Sun leads with MicroSparc II in IC merchant bid

Electronic News, Oct 18, 1993 by Reinhardt Krause

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. -- Sun Microsystems last week took the wraps off its microSparc II processor--one of the first devices it will sell directly as part of its move into the IC merchant market business (EN, Oct. 11).

The product line card of the Sparc Technology Business (STB) unit will include a wide range of system chipsets, graphics accelerators, and interface and logic devices. One of STB's first merchant efforts will be offering SuperSparc-based ASICs integrating the SX graphics engine of its SparcStation-10 family. Future graphics chips in development and other ASICs will be available in advance of their appearance in Sun's own workstation line, the company said.

Sun said the 0.5 micron, 70MHz microSparc II CPU is now sampling, but won't reveal pricing until later this year. Nor did Sun disclose the details of its distribution strategy, other than stating that its goal is not to compete with existing Sparc manufacturing partners, such as Texas Instruments and Fujitsu, as well as LSI Logic, AT&T's NCR, and other companies. There dwere some indications Sun felt it needs a bigger presence in some geographic regions.

Derek Meyer, director of Sparc marketing, said he expected Sun's pricing to be competitive with alternate sources, because of its ability to buy in volume. He estimated that Sun's computer business now buys up about 80-85 percent of the Sparc chips going into systems and about 60 percent of the devices overall.

Mr. Meyer declined to specify if Sun's contractual agreements with CPU suppliers such as TI or Fujitsu allowed it to increase those numbers, but he noted that the foundries had the option of producing as many chips as they want.

Overall, Sun's stance last week was that by offering multiple sources for the same components, along with new board design packages, it would make the Sparc architecture attractive to more users. While Sun does significant high-end business--with system makers such as Cray Research, Fujitsu, Hal Computers, MetaFlow and other supporting the Sparc--it is trying to attract more developers for embedded applications, medical imaging systems, telecommunications, and industrial control. Earlier this year, the STB unit unveiled new embedded partners, such as Xerox, Themis Computers, Ready Systems, Lynx Real-Time Systems, and Wind River Systems (EN, April 12).

Also behind Sun's new marketing strategy is to provide its Sparc architecture with a complete set of building blocks as well as engineering expertise to compete with the likes of the Pentium, Mips and PowerPc, which are driving up in performance.

Mr. Meyer said Many smaller systems houses cannot devote development efforts toward designing their own system chipsets, interfaces or glue logic. On the other hand, Mr. Meyer said there was a need for "meat and potato" ASICs, while Sun also planned to offer customers much of its new expertise in graphics design.

The STB will distribute microSparc, Super-Sparc, and upcoming UltraSparc CPUs, as well as ASICs for graphics, audio, video, bus and memory controllers, and input/output. sun also plans to support third-party manufacturers by providing reference designs, software, and diagnostic tools. STB's existing line included SparcStation designs, Sparc-engine boards and Sparc CPU designs.

To be manufactured by Fujitsu, the 32-bit microSparc II will sample at 70MHz, with an estimated throughput above 50 SPECint92 and 43 SPENCfpt92, the company said.

The new device uses a three-layer metal process, with a 3.3V core and optional 3.3V/5V I/O. Up to 256MB DRAM is supported. It is packaged in a 321-pin PGA.