->being that the stock is setting new yearly lows every day?>
Just for now, just watch it for the next 40 days..
ROSS Announces 180 MHz 512K hyperSPARC(TM) Upgrades
December 10, 1996, 8:06 AM EST
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Users of Sun Microsystems' and SPARC(TM)-compliant workstations and servers can now easily upgrade their machines to 180 MHz performance, utilizing single or twin hyper SPARC(TM) processors. ROSS Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: RTEC) today announced the immediate availability to end users of 180 MHz hyper SPARC(TM) microprocessors with a tightly-coupled 512Kbyte secondary cache. The microprocessor upgrades, the first based on the company's next-generation (Colorado 4) hyper SPARC implementation, fulfill the need for improved performance and multiprocessing by end-users of SPARC station(TM) 10, SPARC station 20 and SPARC server(TM) 630/670/690 machines.
"Our Colorado 4 implementation provides further proof of the inherent scalability and extensibility of the SPARC Version 8 architecture, enabling ROSS Technology to continue providing its upgrade customers with the latest technology at the greatest possible value," said Roger D. Ross, Chairman, President and CEO of ROSS Technology. "The benefits provided by the architecture are immediately apparent when compared to the performance currently delivered by other SPARC implementations. Our Colorado 4 hyperSPARC CPU provides greater MP performance, and demonstrates once again ROSS' commitment to the end-user: state-of-the-art performance without forcing migration to a new operating system software environment. This is the highest performance SunOS platform in the industry -- period," he said.
The 180 MHz hyper SPARC CPUs are based on Fujitsu's 0.35-micron TLM (triple layer metal) pure CMOS process technology and advanced multi-die packaging (MDP), and are available as single processor modules on standard MBus daughtercards (3.3" X 5.78" form factor). Upgrade customers may order single or twin-processor configurations.
With 512K cache, the 180 MHz hyper SPARC delivers 200 SPECint92 and 219 SPECfp92 on a production compiler. In a twin-CPU configuration, the 180 MHz hyper SPARC delivers SPECrate_int92 of 8893 and SPECrate_fp92 of 9470. By contrast, the Ultra SPARC(R) 1 167 MHz CPU, developed by Sun Microsystems, provides SPECrate_int92 and SPECrate_fp92 performance of 5982 and 8323, respectively.
The 180 MHz hyper SPARC product takes advantage of a high density cache subsystem, based on 1Mbit custom ROSS SRAM's. The cache memory operates at 3.3V for improved thermal characteristics, as does the rest of the microprocessor chip set. Because of the larger second level cache, the latest hyper SPARC is particularly well-suited for multiprocessing applications.
The hyperSPARC chipset is composed of the RT620 CPU and the RT626 CMTU (Cache Controller, MMU and Tag Unit), plus ROSS' RT628 SRAM, all interconnected upon a silicon compatible substrate contained within a single PGA package. The standard product makes use of the RT626 CMTU to access 512K of secondary cache; an ultra-high performance product with 1M of cache is also available. In both cases, this cache is composed of ROSS' proprietary pure CMOS 1Mbit RT628 SRAMs.
The Colorado 4 implementation features significant improvements over the company's earlier Colorado 3 CPUs: Colorado 4 employs a 16K 4-way set associative first level instruction cache, versus an 8K direct mapping cache in Colorado 3, enabling more effective pipelining and fewer pipeline stalls; it incorporates a 16K first level data cache, versus none in the Colorado 3 implementation, making processing less reliant on memory bandwidth and memory access times; and Colorado 4 can generate floating point results in 2 CPU clock cycles, versus three clock cycles for Colorado 3.
The hyperSPARC microprocessors, like all ROSS products, maintain absolute compliance with SPARC(TM) standards, including SPARC SCD, SPARC Version 8 Architecture, and Level 2 (multiprocessing) MBus. In addition, the Solaris(R) 1.1.2 (SunOS(R) 4.1.4), 2.3, 2.4 as well as the Solaris 2.5 operating systems are fully qualified on hyperSPARC and supported directly by SunSoft(R).
Further information is available on the company's World Wide Web site at ross.com, via e-mail to info@ross.com, or via telephone at 800-ROSS-YES.. International customers may call for more information to 512/349-3108, or via fax to 512/349-3101.
ROSS Overview
ROSS Technology, incorporated in 1988, is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited. A minority position in ROSS is held by Sun Microsystems, Inc. As of September 30, 1996, the Company's outstanding Common Stock was held 60 percent by Fujitsu, 5 percent by Sun, and 35 percent by employees and the public. The Company's objective is to drive SPARC, the industry's highest-volume reduced instruction set computing architecture, to increased performance leadership and market share. ROSS is one of the industry's most prominent suppliers of SPARC microprocessors and SPARC system products to both the OEM and end-user markets.
ROSS and the ROSS logo are registered trademarks, and hyperSTATION is a trademark of ROSS Technology, Inc. All SPARC trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International. SPARCplug and hyperSPARC are licensed exclusively to ROSS Technology, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Solaris, SunSoft and SunOS are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other products or service names herein are trademarks of their respective owners. SOURCE ROSS Technology, Inc.
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