Texas Instruments Inc is now said to be sampling 60MHz versions of the SuperSparc+ RISC, destined for use in future Sun Microsystems Inc computers. Texas expects 75 SPECint92 and 0095 SPECfp92 from the part – similar performance marks, Microprocessor Report observes, to Hewlett-Packard Co’s current 99MHz Precision Architecture 7100, MIPS Technologies Inc’s 150MHz R4400 and Digital Equipment Corp’s 150MHz Alpha AXP still some way behind the 200MHz Alpha, however. Texas’s 60MHz SuperSparc+ is tagged at $1,000 for 1,000-up – the required cache controller chip is an extra $400 – meaning that the total cost is still higher than the $1,120 for the R4400, $860 for the 150MHz Alpha in similar quantities, and also more than the lower-performing Intel Corp Pentium at $1,050, which comes with built-in cache control. At the same time, Texas has also cut the price of its initial two-chip 50MHz SuperSparc+ to $1,080. A 40MHz, 50 SPECint92 version which does not require the cache control chip is renamed SuperSparc-LE and costs $450 – $300 for 10,000-up. It is intended for high-end embedded applications.
