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                                                        The Florida SunFlash
                 SPARC V8 and Mbus Specification
   
SunFLASH Vol 27 #16					          March 1991 
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This is an announcement from SPARC International. -johnj
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	Sender: 	David Fickes - Mgr. Communication Programs
	Followup-To: 	dfickes@sparc.com
	Organization: 	SPARC International 415/321-8692

	[These are the summaries of two announcements made on March 18, 1991
	by SPARC International - for more information on SPARC International 
	membership contact: Nev Griffin - nev@sparc.com or call: 415/321-8692]

SPARC Architecture Version 8 Available From SPARC International

SPARC International announced the publication of the specification for
SPARC Architecture Version 8. Through SPARC International, Version 8
has become the first cooperatively defined and evolved instruction set
architecture in the history of the computer industry.  "Version 8
reflects the SPARC community's ability to focus on architectural
problem-solving, gain consensus and produce a public standard available
to any vendor," said Bob Duncan, SPARC International's CEO and
chairman. "The improvements in Version 8 illustrate that the SPARC
architectural community is in lock-step with systems vendors and the
other suppliers that are offering products that meet customer demands
today."

Meeting the growing demand for high- performance departmental and
corporate servers, Version 8 offers a precisely-defined standard memory
model, which simplifies the portability of applications to
multiprocessor environments. Other new features include better support
for integer multiplication and division allowing more efficient
embedded system and multiprocessing products.  SPARC International will
make available the SPARC Architecture Manual Version 8 as a reference
tool for all SPARC vendors. The Manual will be published and
distributed to members of SPARC International, technical bookstores and
universities worldwide.

[NOTE: The manuals will be generally available in 4-6 weeks.  Please
contact jen@sparc.com to request copies when they become available]

Sun Hands Control of Mbus Evolution to SPARC International

SPARC International and Sun Microsystems jointly announced an agreement
whereby SPARC International will manage the definition, evolution, and
distribution of the Mbus specification. Mbus is a multi-chip module
interface designed by Sun to provide a common, high-performance
interconnect standard for the broad range of SPARC processors, cache,
memory and I/O functions.  

"Implemented as an open standard in the SPARC community, Mbus will
enable system manufacturers to keep pace with the continuous expansion
and performance migration of SPARC processors and support subsystems,"
said Phil Huelson, vice president of technology at SPARC International.
"Time-to-market for new systems will be greatly reduced, and by
eliminating the need for a hardware redesign/debug to upgrade the
system, Mbus also effectively lengthens system product life."

Mbus-compatible modules are already available from a number of SPARC
semiconductor vendors, including LSI Logic, Cypress/Ross Technologies,
and Texas Instruments. Both Mbus uniprocessor (Level 1) and
multiprocessor (Level II) versions will be available for publication
and distribution through SPARC International as a standard
specification in the near future.

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John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.