Sun and Xilinx Introduce OpenSPARC Evaluation Platform

Sun Microsystems and provider of programmable logic solutions, Xilinx (News - Alert), have introduced a feature-rich programmable OpenSPARC evaluation platform.

 

The OpenSPARC-based platform enables academic researchers and hardware developers to create, customize and deploy next-generation applications for a broad set of end markets including supercomputers, industrial, scientific and medical (ISM), aerospace and defense, and storage and networking.

 

It is based on the power of an open-sourced 32-thread UltraSPARC T1 processor. And, combined with the Xilinx 65nm Virtex-5 FPGA technology, will provide a foundation for “innovation across a range of disciplines.”

 

These disciplines include computer architecture, logic design, compiler techniques and parallel programming. Moreover, since it’s based on programmable architecture, the platform allows multiple design iterations.

 

“The microprocessor industry is steadily shifting towards chip multithreading (CMT) architectures, and this new OpenSPARC FPGA evaluation platform puts us in a prime position to enable faster time-to-market for our customers,” said Mike Mike Knudsen, vice president of business development and marketing for Microelectronics unit at Sun.

 

CMT brings to hardware the concept of multi-threading, similar to software multi-threading. According to Sun, a CMT-enabled processor, similar to software multi-threading, executes many software threads simultaneously within a processor on cores.

 

James. C. Hoe, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, believes that the OpenSPARC Evaluation Platform will help microprocessor pedagogy to leap out of the textbook into the students' hands.

 

He also said that this is a powerful enabling asset in teaching and research, especially at a time when the academics are striving to understand how to best deploy and leverage parallelism in future microprocessor systems.

 

Ivo Bolsens, chief technology officer at Xilinx, said that today’s designs demand more processing power, higher reliability, and increased application intelligence. 

 

Bolsens also said that combining Sun's multithreading processing technology with his company’s silicon and design tools provides a solid platform for academics and developers to build and test novel ideas in hardware and software design.

 

Sun and Xilinx also announced the development of a joint University donation program, facilitated through the OpenSPARC University Program, whereby academic professors can apply for grants to help start curricula and university research programs.