Waiting for Fujitsu?

In the Wintel world whenever Intel is a bit slow in bringing out a new faster processor, manufacturers of PCs and servers don't worry, because they know that arch rival AMD is waiting in the wings and will soon come up with such a solution. That competitive pressure keeps the performance curve leaning into the wind. The same used to be true in the world of SPARC processors, back in the early 90's when the data bus was still operating at 32 bits.

A company called Weitek produced a clock doubling SPARC processor which was a user installable upgrade for single processor workstations like the SPARCstation 2. At about the same time another company, Ross Technology brought out its hyperSPARC chips for multi-processor systems like the SPARCstation 10 and 20. The hyperSPARCs were typically 30% to 40% faster than Sun's own SuperSPARC chips at that time. Both products achieved significant market share (upto about 20% of compatible systems). Both products attacked Sun at its core, and this was good for users because they got faster products quicker and cheaper. The change to 64 bits gave Sun an advantage over wouldbe chip rivals, because Sun controlled the operating system. Fujitsu owned HAL Computer launched the first 64 bit SPARC workstation in 1995, but within weeks Sun did the same, and little more was heard of HAL until the company was closed down some years later.

Sun's recent acquisition of Afara Websystems deals a death blow to the prospect of a rank outsider coming in with acceleration options anytime soon for owners of legacy Sun servers. Fujitsu still makes its own SPARC chips, but 1995 was the last time that a Fujitsu designed SPARC chip ran faster than one from Sun, so it's unlikely that the Sun marketers in Mountain View are trembling in anticipation of what comes next. (Unlike Intel when it comes to new product announcements by AMD.) The Sun marketers already know that the next fastest SPARC chip will be one designed by Sun. And when they're good and ready, they'll let you buy it.

In the meantime if you'd really like that 30% speed up now, without having to change a single line of SPARC applications software, take a look at Solid state disks. There's always a solution if you look hard enough.

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