Sun-4 is a series of
Unix workstations and
servers produced by
Sun Microsystems, launched in 1987. The original Sun-4 series were
VMEbus
VMEbus (Versa Module Europa or Versa Module Eurocard bus) is a computer bus standard, originally developed for the Motorola 68000 line of CPUs, but later widely used for many applications and standardized by the IEC as ANSI/IEEE 1014-1987. ...
-based systems similar to the earlier
Sun-3 series, but employing
microprocessors based on Sun's own
SPARC
SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed i ...
V7
RISC architecture in place of the
68k
The Motorola 68000 series (also known as 680x0, m68000, m68k, or 68k) is a family of 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and w ...
family processors of previous Sun models.
Sun 4/280 was known as base system that was used for building of first
RAID
Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to:
Attack
* Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground
* Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business
* Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...
prototype.
Models
Models are listed in approximately chronological order.
:
In 1989, Sun dropped the "Sun-4" name for marketing purposes in favor of the
SPARCstation and SPARCserver brands for new models, although early SPARCstation/server models were also assigned Sun-4-series model numbers. For example, the
SPARCstation 1 was also known as the Sun 4/60. This practice was phased out with the introduction of the SPARCserver 600MP series in 1991. The term ''Sun-4'' continued to be used in an engineering context to identify the basic hardware architecture of all SPARC-based Sun systems.
Sun 4/110, 4/150, 4/260 and 4/280 systems upgraded with the Sun 4300 CPU board (as used in the SPARCserver 300 series) were referred to as the 4/310, 4/350, 4/360 and 4/380 respectively.
Sun-4 architecture
The Sun-4 ''architecture'' refers to the VME-based architecture described above and used in the Sun 4/100, 4/200, SPARCserver 300 and SPARCserver 400 ranges. Sun-4 support was included in
SunOS 3.2 onwards and
Solaris 2.1 to 2.4.
OpenBSD and
NetBSD also will run on the Sun-4 architecture families.
Several variations on the Sun-4 architecture were subsequently developed and used in later computer systems produced by Sun and other vendors. These comprised:
;Sun-4c: (''C'' presumably for ''Campus'', the codename of the first Sun-4c model, the
SPARCstation 1) This desktop workstation/low-end server variant substituted the 32-bit
SBus expansion bus in place of VME and introduced a new MMU design. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3c onwards and Solaris 2.0 to 7.
;Sun-4e: A hybrid Sun-4c/VME architecture found in the SPARCengine 1 (Sun 4/E) VME embedded controller. This board was originally designed by Force Computers and licensed to Sun. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3e and 4.1e and Solaris 2.1
to 2.4.
;Sun-4m: Originally a
multiprocessor Sun-4 variant, based on the
MBus processor module bus introduced in the SPARCserver 600MP series. The Sun-4m architecture later also encompassed non-MBus uniprocessor systems such as the
SPARCstation 5, utilizing SPARC V8-architecture processors. Supported by SunOS 4.1.2 onwards and Solaris 2.1 to 9. SPARCserver 600MP support was dropped after Solaris 2.5.1.
;
Sun-4d
Sun4d is a computer architecture introduced by
Sun Microsystems in 1992. It is a development of the earlier Sun-4 architecture, using the XDBus system bus,
SuperSPARC processors, and SBus I/O cards. The XDBus
was the result of a collaboration be ...
: (''D'' for ''Dragon'', the codename of the SPARCcenter 2000) A high-end multiprocessor architecture, based on the
XDBus processor interconnect, scalable up to 20 processors. The only Sun-4d systems produced by Sun were the SPARCserver 1000 and SPARCcenter 2000 series. The
Cray CS6400
The Cray Superserver 6400, or CS6400, is a discontinued multiprocessor server computer system produced by Cray Research Superservers, Inc., a subsidiary of Cray Research, and launched in 1993. The CS6400 was also sold as the Amdahl SPARCsummit 6400 ...
was also nominally a Sun-4d machine (sun4d6), although it required a custom version of Solaris. Supported by Solaris 2.2 to 8.
;Sun-4u: (''U'' for
UltraSPARC) - this variant introduced the
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A comput ...
SPARC V9
SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed in ...
processor architecture and UPA processor interconnect first used in the
Sun Ultra series
The Sun Ultra series is a discontinued line of workstation and server computers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems, comprising two distinct generations. The original line was introduced in 1995 and discontinued in 2001. This generation wa ...
. Supported by 32-bit versions of Solaris from the version 2.5. The first 64-bit Solaris release for Sun4u is Solaris 7. UltraSPARC I support was dropped after Solaris 9. Solaris 10 supports Sun4u implementations from
UltraSPARC II
The UltraSPARC II, code-named "Blackbird", is a microprocessor implementation of the SPARC V9 instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Sun Microsystems. Marc Tremblay was the chief architect. Introduced in 1997, it was further developme ...
to
UltraSPARC IV
The UltraSPARC IV ''Jaguar'' and follow-up UltraSPARC IV+ ''Panther'' are microprocessors designed by Sun Microsystems and manufactured by Texas Instruments. They are the fourth generation of UltraSPARC microprocessors, and implement the 64-bit S ...
.
;Sun-4u1: Sometimes used to identify the
Sun Enterprise 10000
Sun Enterprise is a range of UNIX server computers produced by Sun Microsystems from 1996 to 2001. The line was launched as the Sun Ultra Enterprise series; the ''Ultra'' prefix was dropped around 1998. These systems are based on the 64-bit Ultr ...
(''Starfire'') 64-way multiprocessor server architecture. The ''Starfire'' is supported by Solaris 2.5.1 onwards.
;Sun-4us: A variant of Sun-4u specific to
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the l ...
PRIMEPOWER systems based on
SPARC64 V
The SPARC64 V (''Zeus'') is a SPARC V9 microprocessor designed by Fujitsu. The SPARC64 V was the basis for a series of successive processors designed for servers, and later, supercomputers.
The servers series are the SPARC64 V+, VI, VI+, VII, V ...
processors.
;Sun-4v: (''V'' presumably for "virtualized") A variation on Sun-4u which includes
hypervisor
A hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor, VMM, or virtualizer) is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called ...
processor virtualization; introduced in the
UltraSPARC T1 (''Niagara'')
multicore
A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...
processor. Supported by Solaris version 10 starting from release 3/05 HW2, and Solaris 11.
References
External links
The Sun Hardware Reference, Part 1
{{Sun Microsystems
Sun servers
Sun workstations
SPARC microprocessor products
Computer-related introductions in 1987
32-bit computers