Summary of Information Available on Sparc-family processors

Several weeks ago, I requested pointers to documentation describing
Sparc-family processors. I was especially interested in understanding
their respective pipelines. Here's a compilation of the responses
I received.


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Date: Tue, 23 Nov 93 14:42:54 CST
From: krueger@splat.micro.ti.com (Steve Krueger)
Subject: Re: Pipeline details of various Sun Architectures


I can have a copy of the SuperSPARC Users Guide sent to you if you
send me a complete US mail address. Our Users Guide generally
contains the information you seek, although not always in a direct
tabular form.


-Steve Krueger krueger@micro.ti.com
SPARC Applications
Texas Instruments
Houston, Texas USA






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From: ????? (Sorry, i'm not sure who Greg is?)


The best source of information is the T.I. SuperSPARC User's
guide. It has all the details on the pipeline that you'll
need, including the "grouping rules" which define how the
processor decides what it can or cannot do in a given cycle.


The hard part of your project is not simulating the
pipeline; it's the rest of the machine. Getting all
the details right on the instruction cache/fetch/prefetch,
MMU refill algorithms, etc. is very hard. Once again, the
user's guide is the best source of information.


TI has just recently completed a new release of this document
which is far superior to the orignal. The TI part number is
2647726-9761. Revision A "Beta" Review from October 1993.


Call your local TI office to get a copy of this.


If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to try and
answer them.


-Greg




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Date: Thu, 25 Nov 93 23:01:52 PST
From: Gordon.Irlam@Eng.Sun.COM (Gordon Irlam)
Subject: Re: a guide to compiler writers for sparcstations


I didn't write a thesis (god forbid), but you might want to have a look at
ftp.cs.adelaide.edu.au:/pub/sparc. There is a note describing some old
SPARC machines, and a slightly out of date SPARC simulator.


                                                                                                  Gordon.




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Return-Path: <wendt@ives.CS.ColoState.EDU>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 93 15:46:20 -0700
From: wendt@cs.colostate.edu (alan l wendt)


They sell a "SPARC Architecture manual" for $37, including complete
instruction set definition. 1-800-453-6657 or sparcshop@sparc.com
--

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