| SPARC-compatible workstations priced similarly to
high-end PCs are expected on the market by early 1993,
thanks to a new low-cost microprocessor announced in
October by Texas Instruments (Houston, TX). The new
RISC-based microSparc (code-named Tsunami) delivers about
40 MIPS and costs only $179 in production quantities.
Other comparable SPARC chips cost more than $500, and
Intel's 486DX/50, a CISC microprocessor also rated at
about 40 MIPS, costs $502. TI developed the microSparc (see the photo) with Sun Microsystems (Mountain View, CA) and Mentor Graphics (Wilsonville, OR). The 50-MHz chip is compatible with SPARC International's Version 8 architecture and SPARC software. Packing 800,000 transistors in a 0.8-micron CMOS, the microSparc includes a 32-bit integer unit, an FPU, an MMU (memory management unit), a data aligner/parity checker, a DRAM controller that you can configure, an I/O bus controller supporting five SBus slots, a 4-KB instruction cache, and a 2-KB data cache. Power consumption is less than 4 W. By comparison, a Sun Sparcstation IPX workstation requires 29 chips for the same functions and consumes more than 20 W. Memory is addressed on a glueless 64-bit bus, allowing up to 128 MB of RAM. By mating the new microSparc chip with a pair of highly integrated I/O chips from NCR, systems designers need to add little more than memory and a clock crystal to build a workstation that includes a parallel port, serial ports, a SCSI connection, an Ethernet connector, and peripheral controllers. Several companies are working on microSparc-based systems for delivery early next year. Hyundai Electronics America (San Jose, CA) says it will have a workstation priced at under $5000 that will offer better performance than a high-end PC. Faye Briggs, Hyundai's senior director of engineering, said, "It [the microSparc] allows SPARC to come into a price range and achieve performance that no other chip can match today. IBM is trying to do the same thing with the PowerPC, but this chip is here today." A British laptop maker, Cambridge-based Tadpole, is said to be developing a microSparc portable, but company officials had no comment. Photograph: In addition to breaking price barriers, the highly integrated microSparc chip consumes much less power than comparable SPARC processors, making it ideal for portable computers. Copyright 1994-1997 BYTE |