The SPARC T-series family of

RISC In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set comput ...

processors and

server computer In computing, a server is a piece of computer hardware or software (computer program) that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called " clients". This architecture is called the client–server model. Servers can provide variou ...

s, based on the SPARC V9 architecture, was originally 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, th ...

, and later by

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

after its acquisition of Sun. Its distinguishing feature from earlier SPARC iterations is the introduction of chip multithreading (CMT) technology, a multithreading, multicore design intended to drive greater processor utilization at lower power consumption. The first generation T-series processor, the

UltraSPARC T1 Sun Microsystems' UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename "Niagara", is a multithreading, multicore CPU. Designed to lower the energy consumption of server computers, the CPU t ...

, and servers based on it, were announced in December 2005. As later generations were introduced, the term "T series" was used to refer to the entire family of processors.

Pre-Oracle era

Sun Microsystems'

Sun Fire Fire is a series of server computers introduced in 2001 by Sun Microsystems (since 2010, part of Oracle Corporation). The Sun Fire branding coincided with the introduction of the UltraSPARC III processor, superseding the UltraSPARC II-base ...

and

SPARC Enterprise The SPARC Enterprise series is a range of UNIX server computers based on the SPARC V9 architecture. It was co-developed by Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu, announced on June 1st, 2004 and introduced in 2007. They were marketed and sold by Sun Microsy ...

product lines were based on early generations of CMT technology. The UltraSPARC T1 based Sun Fire T2000 and T1000 servers were launched in December 2005 and early 2006, respectively. They were later rebranded to match the name of the UltraSPARC T2 and T2 Plus based Sun SPARC Enterprise T5**0 servers.

SPARC T3

In September 2010, Oracle announced a range of

SPARC T3 The SPARC T3 microprocessor (previously known as UltraSPARC T3, codenamed ''Rainbow Falls'', and also known as UltraSPARC KT or ''Niagara-3'' during development) is a multithreading, multi-core CPU produced by Oracle Corporation (previously S ...

processor based servers. These are branded as the "SPARC T3" series, the "SPARC Enterprise" brand being dropped. The SPARC T3-series servers include the T3-1B, a

blade server A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, whil ...

module that fits into the

Sun Blade Sun Blade is a line of blade server computer systems sold by Sun Microsystems from 2006 onwards. In June 2006, Sun announced the AMD Opteron-based Sun Blade 8000 modular blade server system. The Sun Blade 8000 chassis can hold up to 10 Sun Blade X ...

6000 system. All other T3 based servers are

rack mounted A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide. The 19 inch dimension includes the edges or "ears" that protrude from each side of the equ ...

systems. Subsequent T-series server generations also include a blade server in the same Sun Blade 6000 form factor.

SPARC T4

On September 26, 2011, Oracle announced a range of

SPARC T4 The SPARC T4 is a SPARC multicore microprocessor introduced in 2011 by Oracle Corporation. The processor is designed to offer high multithreaded performance (8 threads per core, with 8 cores per chip), as well as high single threaded performanc ...

-based servers. These systems use the same chassis as the earlier T3 based systems. Their main features are very similar, with the exception of: * T4 CPU instead of T3 CPU, with complete core redesign * doubled RAM capacity * small changes in mass storage capacity

SPARC T5

On March 26, 2013, Oracle announced refreshed SPARC servers based on the new

SPARC T5 SPARC T5 is the fifth generation multicore microprocessor of Oracle's SPARC T series family. It was first presented at Hot Chips 24 in August 2012, and was officially introduced with the Oracle SPARC T5 servers in March 2013. The processor is ...

microprocessor, which the company claims is "the world's fastest". In the T5 range of servers, the single socket rackmount server design was deprecated, while a new eight-socket rackmount server was introduced.

SPARC M7

On October 26, 2015, Oracle announced a family of systems built on the 32-core, 256-thread SPARC M7 microprocessor. Unlike prior generations, both T- and M-series systems were introduced using the same processor. The M7 included the first generation of the Data Analytics Accelerator (DAX) engines. DAX engines offloaded in-memory query processing and performed real-time data decompression.

SPARC M8

On September 18, 2017, Oracle announced a family of systems built on the 32-core, 256-thread SPARC M8 microprocessor at 5.0 GHz. It also included the second generation of Data Analytics Accelerator (DAX) engines.

Partitioning and virtualization

SPARC T-series servers can be partitioned using Oracle's

Logical Domains Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

technology. Additional virtualization is provided by Oracle Solaris Zones (aka

Solaris Containers Solaris Containers (including Solaris Zones) is an implementation of operating system-level virtualization technology for x86 and SPARC systems, first released publicly in February 2004 in build 51 beta of Solaris 10, and subsequently in the fi ...

) to create isolated virtual servers within a single operating system instance. Logical Domains and Solaris Zones can be used together to increase server utilization.

Servers

References

External links

All current Oracle SPARC servers
{{Oracle SPARC microprocessor products Oracle hardware Sun servers