---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUN INTRODUCES TWO NEW SBUS CARDS (Serial/Paraller & SCSI) SunFLASH Vol 23 #1 November 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --October 31, 1990-- Sun Microsystems today introduced two new SBus cards that enable users to connect additional peripherals and storage devices to Sun's desktop SPARCstations(TM). SBus is a low-cost, high-performance I/O interconnect designed by Sun and made available to the industry with no licensing restrictions, design fees or royalties. SBus has quickly developed a large third party following since Sun made the SBus specification available last September. More than 110 SBus products have been introduced or are being developed. According to Anil Gadre, vice president of product marketing for Sun's Desktop Systems, "The introduction of additional SBus cards from Sun will continue to fuel the industry's support of SBus as the standard I/O interconnect for SPARC(R) desktop systems." New Serial Parallel Controller Card Sun's new Serial Parallel Controller SBus card adds eight serial ports and one parallel (Centronics-compatible) port to SBus-based systems -- including the SPARCstation IPC, SPARCstation 1 or 1+ and SPARCserver(TM) 1/1+ -- and the SPARCengine(TM) 1E board. These ports can be used to connect serial asynchronous devices such as modems, printers and terminals. For example, users can add up to 18 terminals to a SPARCstation 1/1+ by plugging a card into two of its three SBus slots as well as into each of the two serial ports that come standard on the system, thus creating a low-cost UNIX(R) workgroup. The new card supports up to 38.4 Kbaud per each independently programmable port. The card comes standard with a patch panel, a cable and a 3.5-inch floppy diskette that contains a loadable device driver and installation guide. SCSI Host Adapter Card Sun also unveiled the SBus SCSI Host Adapter, an 8-bit, single-width card that can add up to seven additional SCSI devices to a SPARCstation IPC, a SPARCstation 1/1+ or a SPARCengine 1E board. The new card supports up to 2.6 gigabytes of disk storage -- doubling the storage capacity of a SPARCstation to more than 5 gigabytes. It has a 5-megabyte/second data transfer rate and improves I/O performance significantly by allowing heavy disk loads to be spread over two high-speed SCSI channels instead of one. This increased storage and performance is particularly useful for SPARC(R)-based systems used as database and file servers. Typical markets that benefit from these capabilities include document image management, electrical and mechanical computer-aided design and computer-aided software engineering, where users need to store and update technical data, images and models. Existing SBus Cards From Sun Last month, Sun introduced the SBus Printer Card, an interface used to connect the SPARCprinter(TM) laser printer to SPARCstations running Sun's NeWSprint(TM) printing software, giving users PostScript(R) -compatible printing capabilities anywhere on a network. Sun also offers a second Ethernet Controller SBus card, which gives a Sun system an additional thick Ethernet port along with a thin Ethernet connector. New SBus Developer's Kit Speeds SBus Product Design SBus products are currently being developed by 60 vendors, and 55 SBus products are being shipped. To make designing new SBus products easier for third parties, Sun today introduced a second version of its popular SBus Developer's Kit, and is more than 70 percent less expensive than the previous kit. Some of the new components include: a new version of the SBus Specification, A.2; tutorials, including "Writing SBus Device Drivers" and "Writing FCode Programs for SBus Cards"; an OpenBoot PROM toolkit user's guide and reference cards; SBus hardware application notes; prototype backplates and handles; a diskette containing sample software drivers and Forth utility programs; and SCSI implementation and architecture guides. SBus Technical Support Services Sun also supports third parties through a variety of free technical support services designed to help SBus developers reduce their time to market. These services include a quarterly newsletter; access to the SBus Design Center, a fully equipped design lab with hardware and software simulation tools and test equipment; and access to Sun's SUCCESS electronic library, which contains SBus information and programs. Sun's technical support staff also sponsors regular technical tutorials worldwide. SBus Card Price/Availability Both the Serial Parallel Controller and SCSI Host Adapter cards will be available in November through Sun distribution. The Serial Parallel Controller package, including the card, patch panel, a cable and software, is priced at $1,095 (U.S. list). The SCSI Host Adapter card costs $495 (U.S. list). The SBus Developer's Kit-II is priced at $85 and is available now through Sun distribution as well as through Hamilton-Avnet and Wyle distribution channels. Developer technical support is provided via telephone hotline at (415) 336-3558, via facsimile at (415) 962-1411, or via electronic mail at sbustech@sun.com or sun sbustech@uunet.uu.net. Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### SPARC is a registered trademark and SPARCprinter is a trademark of SPARC International, Inc. SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCengine are trademarks of SPARC International, Inc., licensed exclusively to Sun Microsystems, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. NeWSprint is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. 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