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	SUN'S OPEN SBUS SPECIFICATION NOW AVAILABLE
 
Offers Free Specification and Licenses Its Implementation
  
 
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- September 12, 1989 -- At the Buscon Exhibit
today, Sun Microsystems strengthened its commitment to a truly open
computing environment by announcing the immediate availability of the
SBus specification, free of any licensing restrictions.  In addition,
Sun also announced that it will license its own implementation of the
SBus as it exists in the SPARCstation(TM) 1.
 
To further proliferate SBus development, Sun unveiled plans for an SBus
Developer's Kit, developer support services and, in conjunction with
LSI Logic, the availability of a key integrated circuit that connects
SBus cards to the bus.
 
The SBus is a revolutionary new high-performance bus architecture that
allows the addition of postcard-sized add-in cards to computers at a
very low cost.  The specification is a technical roadmap that board
and system designers need to develop add-in cards and computers based
on the SBus.
 
SBus was introduced in April as part of the SPARCstation 1, Sun's new
RISC-based desktop computer.  At that time, Sun announced it would make
the SBus technology available to the industry and interest has been
high ever since.  Already, more than 125 companies are investigating
the SBus technology, including Solbourne Computer, Texas Instruments,
Seiko Instruments, Howtek, IKON, National Instruments and Mizar.
 
Sun will license details of its own implementation of the SBus to systems
manufacturers who wish to mirror Sun's design and leverage existing
research and development costs.  This includes a key integrated
circuit, device drivers and software. Licensing details are
available from Sun. 
 
Third-party developers now have access to all the critical components
necessary to build SPARC(TM)-compatible computers, including the
microprocessor architecture (SPARC), software (SunOS(TM), which
includes ONC/NFS(TM), OPEN LOOK(TM), X/NeWS(TM) and the X/View(TM)
toolkit, and the C programming language) and a card expansion mechanism
(SBus).

This innovative 32-bit bus design makes possible performance two to
five times that of existing buses used in today's desktop computers.
By using a direct interface between a card's ASIC chips and the
motherboard, the SBus delivers high performance inexpensively.

SBus cards are easy to design and install because they can be
automatically configured by software, using the geographic addressing
and other autoconfiguration hooks built into the specification.  These
cards can be used to add a variety of options such as telephone and
facimile modems, coprocessors, video, fiber optic networking and
various adaptors and expanders.

For example, the SPARCstation 1's expansion slots can incorporate
options like frame buffers, additional Ethernet controllers and
graphics accelerators.  SBus, along with VME, will be Sun's standard
I/O interconnects for future SPARC systems.  However, SBus technology
can be included in virtually any computer system and is not limited to
a particular microprocessor type.

"We believe that technologies like SBus will become part of the
powerful, low-cost systems being developed now for the '90s," said
Wayne Rosing, vice president of Sun's Desktop Systems and Graphics
Group.  "There's no other bus designed to exploit the computer
technologies of the 90's in a way that delivers very high performance
at such a low cost."

 SBus Developer's Kit

The SBus Developer's Kit will enable developers to get their products
to market in a short period of time by providing the SBus Specification
and design information that will facilitate SBus card development.  The
kit, priced at $300 (U.S. list) and available in the second quarter,
will include:

The SBus specification

Detailed SBus specifications, with design principles and protocols, and
technological, electrical, and mechanical considerations;

Guidelines for writing UNIX(R) device drivers for SBus cards;

Guidelines for writing FORTH programs to create ID PROMS and implement
autoconfiguration in SBus cards;

Application notes and examples of slave and master interfaces.


Developers will be able to take advantage of numerous technical
conferences, user group meetings and Sun's consulting services for
additional support.  Sun also assists its third-party developers
through its Catalyst Program, which offers a wide variety of support
and incentives.

The Direct Memory Access (DMA) interface chip, designed by Sun for the
SBus, will be made available directly from LSI Logic.  The 64853 SBus
DMA controller enables SBus card vendors to quickly design intelligent
functions such as I/O controllers for the SBus.  This DMA controller
provides for an easy, single-chip interface between the SBus and
Ethernet, SCSI and many other peripheral controller functions.  The
L64853 is the first integrated circuit in a series of total system
solutions for SPARC-compatible systems offered by LSI Logic.

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.

###

SPARCstation, SPARC, SunOS, ONC/NFS, OPEN LOOK, X/NeWS and XView are
trademarks of Sun Microsytems, 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 1-800-223-6736 outside California.
Inside California, call 1-800-322-7636.

Press Contact:
John Loiacono (415) 336-6424