Sun offers single-board versions of workstations

Electronic News, Nov 23, 1992

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.--Sun Microsystems last week released single-board OEM versions of the new Sparc-classic and Sparcstation LX low-end workstations introduced the week before (EN, Nov. 16), continuing an effort started earlier this year to be more forthcoming with such technologies.

Sun has already started shipping limited quantities of its Sparcengine LX board to RDI Computer, a San Diego maker of portable Sparc compatibles. RDI showed an early version of an LX-based machine at Comdex last week and plans to start shipments in late December.

General deliveries of the LX board and the companion Sparcclassic engine are also scheduled to start in December, matching Sun's rollout plans for the full workstations. That compares with lags of two to three months on delivery of OEM boards in the past.

Peter Palm, manager of board marketing for Sun's computer subsidiary, attributed some of the gain to increased efficiency, but noted that market forces are also playing a role. "All of the OEMs are driven by catching up with their competitors, and they'd like this technology in their products as soon as possible," he said.

Sun has been trying since last spring to expedite the delivery of the basic Sparc technology to other vendors, after previously holding chip-set designs closely until their life-cycles were almost up (EN, April 13). The move to speed up board shipments appears to be a related endeavor.

Like the full workstations, the two boards use the 50MHz version of the microSparc processor developed jointly by Sun and Texas Instruments. Both are rated for 59.1Mips performance and can support up to 96MB of memory on-board along with an Ethernet adapter and 10MBps SCSI I/O interface.

The Sparcclassic engine lists for $3,100 with basic color graphics, 8-bit audio and the Solaris 2.1 operating system, while the LX version, priced at $4,250 in single quantities, adds a graphics accelerator, 16-bit CD-quality audio and ISDN connectivity.

The basic boards don't include any memory, which must be purchased separately in 8MB or 16MB increments. Sun's pricing starts at $595 for the smaller-capacity single inline memory module, but Mr. Palm noted that OEMs "might get them cheaper elsewhere."

The boards are targeted at use in laptops, ruggedized systems, and telecom, factory floor and medical devices and carry a one-year warranty, up from 90 days on previous models. RDI is pricing its BriteLite LX portable, using an active matrix color display, from $15,995.