Sun-4
Encyclopedia
Sun-4 is a series of Unix
workstation
s and server
s produced by Sun Microsystems
, launched in 1987. The original Sun-4 series were VMEbus
-based systems similar to the earlier Sun-3
series, but employing microprocessor
s based on Sun's own SPARC
V7 RISC architecture in place of the 68k
family processors of previous Sun models.
In 1989, Sun dropped the "Sun-4" name for marketing purposes in favor of the SPARCstation
and SPARCserver brands for new models, although early SPARCstation/server models were also assigned Sun-4-series model numbers. For example, the SPARCstation 1
was also known as the Sun 4/60. This practice was phased out with the introduction of the SPARCserver 600MP series in 1991. The term Sun-4 continued to be used in an engineering context to identify the basic hardware architecture of all SPARC-based Sun systems.
Sun 4/110, 4/150, 4/260 and 4/280 systems upgraded with the Sun 4300 CPU board (as used in the SPARCserver 300 series) were referred to as the 4/310, 4/350, 4/360 and 4/380 respectively.
3.2 onwards and Solaris
2.1 to 2.4. OpenBSD
also will run on the Sun-4 architecture families.
Several variations on the Sun-4 architecture were subsequently developed and used in later computer systems produced by Sun and other vendors. These comprised:
Sun-4c: (C presumably for Campus, the codename of the first Sun-4c model, the SPARCstation 1
) This desktop workstation/low-end server variant substituted the 32-bit SBus
expansion bus in place of VME and introduced a new MMU design. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3c onwards and Solaris 2.0 to 7.
Sun-4e: A hybrid Sun-4c/VME architecture found in the SPARCengine 1 (Sun 4/E) VME embedded controller. This board was originally designed by Force Computers and licensed to Sun. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3e and 4.1e and Solaris 2.1 to 2.4.
Sun-4m: Originally a multiprocessor
Sun-4 variant, based around the MBus processor module bus introduced in the SPARCserver 600MP series. The Sun-4m architecture later also encompassed non-MBus uniprocessor systems such as the SPARCstation 5
, utilizing SPARC V8-architecture processors. Supported by SunOS 4.1.2 onwards and Solaris 2.1 to 9. SPARCserver 600MP support was dropped after Solaris 2.5.1.
Sun-4d
: (D for Dragon, the codename of the SPARCcenter 2000) A high-end multiprocessor architecture, based around the XDBus processor interconnect, scalable up to 20 processors. The only Sun-4d systems produced by Sun were the SPARCserver 1000 and SPARCcenter 2000 series. The Cray CS6400
was also nominally a Sun-4d machine (sun4d6), although it required a custom version of Solaris. Supported by Solaris 2.2 to 8.
Sun-4u: This variant introduced the 64-bit
UltraSPARC
(SPARC V9) processor architecture and UPA processor interconnect first used in the Sun Ultra series
. Supported by Solaris 2.5 onwards. UltraSPARC I support was dropped after Solaris 9.
Sun-4u1: Sometimes used to identify the Sun Enterprise 10000 (Starfire) 64-way multiprocessor server architecture. The Starfire is supported by Solaris 2.5.1 onwards.
Sun-4us: A variant of Sun-4u specific to Fujitsu
PRIMEPOWER systems based on SPARC64 V
processors.
Sun-4v: (V presumably for "virtualized") A variation on Sun-4u which includes hypervisor
processor virtualization; introduced in the UltraSPARC T1
(Niagara) multicore
processor. Supported by Solaris 10 3/05 HW2 onwards.
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
s and server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s produced by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, launched in 1987. The original Sun-4 series were VMEbus
VMEbus
VMEbus is a computer bus standard, originally developed for the Motorola 68000 line of CPUs, but later widely used for many applications and standardized by the IEC as ANSI/IEEE 1014-1987. It is physically based on Eurocard sizes, mechanicals and connectors , but uses its own signalling system,...
-based systems similar to the earlier Sun-3
Sun-3
Sun-3 was the name given to a series of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched on September 9th, 1985. The Sun-3 series were VMEbus-based systems similar to some of the earlier Sun-2 series, but using the Motorola 68020 microprocessor, in combination with the...
series, but employing microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
s based on Sun's own SPARC
SPARC
SPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
V7 RISC architecture in place of the 68k
68k
The Motorola 680x0/m68000/68000 is a family of 32-bit CISC microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and were the primary competitors of Intel's x86 microprocessors...
family processors of previous Sun models.
Models
Models are listed in approximately chronological order.| Model | Codename | CPU board | CPU | CPU MHz | Max. RAM | Chassis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4/260 | Sunrise | Sun 4200 | Fujitsu Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues.... SF9010 IU, Weitek Weitek Weitek Corporation was a chip-design company that originally concentrated on floating point units for a number of commercial CPU designs. During the early to mid-1980s, Weitek designs could be found powering a number of high-end designs and parallel processing supercomputers... 1164/1165 FPU |
16.67 MHz | 128 MB | 12-slot VME (deskside) |
| 4/280 | Sunrise | Sun 4200 | Fujitsu SF9010 IU, Weitek 1164/1165 FPU |
16.67 MHz | 128 MB | 12-slot VME (rackmount) |
| 4/110 | Cobra | Sun 4100 | Fujitsu MB86900 MB86900 The MB86900 is a microprocessor chip set that implements the SPARC V7 instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems. It was the first implementation of SPARC and was used in the first SPARC-based workstation, the Sun Microsystems Sun-4. The chip set operated at 16.67 MHz. The chip set... IU, Weitek 1164/1165 FPU (optional) |
14.28 MHz | 32 MB | 3-slot VME (desktop/side) |
| 4/150 | Cobra | Sun 4100 | Fujitsu MB86900 MB86900 The MB86900 is a microprocessor chip set that implements the SPARC V7 instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems. It was the first implementation of SPARC and was used in the first SPARC-based workstation, the Sun Microsystems Sun-4. The chip set operated at 16.67 MHz. The chip set... IU, Weitek 1164/1165 FPU (optional) |
14.28 MHz | 32 MB | 6-slot VME (deskside) |
| 4/310 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 32 MB | 3-slot VME (desktop/side) |
| 4/330 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 96 MB | 3-slot VME w 2 memory slots (deskside) |
| 4/350 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 224 MB | 5-slot VME (desktop/side) |
| 4/360 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 224 MB | 12-slot VME (deskside) |
| 4/370 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 224 MB | 12-slot VME (deskside) |
| 4/380 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 224 MB | 12-slot VME (rackmount) |
| 4/390 | Stingray | Sun 4300 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
25 MHz | 224 MB | 16-slot VME (rackmount) |
| 4/470 | Sunray | Sun 4400 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
33 MHz | 768 MB | 16-slot VME (deskside) |
| 4/490 | Sunray | Sun 4400 | Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and... CY7C601, Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... 8847 FPU |
33 MHz | 768 MB | 12-slot VME (rackmount) |
In 1989, Sun dropped the "Sun-4" name for marketing purposes in favor of the SPARCstation
SPARCstation
The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines were a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and servers in desktop, deskside and rack-based form factor developed and sold by Sun Microsystems...
and SPARCserver brands for new models, although early SPARCstation/server models were also assigned Sun-4-series model numbers. For example, the SPARCstation 1
SPARCstation 1
The SPARCstation 1, or Sun 4/60, is the first of the SPARCstation series of SPARC-based computer workstations sold by Sun Microsystems. It had a distinctive slim enclosure and was first sold in April 1989, with Sun's support for it ending in 1995.Based around a LSI Logic RISC CPU running at...
was also known as the Sun 4/60. This practice was phased out with the introduction of the SPARCserver 600MP series in 1991. The term Sun-4 continued to be used in an engineering context to identify the basic hardware architecture of all SPARC-based Sun systems.
Sun 4/110, 4/150, 4/260 and 4/280 systems upgraded with the Sun 4300 CPU board (as used in the SPARCserver 300 series) were referred to as the 4/310, 4/350, 4/360 and 4/380 respectively.
Sun-4 architecture
The Sun-4 architecture refers to the VME-based architecture described above and used in the Sun 4/100, 4/200, SPARCserver 300 and SPARCserver 400 ranges. Sun-4 support was included in SunOSSunOS
SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
3.2 onwards and Solaris
Solaris Operating System
Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
2.1 to 2.4. OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
also will run on the Sun-4 architecture families.
Several variations on the Sun-4 architecture were subsequently developed and used in later computer systems produced by Sun and other vendors. These comprised:
Sun-4c: (C presumably for Campus, the codename of the first Sun-4c model, the SPARCstation 1
SPARCstation 1
The SPARCstation 1, or Sun 4/60, is the first of the SPARCstation series of SPARC-based computer workstations sold by Sun Microsystems. It had a distinctive slim enclosure and was first sold in April 1989, with Sun's support for it ending in 1995.Based around a LSI Logic RISC CPU running at...
) This desktop workstation/low-end server variant substituted the 32-bit SBus
SBus
SBus is a computer bus system that was used in most SPARC-based computers from Sun Microsystems and others during the 1990s...
expansion bus in place of VME and introduced a new MMU design. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3c onwards and Solaris 2.0 to 7.
Sun-4e: A hybrid Sun-4c/VME architecture found in the SPARCengine 1 (Sun 4/E) VME embedded controller. This board was originally designed by Force Computers and licensed to Sun. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3e and 4.1e and Solaris 2.1 to 2.4.
Sun-4m: Originally a multiprocessor
Multiprocessor
Computer system having two or more processing units each sharing main memory and peripherals, in order to simultaneously process programs.Sometimes the term Multiprocessor is confused with the term Multiprocessing....
Sun-4 variant, based around the MBus processor module bus introduced in the SPARCserver 600MP series. The Sun-4m architecture later also encompassed non-MBus uniprocessor systems such as the SPARCstation 5
SPARCstation 5
SPARCstation 5 or SS5 is a workstation sold by Sun Microsystems. It is based on the sun4m architecture, and is enclosed in a pizza-box chassis. A simplified, cheaper version of the SS5 was later released as the SPARCstation 4...
, utilizing SPARC V8-architecture processors. Supported by SunOS 4.1.2 onwards and Solaris 2.1 to 9. SPARCserver 600MP support was dropped after Solaris 2.5.1.
Sun-4d
Sun4d
Sun4d is a computer architecture introduced bySun Microsystems in 1992. It is a development of the earlier Sun-4 architecture, using the XDBus system bus,SuperSPARC processors, and SBus I/O cards. The XDBuswas the result of a collaboration between Sun...
: (D for Dragon, the codename of the SPARCcenter 2000) A high-end multiprocessor architecture, based around the XDBus processor interconnect, scalable up to 20 processors. The only Sun-4d systems produced by Sun were the SPARCserver 1000 and SPARCcenter 2000 series. The Cray CS6400
Cray CS6400
The Cray Superserver 6400, or CS6400, was a multiprocessor server computer system produced by Cray Research Superservers, Inc., a subsidiary of Cray Research, and launched in 1993...
was also nominally a Sun-4d machine (sun4d6), although it required a custom version of Solaris. Supported by Solaris 2.2 to 8.
Sun-4u: This variant introduced the 64-bit
64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
UltraSPARC
UltraSPARC
The UltraSPARC is a microprocessor developed by Sun Microsystems who is now a part of Oracle Corporation and fabricated by Texas Instruments that implements the SPARC V9 instruction set architecture . It was introduced in mid-1995. It was the first microprocessor from Sun Microsystems to implement...
(SPARC V9) processor architecture and UPA processor interconnect first used in the Sun Ultra series
Sun Ultra series
The original Sun Ultra series was a series of UltraSPARC-based workstations and servers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems from 1995 to 2001...
. Supported by Solaris 2.5 onwards. UltraSPARC I support was dropped after Solaris 9.
Sun-4u1: Sometimes used to identify the Sun Enterprise 10000 (Starfire) 64-way multiprocessor server architecture. The Starfire is supported by Solaris 2.5.1 onwards.
Sun-4us: A variant of Sun-4u specific to Fujitsu
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
PRIMEPOWER systems based on SPARC64 V
SPARC64 V
SPARC64 V refers to two unique microprocessors, the SPARC64 V "Zeus" developed by Fujitsu, and an earlier design developed by HAL Computer Systems that never made it into production. The HAL design was canceled in mid-2001 when HAL, a subsidiary of Fujitsu, was closed...
processors.
Sun-4v: (V presumably for "virtualized") A variation on Sun-4u which includes hypervisor
Hypervisor
In computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager , is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than a supervisory program...
processor virtualization; introduced in the UltraSPARC T1
UltraSPARC T1
|right|262px|UltraSPARC T1 processorSun Microsystems' UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename "Niagara", is a multithreading, multicore CPU...
(Niagara) multicore
Multicore
Multicore may refer to:* Multi-core processor ** Multicore Association, founded in 2005, a non-profit, industry consortium focused on multicore technology* multicore cable, a generic term for an electrical cable that has multiple cores...
processor. Supported by Solaris 10 3/05 HW2 onwards.