A pre-Christmas analyst’s report from Bear Stearns & Co says its researchers have confirmed that Cypress Semiconductor Corp has had yield problems with its 7C604 reference memory management unit and cache controller chip for the 40MHz Sparc processor it is fabricating. LSI Logic Inc’s version hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing either and Sparc builders need the silicon for their expected Sparcstation 2-class systems. Sun Microsystems is unaffected because it solves the problem with a custom chip that it designed itself.
