SuperSPARC

SuperSPARC
The SuperSPARC microprocessor
General information
Launched1992
Discontinued1995
Designed bySun Microsystems
Common manufacturer
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate33 MHz to 90 MHz
Cache
L2 cachenone, 1 MB, 2 MB
Architecture and classification
Instruction setSPARC V8
Physical specifications
Transistors
  • 3.1 million
Cores
  • 1

The SuperSPARC is a microprocessor that implements the SPARC V8 instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Sun Microsystems. 33 and 40 MHz versions were introduced in 1992. The SuperSPARC contains 3.1 million transistors. It was fabricated by Texas Instruments (TI) at Miho, Japan in a 0.8 micrometre triple-metal[1] BiCMOS process.[2]

There are two derivatives of the SuperSPARC: the SuperSPARC+ and SuperSPARC-II. The SuperSPARC+ was developed to remedy some of the design flaws that limited the SuperSPARC's clock frequency and thus performance. The SuperSPARC-II, introduced in 1994, was a major revision with improvements that enabled the microprocessor to reach 85 MHz in desktop systems and 90 MHz in the more heavily cooled SPARCserver-1000E.

SuperSPARC CPU modules are used in both the SPARCstation 10 and SPARCstation 20.

The SuperSPARC-II was replaced in 1995 by the 64-bit UltraSPARC, an implementation of the 64-bit SPARC V9 ISA.

Models

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SuperSPARC (Viking)

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Model CPU L2 Cache Clock Speed Bus Speed Notes
SM20 1 CPU none 33 MHz 33 MHz
SM21 1 CPU 1 MB 33 MHz 33 MHz only works in early SPARCserver-2000 systems
SM30 1 CPU none 36 MHz 36 MHz
SM40 1 CPU none 40 MHz 40 MHz
SM41 1 CPU 1 MB 40.3 MHz 40 MHz
SM50 1 CPU none 50 MHz 50 MHz
SM51 1 CPU 1 MB 50 MHz 40 MHz
SM51-2 1 CPU 2 MB 50 MHz 40 MHz
SM52 2 CPU 1 MB 45 MHz 40 MHz
SM52X 2 CPU 1 MB 50 MHz 40 MHz
SM61 1 CPU 1 MB 60 MHz 50/55 MHz
SM61-2 1 CPU 2 MB 60 MHz 50/55 MHz

SuperSPARC II (Voyager)

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Model CPU L2 Cache Clock Speed Bus Speed Notes
SM71 1 CPU 1 MB 75 MHz 50 MHz
SM81 1 CPU 1 MB 85 MHz 50 MHz
SM81-2 1 CPU 2 MB 85 MHz 50/55 MHz
SM91-2 1 CPU 2 MB 90 MHz 50 MHz

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "SuperSPARC Microprocessor Fact Sheet". Archived from the original on 2015-02-22.
  2. ^ "Testability features of the SuperSPARC microprocessor". Proceedings of IEEE International Test Conference - (ITC). 1993. doi:10.1109/TEST.1993.470625.
  • "TI SuperSPARC for Sun Station 3 in production". (11 May 1992). Electronic News.
  • DeTar, Jim (10 October 1994). "Sun sets SuperSPARC-II as UltraSPARC V9 bridge". Electronic News.