Just as expected, Texas Instruments Inc, manufacturer of Sun Microsystems Inc MicroSparc and SuperSparc chips, is also going to make the UltraSparc-I, the first in a line of high-end binary-compatible 64-bit CMOS-based Sparcs not due until late next year. Meanwhile, Sun’s Sparc Technology Business unit says it is going to make good on its promises to cloners of early access to UltraSparc-I core technologies, development tools, simulation software, diagnostics and processor prototypes beginning in November. Sparc Technology reckons the new early access programme offers cloners a two-year jump on development cycles. Licensees will have access to all technical data and UltraSparc-I prototypes as they become available. Participation in the total programme, which includes design reviews and briefings, costs $750,000. The UltraSparc design, which adheres to the Sparc Version 9 specification, calls for it to deliver 200 SPECint92 performance at clocks of 100MHz to 170MHz. Texas is not expected to be UltraSparc’s sole fabricator. Intergraph Corp, which is making the chip bi-endian so it can run the version of Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system that it is doing, is interested in making the chip itself or having its silicon houses do it. All UltraSparcs made will be bi-endian, a development that is likely to be extended to MicroSparcs and SuperSparcs as well. To date, Texas Instruments claims that it has shipped more than 300,000 Sparc chips, more than any other RISC processor.
