerPremise Equipment) and LrNIX@technology ensurescontinued AIN (AdvancedIntelligent Network) systemsde- competitive advantage ployedby the major telcosas they preparefor the . Sun open standardsprotect hardware and comingglobal telecommunications enyironment. sofrware investment SIB SPARGengineMotherboards SPARCengine20 Mariel 0 None(motherboard only) NA ^[A Itnmediate $5,50a SPARCmgine20 LIodel 50 50X4HzSup erS PARC + ntodule 69.2 75.J intwediate $6,500 SPARCengine20 Made! 61 60MHzSupeTSPARC+ module 88.9 102.8 120 darys s8,500 SPARCengine20 X{oriel 612 Q) 60MHz SzpzTSPARC+nodules SPE'Crarc_int92 SPECrate-1p92 120 ddys +q1a,g0a 3943 4646 SPARCengine5 Mcdel 70 70MHz miooSPARC-II 57.0 hnmer/iate $4,A00 SPARCengine5 Model 85 B5X[HzmigoSPARC-II 64.0 54.5 120 days 8i,500 SPARCclassicengine 501'4HzmicroSPARC 26.4 21.0 Irmterl.iate $1,900' (with ou t Solaris rigbt-to - use) NOTE: SPARCngineboards are aho,auillable u,ithout SaJaris right-to-u.se license ior 9600 les SI'tlRC'1 cch olog: Buih rit Themiseomputer ThemisComputer's new MACIO chip (firstemployed in Sun's SPARC@I0MPis the industryt SPARCstationlX), which integratesall three Releases first multiprocessingVME of thesefunctions for higherreliability and MultiprocessinE engineimplementing the reducedchip count, SPARCarchitecture. The new The lastmajor design challenge was developing VMEBoard SPARC1OMP board makes full the VMEbus interface,a taskmade less daunting useof Sun'sMBus technology, due to our previouswork in designingMBus-to- IVaher Snell, Director of Sales allowingmultiple SupeTSPARC \MEbus interfacesfor threeof our earlierSPARC 6 Marheting or hyperSPARCCPUs on a engines-the SPARC10HS, SPARC 2LC and single6U VME board.Designed SPARC2SE. underlicense from SunMicrosystems Computer \7ith 1-2 SupeTSPARC(or I-4 hyperSPARC) Corporation,the SPARC10MP is 100o/obinary processorson-board, the 10MP providesa levelof compatiblewith SunbSPI\RCstation 10 family. SPARCperformance never before available on a The SPARCl0MP-Themis'sixth VME design single\44E board.The l0MPt multipleMBus implementingthe SPARCarchitecture-incorpo- slotsallows integrators to choosefrom the 55-80 ratessignificant advances in multiprocessing\44E MHz hyperSPARCor 40-60MHz SupeTSPARC systemdesign. Its openarchitecture, employing processors.Both SupeTSPARCand hyperSPARC interchangeableMBus modules,ensures processor processorsare based on Sunt SPARClevel 8 open scalabiliryand protects user investment. standardarchitecture. If configuredwith a single Ve facedseveral interesting challenges in SupeTSPARCMBus module,the 10MP offersup developingthe SPARC1OMP First, because the to 81 SPECintg2and up to 105SPECfp 92. SPARCstation10 is designedto supportonly 4 \fith 2 Dual hyperSPARCMBus modulesthe MBus mastersand we requireda fifth to accessthe 10MP reaches6568 SPECrateint and 4093 VMEbuscontroller chip, we had to addVMEbus SPECrate-fp. support.This wasaccomplished by designinga The SPARC10MP makesfull useof Solaris separateMBus arbiterto sharethe busbetween 2.3t SymmetricMuldprocessing (SMP) Kernel. MBus CPU 3 and the VMEbus. Becausethe 10MPruns either the Solaris1.1 or A seconddesign issue involved increasing