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Sun Microsystem's SPARC Microprocessor

Definition: SPARC, derived from Scalable Processor ARChitecture, is a SPARC International Inc trademark for a computer processor originally developed by Cray Research and later sold to Sun Microsystems. It is a RISC based microprocessor design.

SPARC (Scalable Processor ARChitecture) processors can be found in computers ranging from notebooks like the SPARCbook from Tadpole, to supercomputers like the Enterprise servers from Sun and Fujitsu. These RISC-based processors run operating systems like Solaris, OpenBSD and NetBSD.

SPARC processors were originally developed in the mid 1980s by a company called Cray Research that was bought by Silicon Graphics Inc., in 1996 who promptly sold off the SPARC business to Sun (together with the Solaris OS). SPARC processors were originally used for single processor machines before their eventual mainstay - the SMP or multi-processor machines.

The scalable processor architecture went on to become the leading platform for high-end server applications. Sun is the biggest user of these processors and it also sells SPARC based  processors and motherboards to other systems OEMs. The processors are not made by Sun. They are manufactured by other semiconductor companies

The intellectual property rights in SPARC (architecture) were transferred to SPARC International, Inc, which was set up in 1989 to handle various SPARC related intellectual properties. It is an independent non-profit organization that promotes the SPARC architecture and maintains standards, compatibility and interoperability and it regulates licensing of the trademark.

The SPARC architecture is fully open and non-proprietary. It is open to all manufacturers of components and systems, as well as software developers, who are interested in developing SPARC systems. It has been licensed to many manufacturers, including Texas Instruments, Cypress Semiconductor and Fujitsu.

Web servers from Sun, based on SPARC processors had the highest market share before the dotcom bust. Most of Sun’s revenue still comes from selling SPARC-based servers, but the company has lost market share to IBM and others, in the Unix server market.

UltraSPARC T1

This is the first processor that was both multicore AND multithreaded however, it's a single processor implementation and future versions of this processor may allow the use of multiple processors within one machine.

UltraSPARC T2

A successor of the above T1 and is expected in 2007.

Previous products:

microSPARC I
SuperSPARC I
hyperSPARC A
microSPARC II
hyperSPARC B
SuperSPARC II
hyperSPARC C
TurboSPARC
UltraSPARC I
UltraSPARC I
hyperSPARC D
UltraSPARC IIs
UltraSPARC IIs
UltraSPARC IIi
UltraSPARC IIi
UltraSPARC IIe
UltraSPARC IIi
UltraSPARC III
UltraSPARC III
UltraSPARC IIIcu
UltraSPARC IIIi
UltraSPARC IV
UltraSPARC IV+
UltraSPARC T1