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	LEADING EUROPEAN PARTICLE PHYSICS LAB TO USE SPARC 
		FOR SCIENTIFIC DATA ACQUISITION

SunFLASH Vol 11 #2					 November 1989 
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --November 6, l989-- Sun Microsystems today
reported that CERN, one of the world's leading particle physics
laboratories, has licensed the SPARC(TM) RISC microprocessor
architecture for use in a sophisticated system that will gather data
from electron-positron collision experiments.

CERN's accelerator (LEP - Large Electron-Positron), which is located
near Geneva, Switzerland, is the largest in existence.  It accelerates
electrons and positrons in opposite directions approaching the speed of
light.  Collisions between these particles release high concentrations
of energy, which materialize into new particles.  The behavior of these
particles provides CERN's physicists with vital information about the
structure of matter and the forces that govern the universe.

The LEP accelerator is a large, underground ring 27 kilometers long.
Several very complex experiments are built around this ring.
Collisions occur at the experiment's interaction points at a rate of 40
kHz; experiments are equipped with about 500,000 channels of
electronics, generating a very large amount of data.  These have to be
processed by powerful embedded computers.

SPARC was chosen for this task because of its performance, real time
capabilities and open architecture, which allows the kind of
customization CERN needed for its application.

SPARC 50 MIPS


Several hundred networked SPARC controllers will be used around CERN's
accelerator.  Each will contain up to four SPARC processors and perform
at approximately 50 MIPS.  CERN will be using a SPARC implementation
manufactured by one of six semiconductor companies that build and sell
SPARC implementations.  Information retrieved by the SPARC controllers
will be sent to large mainframes or supercomputers for analysis.

CERN's SPARC-based controllers will interface to Fastbus (an ANSI IEEE
standard).  This high-performance bus is ideal for building large
distributed systems for collecting, processing and monitoring high-rate
data streams from large detectors.

New SPARC Co-processor Developed


Acting as a very fast conduit for information between the SPARC
controller and Fastbus will be a special co-processor to be developed
by CERN.  Based on a high-end SPARC co-processor design, it will yield
input/output (I/O) speed that matches that of the Fastbus standard and
will deliver substantially more computing power than what is available
today.  CERN will make this new co-processor technology available to
Sun for license to semiconductor and system manufacturers.

"This is a major win for SPARC," stated Darryl Barbe, vice president of
Sun's European operations.  "CERN is recognized as a leading research
institute.  It works closely with top research centers and universities
worldwide, such as SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator), Brookhaven
National Lab and Fermilab (Chicago) in the United States and Rutherford
and Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom.  CERN's application
broadens our already strong presence in the research sector."

Barbe added that CERN's selection of SPARC follows other commitments to
this open RISC standard by European firms such as ICL in the United
Kingdom, N. V. Philips of the Netherlands and others.  "No other RISC
architecture has achieved such strong commitments on a global basis,"
he said.  "Besides the many European and American companies that have
chosen SPARC, it has also become the leading RISC architecture in the
Far East."

CERN was established in l953 as a European intergovernmental
organization to perform research in particle physics. It is operated by
scientists of 14 European nations:  Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France,
West Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

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 trademark of Sun Microsystem, Inc.  UNIX is a registered
trademark of AT&T.  All other products or services mentioned in this
document are identified by the trademarks or service marks of their
respective companies or organizations.

For reader inquiries, telephone 1-800-821-4643 outside California.
Inside California, call 1-800-821-4642.

Press Contact:  
Marty Coleman (415) 336-6543


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