Original Document
Sun Unveils Third Generation UltraSPARC-III Microprocessor Family
Family To Enable 1000+ Processor Systems And Up To 3X Performance Boost
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- October 6, 1997 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today
unveiled the third generation of the high-performance UltraSPARCTM product line,
the 64-bit UltraSPARC-IIITM microprocessor family. Initially at 600MHz, the
UltraSPARC-III with the VISTM Instruction Set, is highly scalable enabling
systems using up to 1000+ processors while maintaining complete SolarisTM
operating system (OS) and application software compatibility.
"The 600MHz target frequency of the UltraSPARC-III represents a very
significant step forward for Sun and UltraSPARC," said Andrew Allison, industry
analyst and publisher of Inside The New Computer Industry. "This frequency
should translate to very competitive systems in the future."
Revolutionary Performance
The UltraSPARC-III microprocessor will offer a two- to three-times
performance boost, without recompilation, compared to previous processor
generations. This unprecedented performance is possible due to the processor's
memory bandwidth, which is more than twice as high as previous processors and
the highest in the industry at 2.4 GB/s. With 8 MB of second level cache, the
600MHz UltraSPARC-III processor will deliver an estimated SPECint95 of 35+ and
SPECfp95 of 60+. The floating point measure of the processor is evidence of its
superior performance for large data-set computing, such as computer aided
design, computer aided manufacturing, electronic design automation and
scientific modeling applications.
"With the exponential growth of the Internet and network computing, the
marketplace is demanding high-performance processors that are highly-scalable," said Anant Agrawal, vice president and general manager of Sun Microsystems
microelectronics division. "The UltraSPARC-III will fill this need and allow our
customers to create high-performance, multiprocessor systems that are easily
expandable to support rapid infrastructure growth."
Networking and the ability to process information rapidly is the most
important issue in computing today. In addition to its many other features that
support this goal, the UltraSPARC-III processor includes the VIS Instruction
Set, which is the highest performance and most robust set of multimedia and
networking extensions available. At 600MHz, it will deliver six billion
operation per second enabling the UltraSPARC family to push the limits of
networking acceleration as well as the limits of media acceleration.
Multiprocessor Scalability
"Innovation in computer architectures is currently focused on combining
multiple processors into single coherent systems," said Chris Willard, director
of high-performance computing research for IDC Research. "Servers supporting
Internet and intranet applications benefit from this type of scalability in two
ways. First it allows systems directly supporting web functions to easily and
transparently increase capacity with increases in demand, such as hit rate.
Second, it allows back-end applications servers, such as those supporting data
warehousing, to grow with increases in applications size and user requirements."
The UltraSPARC-III is the industry's leading scalable processor enabling
1000+ processor systems, such as those that will be used in future generations
of high-performance server equipment in the enterprise and telecom market.
"Sun has the hottest servers in the industry, thanks to our balanced
system design, the power of the UltraSPARC architecture and the Solaris
operating environment," said John Shoemaker, vice president of Sun's enterprise
server and storage group. "The UltraSPARC-III will
allow Sun to further advance its award-winning server family and push forward
with even more powerful and scalable multiprocessor systems."
100 Percent Operating System and Applications Software Compatiblity
The UltraSPARC-III processor offers 100 percent binary compatibility for
applications running the Solaris operating system, fully protecting a customer's
software investment. It offers industry-leading performance in the most widely
used software applications.
Solaris 2.6, the market-leading UNIX® operating environment and
applications base, offers significant advantages to meet today's most demanding
enterprise challenges: competitive performance, integrated networking, database
connectivity, superior reliability and security. The UltraSPARC-III processor is
supported by key Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and the SPARCTM platform is
supported by industry-leading Real Time Operating System (RTOS) vendors.
The UltraSPARC-III processor family is targeted for network servers at
the heart of the Internet infrastructure, for power desktops and for enterprise
and workgroup servers. Due to its large memory bandwidth and multiprocessor
scalability, the UltraSPARC-III offers significant advantages for
high-performance computing applications, such as electronic commerce, scientific
computation and data mining.
Availability
The UltraSPARC-III microprocessor is expected to sample during the
summer of 1998. It will be manufactured by
Texas Instruments using TI's EPIC-5
process. Production will begin with .25 micron CMOS technology and rapidly scale
to .18 micron.
"The Sun/Texas Instruments partnership continues to be a strong one and
is a significant competitive advantage for both companies," said Rich Templeton,
executive vice president and semiconductor group president for Texas Instruments
(TI). "Sun continues to create designs that drive process technology down to
industry-leading micron sizes and TI continues to deliver with superior process
technology. TI is firmly committed to delivering the process technology, yields
and resources necessary to support Sun's leadership position in high-performance
processors."
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer',"" has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ: SUNW), to its position as a
leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing
enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more
than $8.5 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150
countries and on the WorldWide Web at
http://www.sun.com.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Solaris, VIS, and The Network Is The
Computer, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in
the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under
license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc.
in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are
based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a
registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively
licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.