LSI Logic Corp is trying to help Sparcsystem builders to compete against a Sun Microsystems Inc machine that has not yet been announced, the low-end colour box based on the now-fabled Tsunami chip. This week, the Milpitas, California company will announce a 40MHz Mbus SparKit it says will let a cloner bring a colour Sparcstation 2-compatible machine to market for under $5,000. LSI is guessing the Tsunami box, due this autumn, will offer the same performance as a Sparcstation 2 with colour for between $5,000 and $6,000, according to product marketing manager Hiral Gheewala. LSI says a SparKit box would offer 8Mb internal and a 224Mb disk at under $5,000, a price point cloner Tatung Science & Technology Inc reckons can be pulled off. The SparKit LSI is announcing is the self-same kit it was supposed to come up with almost two years ago – one that would have produced a Sparcstation 2 clone for $18,000. The only change made to the design in the intervening time was making the device surface mount rather than pin grid array, LSI said, a factor that contributes to its cost-effectiveness. Since it is LSI’s own proprietary design rather than belonging to Sun, this time around no royalties will have to be paid to Sun, another factor in its economy. Lastly, LSI has put Super VGA graphics capabilities on board, providing cloners with other savings. The SparKit-40/Mbus manufacturing kit is said to includes manufacturing diagnostics and everything a cloner needs to knock out a Sparcstation 2-compatible for $10,000. Being Mbus-based, the unit could house a uniprocessor Viking chip and produce a low-end Sparcstation 10 clone priced at between $12,000 and $13,000. The SparKit-40 chip set itself includes a new L64831 integrated integer-floating point unit, said to offer the highest floating point performance in its class, memory management unit, memory control, Mbus interface, Mbus-to-Sbus interface, Sbus DMA and Sbus graphics controller. SparKit-40/Mbus supports Solaris 1.X from SunSoft and will sell for $630 in quantities of 100 kits a month. Production shipments started this month with volume expected in August. LSI is making the single-chip L 64831, designed specifically for uniprocessors, available as a separate product either surface mounted for $168 or pin grid array for $206 in 100up quantities. LSI Logic estimates floating point performance at 15% over the existing LSI part, 25% better than the competition.
