The SuperSPARC is a

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

that implements the

SPARC V8 SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed ...

instruction set architecture In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ...

(ISA) developed by

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...

. 33 and 40 MHz versions were introduced in 1992. The SuperSPARC contains 3.1 million transistors. It was fabricated by

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

(TI) at Miho, Japan in a 0.8 micrometre triple-metal BiCMOS process.Testability features of the SuperSPARC microprocessor. Sun 1993
/ref> 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 The SPARCstation 10 (codenamed ''Campus-2'') is a workstation computer made by Sun Microsystems. Announced in May 1992, it was Sun's first desktop multiprocessor (being housed in a pizza box form factor case). It was later replaced with the SPA ...

and SPARCstation 20. The SuperSPARC-II was replaced in 1995 by the 64-bit

UltraSPARC The UltraSPARC is a microprocessor developed by Sun Microsystems and fabricated by Texas Instruments, introduced in mid-1995. It is the first microprocessor from Sun to implement the 64-bit SPARC V9 instruction set architecture (ISA). Marc Tre ...

, an implementation of the

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A ...

SPARC V9 SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed in ...

ISA.

Models

SuperSPARC (Viking)

SuperSPARC II (Voyager)

Image:TI_SuperSPARC_I_die.JPG, TI SuperSPARC I Image:Sun_SuperSPARC_II_die.JPG, Sun SuperSPARC II

References

* "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''. SPARC microprocessors Sun microprocessors Texas Instruments microprocessors 32-bit microprocessors {{Compu-hardware-stub

Models

SuperSPARC (Viking)

SuperSPARC II (Voyager)

See also

References