grandi@noao.edu (Steve Grandi) (04/26/89)
I flew to San Francisco for Sun's glitzy product introduction of new
products. Sun used the Civic Auditorium to introduce and demonstrate the
new machines, give technical talks and allow software companies to show
off their wares on the new systems. Aside from the specifications and
prices of the new machines, several interesting nuggets of information
were revealed about the future development of SunOS.
Buzz-phrases of the day were "Welcome to the New World" and "Computing
without Compromise."
(I have excised some price information in the following since the numbers I
cribbed for my internal report for all but the 4/60 and the 3/80 were from a
pricelist marked "Sun Private." Your sales rep knows all.)
New Computer Systems
The SPARCstation-1 (previously known by the code name campus-1 and
referred to on the price list as the 4/60) has the following features:
-- The system box is 16x16x2.5 inches in size, with room for a 3.5 inch
floppy (IBM format), two 104 Mb 3.5 inch disk drives and the cpu card. The
system is certified by the FCC as Class B, suitable for home use. The box
is very "designed" with a dimpled front panel and other such flourishes.
The power supply (only 85W) is universal and can be used anywhere in the
world.
-- The cpu uses the Fujitsu/LSI "almost custom" CMOS SPARC chip (running at
20 MHz) and a Weitek Abacus 3170 FP coprocessor generating 12.5 MIPS
(Dhrystone 1.1) and 1.4 MFLOPS (double precision Linpack). The cpu (on a
card 8.5 x 11 in.) is heavily integrated into ASIC ("fewer chips than a
Macintosh") and is entirely surface mount. Memory runs from 8 to 16 Mb
in 4 Mb increments. Multiply by a factor of 4 when 4 Mbit DRAMS become
common. The hardware features an 8 context MMU (0.5 Gb per context) and a
64 Kb virtual write-through cache ("cache consistency is handled by
software") supporting DVMA. The page size is 4 Kb.
-- Systems are built in a new factory in Milpitas and one comes off the line
every 4 minutes. 4/60 production is underway.
-- The system features a parallel port (new!) and the usual 2 serial
ports, Ethernet and SCSI (using a new small connector).
-- The system features a three slot bus, called the S-bus (described as
"like a synchronous VME bus") to support options, primarily frame buffers.
In the SPARCstation 1, the S-bus is also the system bus supporting two
memory controllers, the video interface, a DMA interface to the LANCE
Ethernet chip and the 53C90 SCSI chip as well as the S-bus slots. Other
items (audio, floppy, serial ports, etc.) hang off an 8-bit I/O bus connected
to the CPU.
-- The S-bus features a 32-bit data bus, a 28-bit physical
address bus, 32-bit virtual addressing, a 7-level interrupt structure,
central arbitration for bus mastership and 16 byte burst transfers.
"Cache burst fills" operate at 24 Mb/sec. S-bus cards are about 3 x 5 in.
and require no jumpers (addressing is "geographical" and cards include
on-board autoconfiguration and diagnostic code written in Forth).
-- Available immediately will be monochrome, 8-bit color (CG4, as on a 3/60),
and GX (also known by the code name Lego) described as a graphics
accelerator, but is also a very fast, 400K 2D vectors/sec, 8-bit color system
with raster-ops; GX will take 2 S-bus slots). Also available is a second
Ethernet interface. Expect soon a hi-resolution monochrome card, a
24-bit color card (CG8, as on the 4/110TC) and a parallel interface
card.
-- The 100 Mb disks are embedded SCSI drives that use synchronous SCSI
commands to achieve disk speeds of 1.2 Mb/sec. 200 Mb drives will be
available later. A new peripheral box called the lunchbox is available
featuring either a cartridge tape (same old drive, but now rated at 150 Mb
in capacity using QIC-150) or a 100 Mb disk. The old familiar
shoebox has been restructured (it looks like the 386i expansion box) to
hold two 327 Mb disks or one drive plus a cartridge tape. The 4/60
features the new "Corporate SCSI" driver.
-- Available monitors include 17-inch monochrome (new), 19-inch
monochrome, 16-inch color and 19-inch color.
-- The SPARCstation 1 features an AMD 79C30 Telcom interface chip.
Features of the "telephone quality" audio system are 8-bit samples (both
input and output), an 8 KHz sampling rate, and u-Law/A-Law compression.
An internal speaker is included plus jacks for audio in/out, microphone
and earphone. Software to support the audio system includes a simple
driver interface (/dev/audio) and a "sound" program for recording, playing
and simple editing of sounds.
-- The floppy disk drive is the "first implementation of the corporate
floppy interface" and supports both file systems and tape-like operation
(tar files). File systems and tar files written on the SPARCstation 1 are
fully compatible with the 3/80 and vice versa. Tar files written on
floppies on the SPARCstation 1 can be interchanged with the 386i but, due
to byte ordering differences, not file systems.
-- List prices for some announced configurations are: 4/60FM2-8 (17-in.
mono., 8 Mb, diskless) $8,995; 4/60M1-8 (19-in. mono., 8 Mb, diskless)
$9,995; 4/60FC-8 (16-in color, 8 Mb, diskless) $12,495, 4/60C-8 (19-in.
color, 8 Mb, diskless) $14,495, 4/60FGX-8 (16-in. GX, 8 Mb, diskless)
$14,995. Add $3,000 for two 104 Mb internal SCSI disks and a 1.44 Mb
3.5-in internal floppy (-P4 configuration). Add $2,000 for 4 Mb of memory.
The Desktop Backup Pack 1/4-in. tape drive costs $1,600.
-- Sun delighted to compare the 4/60 with the DEC DECstation 3100. DEC
claims a performance of 14 MIPS (dhrystone 1.1) and 1.6 MFLOPS (double
precision Linpack) for the DS 3100 compared to Sun's claimed 12.5 MIPS and
1.4 MFLOPS. Yet list prices for the DS 3100 are substantially higher:
8 Mb diskless DS3100 systems have list prices of $11,900 for 15-in. mono.,
$12,900 for 19-in. mono., $14,900 for 15-in. color and $17,900 for 19-in.
color. Thus Sun claims the price/performance championship for the 4/60.
DEC's prices for peripherals and memory are also more expensive
than Sun's: A 16 Mb, 19-in. color DS 3100 with 104 Mb internal disk has a
list price of $26,300 while a similar 4/60 (208 Mb of disk rather 104 Mb)
has a list price of $21,495.
The SPARCstation and SPARCserver 300 systems (known as the 4/300 series in the
pricelist) have the following features:
-- The cpu is a "dual wide" card and uses the Cypress CY7C601 SPARC
chip (running at 25 MHz) and a TI 8847 floating point chip. Claimed
performance is 16 MIPS (Dhrystone 1.1) and 2.6 MFLOPS (DP Linpack). The
4/300 series features 16 contexts in hardware (each context 1 Gb in size),
a 128K virtual write-through cache, 4 serial ports and Ethernet on the cpu
card, a "full" VME bus implementation, synchronous SCSI on the cpu card,
and a P4 connector for frame buffers. Memory capacity is 8 to 40 Mb
(4/330), 56 Mb (4/370 and 4/390).
-- The SPARCstation/SPARCserver 330 (it is a lot easier to type "4/330"!)
features a new 5-slot office pedestal with 3 Sun 9U VME slots (the cpu
takes 2, a fancy graphics card such as the GXP can fit in the third) and 2
industry standard 6U VME slots. The pedestal is also built with cable
management in mind allowing it to fit flush against a wall with cables
entering a V-shaped area. Two 327 Mb SCSI disks or a 327 Mb disk plus a
cartridge tape can fit in the cabinet.
-- SPARCstation 300s are available with monochrome graphics, GX
accelerated 8 bit color graphics, GXP 24-bit color (with support for 3D)
graphics, TAAC-1 (370 only) image processing graphics and SunVideo full
motion video I/O.
-- The 4/370 systems are mounted in the same 12 slot pedestal as the 3/470
systems.
-- The 4/390 servers are mounted in a new 56-in. cabinet (with a 16-slot
chassis) designed to hold a lot of 8-in. disk drives and a new front
loading 6250/1600/800 bpi 125 ips 1/2-in. tape drive (built by HP). A new
Sun-built IPI-2 interface card (a single 9U VME card; featuring 1 Mb of
cache and "sophisticated seek optimization algorithms") drives 1 Gb CDC
disks; the "full-up" configuration is 32 Gb in three cabinets.
-- Sun claims that the IPI interface on the SPARCserver 390 systems provides
the I/O performance and capacity to challenge the VAX 6300 series. For
example, a 4/390 (16 MIPS) with 2 Gb and a 1/2-in. tape costs about a
third of the price of a DEC VAX 6320 (8 MIPS) with the same configuration: a
factor of 6 better price/performance. I feel this comparison is still a
bit fantastic because the 6320 can support multiple I/O busses; until a
Sun system is available with such multiple I/O capability, A VAX may still
be the system of choice for the most I/O intensive tasks.
The 3/80 (previously known by the code name hydra) has the following features:
-- The 3/80 has the performance of a 3/60 at the price of a 3/50.
-- The 3/80 has the same exact package as the SPARCstation 1.
-- The cpu board features a 20 MHz 68030 and a 20 MHz 68882 running at 3.0
MIPS (dhrystone 1.1) and 0.16 MFLOPS (double precision Linpack).
For comparison, the 3/60 is rated at 3.0 MIPS and 0.12 MFLOPS. The usual
interfaces are attached (2 serial, Ethernet, parallel). 4 to 16 Mb can be
installed. 8 hardware contexts each with 0.25 Gb of virtual memory are
supported.
-- Options are attached via the P4 connector used on the 3/60 and 4/110.
Available frame buffers include monochrome, CG-4 and CG-8.
-- The 3/80 is binary compatible with other Sun-3 systems EXCEPT if one has
been in the habit with mucking directly with the paging hardware. The
other Sun-3 systems use Sun's own MMU; the 3/80 uses the MMU built into
the 68030.
-- The 3/80 is available now.
-- List prices for the announced configurations are: 3/80FM-4 (17-in.
mono., 4 Mb, diskless) $5,995; 3/80M-4 (19-in. mono., 4 Mb, diskless)
$6,995; 3/80FC-4 (16-in. color, 4 Mb, diskless) $9,495; 3/80C-8 (19-in.
color, 8 Mb, diskless) $13,495; 3/80FGX-8 (16-in. GX, 8 Mb, diskless)
$13,995; 3/80TFC-8 (16-in. 24-bit true color, 8 Mb, diskless) $15,495.
Add $3,000 for two 104 Mb internal SCSI disks (-P2 configuration). Add
$2,000 for 4 Mb of memory.
The 3/400 (3/470 and 3/480) systems have the following features:
-- The 3/470 is almost twice the performance of the 3/260 at the same
price.
-- The 3/400 cpu is a "dual-wide" card (a single cpu card that occupies
the volume of two cards to provide room for a video card that
attaches to a P4 connector) and features a 33 MHz 68030/68882 pair (7
MIPS measured with dhrystone 1.1 and 0.2 MFLOPS measured with double
precision Linpack). An optional FPA+ (binary compatible with the FPA used
previously on 3/100 and 3/200 machines) boosts the floating point
performance to 0.6 MFLOPS.
-- The system features a 64K write-back cache, a "cleaned-up" VME bus
interface (featuring a "new, patented, I/O cache"), and the 3/280 DVMA
system (i.e, 3/280 or 4/280 memory cards can be used in the system). The
system supports 8-128 Mb of memory.
-- The 3/470 workstations are available with monochrome graphics, GX
accelerated 8 bit color graphics, GXP 24-bit color (with support for 3D)
graphics, TAAC-1 image processing graphics and SunVideo full motion
video I/O.
-- The 3/470 systems are packaged in a redesigned pedestal featuring 12
slots (all for "big" 9U VME cards). Internal peripherals include a 327 Mb
SCSI disk and a cartridge tape. A 688 Mb SMD disk can be mounted in an
expansion pedestal.
-- The 3/480 servers come in the usual rack.
Graphics Hardware and Software
Sun was very proud of their graphics innovations and claim to break new
ground in the workstation industry.
-- The GX ("reduces 3 full 9U VME boards into two ASICs") accelerates the
whole window system (at the pixrects/pixwin level) by a factor of 2x to
10x. The GX does transformation, antialiasing, picking, cursor, clipping
and bit-blt. Besides general window acceleration, target applications are
2D and 3D wireframe. It is "scalable" meaning it can run 400K 2D
vectors/sec on the SPARCstation 1 and is projected to do 1M 2D vectors/sec
on a future 100 MIPS machine. The GX is available on all the new Suns (as
a S-bus or a P4 card) and will be available for 3/60 and 4/110 systems.
The GX incorporates the new CG6 8-bit color frame buffer.
-- The GXP (a full-sized 9U VME card) is meant for 3D solids applications
and includes 24-bit color, Gouraud shading, Z-buffering, picking,
depth-cueing and lighting models.
-- Announced, but not yet available, is SunVideo: 24-bit, live motion
video (in and out).
-- TAAC-1 (previously available).
-- New versions of SunPHIGS (1.1) and SunGKS (3.0) support these new
hardware features.
SunOS news
Sun revealed lots of news about SunOS at the San Francisco product
announcement.
SunOS 4.0.3 (4.0.2 was an "internal release only") will be shipped to
contract customers during May. It is a release "for ALL users to adopt"
and incorporates support all the new machines announced in San Francisco
(save the 4/390) and the peripherals announced in the last few months
(SMD-4, 688 Mb SMD disk, CG6, CG8, FPU2, SunDials) that were previously
supported by "feature tapes." 251 bug fixes have been incorporated from
4.0.0.
SunOS 3.5 will no longer be available in the standard price list. SunOS
4.0.3 is the last release to support Sun-2 systems. 4.0.3 "quality
reflects maturity and expanded QA focus." Sun "field expertise reflects
information program and experience (OS ambassadors trained, technical
support staff familiarity, performance demo and hints, campaign to correct
Sun-spots misinformation)" (sic!).
SunOS 4.0.3 features pre-configured small kernels for Sun-2/50, 3/50, 3/60
3/80, 4/110 and 4/330 systems. 4.0.3 includes SunDiag to replace SysDiag.
4.0.3 includes enhanced GPSI (new features for GP2/GP5 and GP+/GB/CG3
board sets).
SunOS 4.0.3 for the SPARCstation 1 (SunOS 4.0.3 4c) is a separate release
that includes some features from the mainstream 4.1. This release
supports the S-bus, new boot PROM and auto-configuration architecture,
audio capability, SimpleInstall, new corporate standard SCSI and floppy
drivers, loadable device drivers and automatic recovery from parity
errors. SunOS 4.0.3 4c is "pre-installed" with "pre-configured" kernels
and is available on floppies. It comes in a single international version
(a separate encryption kit is available for domestic users) and features a
new "PC-style" owner's manual set. All sun4 4.0.x binaries (including
SunLink layered products) will run.
The new machines require some differences in SunOS. For example the 3/80
and 3/470 machines have different MMUs than older Sun-3 systems. Thus is
born the idea of "kernel architectures" such as Sun-3 and Sun-3x (which
are the same application architecture) and Sun-4 and Sun-4c. The arch
command now has a -k flag to return the kernel architecture. Sun
compilers no longer automatically define the architecture type. Kernels
are built in the kernel architecture directory (i.e. /sys/sun3x/conf) and
there is no guarantee that different kernel architectures can share kernel
.o files. Kernel .h files may differ between architectures (try to use
libkvm to become more portable).
99+% of /usr is the same for systems based on the same "application"
architecture. However some executables (ps, for example) differ between
Sun-4 and Sun-4c machines. Thus clients now mount two directories in
/etc/fstab: /usr (the same for all Sun-4 and Sun-4c machines) and /usr/kvm
(which is different between Sun-4 and Sun-4c machines).
Upgrades from SunOS 4.0 and 4.0.1 to 4.0.3 will be via an "upgrade" tape.
SunOS source distributions will be available at FCS + 6 weeks for Sun-4,
3, 3x and 2 systems and at FCS + 2 weeks for SPARCstation 1 systems.
SunOS 4.1 will not be out until early 1990. 4.1 will feature
functionality (such as loadable drivers and SimpleInstall) and performance
improvements (such as window system optimizations). 4.1 will be POSIX,
SVID and X/OPEN compatible and will feature some internationalization
features. 4.1 will be binary compatible with 4.0.
SunOS 5.0, a combined SunOS 4.x/sVr4 system will not be available until
late 1990 or early 1991. 5.0 will not be a "vanilla" sVr4 port but will
incorporate features brought forward from 4.x (such as lightweight
processes).
All or the above refers to Sun-2, 3 and 4 systems only; 386i versions are
a different matter entirely.
The X-11/NeWS release is still on schedule for July for systems running
SunOS 4.0.x. Announced as part of the release is the OpenWindows Desk Set
built around Open Look. Included in the Desk Set are the File Manager,
Mail tool, Text editor, Snapshot tool, Icon editor, performance meters and
a clock.
DOS Windows
Sun announced DOS Windows 1.0 (for Sun-3 and Sun-4 systems) supplying
"software emulation, offering casual DOS capability for the Sun-3 and
Sun-4 customer." Speed is described as "XT class." CGA, Hercules and
Monochrome graphics are emulated. Floppy drives are supported on 3/80 and
4/60 machines. DOS Windows 1.0 will ship in Summer 1989 and lists at $495
for media/documents/RTU and $195 for RTU only.
Steve Grandi, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson AZ, 602-325-9228
UUCP: {arizona,decvax,ncar}!noao!grandi or uunet!noao.edu!grandi
Internet: grandi@noao.edu SPAN/HEPNET: 5355::GRANDI or NOAO::GRANDIgrandi@noao.edu (Steve Grandi) (05/08/89)
Various corrections to my recent description of the new Sun systems
announced in San Francisco:
The 4/300 cpu card takes two slots only in the SPARCstation series; the
"extra" slot holds a P4 video card. In the SPARCstation series, the cpu
card is a "single-wide" card. Thus the SPARcserver 330 has room for two
9U cpu cards in addition to the cpu card (to hold two ALM-2 cards, for
example).
The 4/60 does not have a parallel port; but the 3/80 does.
The 8-bit color frame buffer on the 4/60 is a cg3 rather than cg4; it has no
1-bit "overlay" plane.
Don't hold your breath for the 24-bit color card for the 4/60.
Thanks to the various folks who supplied the real facts!
Steve Grandi, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson AZ, 602-325-9228
UUCP: {arizona,decvax,ncar}!noao!grandi or uunet!noao.edu!grandi
Internet: grandi@noao.edu SPAN/HEPNET: 5355::GRANDI or NOAO::GRANDI