Seems like a kick in the teeth to its supposed Sparc buddy Fujitsu Ltd, comments today’s Unigram.X, but Sun Microsystems Inc has handed manufacture of a next-generation microSparc III, to be based on the 64-bit UltraSparc’s Sparc V9 architecture to MIPS Technologies Inc licensee and fabricator NEC Corp. Sun’s Sparc Technology Business was forced to reveal its hand after Japanese sources began leaking to wire services in Tokyo. The general purpose uniprocessor, expected in 1997 is thought to be destined for use in low-end desktops and servers from Sun and others. NEC, which is getting Sparc design data and manufacturing technology from Sparc Technology, won’t be building its own UltraSparc-based systems. The NEC microSparc III is only one part of the microSparc III story however, the high-end feature. A lower-cost, lower-performance microSparc III – presumably the V8 version with an UltraSparc superset and pipe that offers binary compatibility with microSparc II – will also appear at around the same time. Sparc Technology says it still hasn’t chosen a foundry, although Fujitsu currently fabricates microSparc I and II. Other microSparcs are the ‘e’ embedded series. Sparc Technology claims the NEC agreement won’t affect its relationship with Texas Instruments Inc, which currently fabricates all SuperSparcs and UltraSparcs. Meantime, realising that it is getting beaten up all over the place, Sun is expected to release SPEC95 numbers within 30 days.
