Chronology
of
Workstation Computers
1993
- January
- Motorola begins shipping the 88110 processor, over two years
since
its initial announcement. Initial speed is 40-MHz, for US$360 in 1000
unit
quantities. A 50-MHz version will cost US$495. [182] [179] (about
August
[191])
- Rich Page, co-founder of NeXT, and vice-president of hardware,
resigns
from the company. [110.345]
- Xaos Tools releases Pandemonium image processor for the Silicon
Graphics
workstation. Price is US$3950. [138.81]
- (month unknown)
- IBM introduces the PowerStation M20 2D color graphics
workstation.
Features include 17-inch color display with Power Gt1 graphics adapter,
16 MB RAM, SCSI controller, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet adapter, one
MicroChannel
bus slot. Price is US$3995. [138.22]
- IBM introduces the PowerStation 355 workstation. Features
include 42-MHz
processor, 16 MB RAM, IBM 6091 color display, graphics adapter. Price
is
US$15,995. [138.22]
- IBM introduces the PowerStation 365 workstation. Features
include 50-MHz
processor, 16 MB RAM, IBM 6091 color display, graphics adapter. Price
is
US$19,525. [138.22]
- IBM introduces the PowerStation 375 workstation. Features
include 62-MHz
processor, 32 MB RAM, 19-inch 1280x1024 IBM 6091 color display,
graphics
adapter. Price is US$25,225. [138.22]
- February
- Digital Equipment announces the 200-MHz Alpha 21064 processor.
[87.64]
- IBM announces nine new systems in its RS/6000 line, priced
between
US$4000 and US$25000. [9] [30.88]
- Sun Microsystems ships the 50-MHz Sun SuperSPARC processor.
[90.134]
- Steve Jobs fires NeXT co-president Peter van Cuylenburg.
[110.348]
- NeXT announces that it will drop its hardware line, to focus on
becoming
a larger player in the object-oriented software industry. Approximately
50,000 NeXT machines were built in total. It will lay off 330 of its
500
employees. [10] [42.289] [46] [83.73] [110.4] [114.40] [138.12]
- March
- Sun Microsystems, Novell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and the Santa
Cruz Operation
announce that they will work together toward a unified UNIX operating
system
standard. [110.349]
- May 10
- The SunWorld '93 exposition is held in San Francisco,
California. [151]
- May
- MIPS Technologies announces availability of the 150-MHz 64-bit
R4400
RISC microprocessor. [48] (June [90.134])
- Fujitsu buys Ross Technology from Cypress for US$23 million.
[154]
- NeXT ships NeXTSTEP v3.1 for Intel-based PCs. [42.289] [114.40]
- IBM introduces the RS/6000 POWERstation and POWERserver 230,
23S, 23T,
and 23W computers, with a 45.5-MHz CPU. [102.1]
- SunSelect announces the Windows Application Binary Interface
(WABI).
This interface would allow software written for Microsoft Windows to
run
on Unix systems. [114.62]
- Texas Instruments announces availability of the SuperSPARC+
processor.
It is manufactured using a 0.7 micron BiCMOS process. Price is US$1199
for 50-MHz and US$899 for 40-MHz parts, in 1000 unit quantities. [153]
[155]
- Sun Microsystems introduces and ships the SparcStation 10 Model
512MP,
with 50-MHz SuperSparc+ CPUs. Speed ratings are 65-68 SpecInt92 and
80-85
SpecFP92. Price is US$33745. [122.29]
- Sun Microsystems introduces and ships the SparcStation 10 Model
30LC,
with a 36-MHz CPU, and 16-inch color monitor. Price is US$15,995.
[122.29]
- Sun Microsystems introduces and ships the SparcStation 10 Model
40,
with a 40-MHz CPU, 36 KB on-chip cache, 32 MB RAM, and 1 GB hard disk.
Price is US$20,745. [122.29]
- Sun Microsystems introduces and ships the SparcStation 10 Model
402MP,
with dual 40-MHz CPUs, 36 KB on-chip cache per CPU, 32 MB RAM, and 1 GB
hard disk. Price is US$24,745. [122.29]
- Sun Microsystems introduces and ships the SparcStation 10 Model
51,
with a 50-MHz CPU, 36 KB on-chip cache, 1 MB external cache, 64 MB RAM,
and 1 GB hard disk. Price is US$27,745. [122.29]
- (month unknown)
- MIPS Technologies announces the R4200 processor. It is designed
to
run Windows NT at twice the speed of an Intel 486 processor. NEC will
produce
the chip, which should be available for sale by mid-1994. [154]
- June
- Digital Equipment ships the 200-MHz Alpha 21064 processor.
[90.134]
- (month unknown)
- Weitek announces the 80-MHz clock-doubled SPARC Power upgrade
processor
for SPARCstation 2 systems. Price is US$1500 each. [155]
- July
- Texas Instruments begins shipping the 60-MHz SuperSPARC+
processor.
Price is about US$1000 in 1000 unit quantities. [182] [155]
- Data General announces availability of a new line of Aviion
workstations
based on the Motorola 88110 processor. [155]
- IBM introduces the RS/6000 POWERstation and POWERserver 34H
computers.
They feature 41.6-MHz CPU, 16 MB RAM, 400 MB hard drive, and 32 KB
cache.
[101.2]
- IBM releases AIX v3.2.4 for the RS/6000. [101.3]
- August
- Digital Equipment begins volume shipments of the 200-MHz Alpha
processor.
[180]
- IBM demos its first PowerPC RS/6000 workstation, using a 95-MHz
PowerPC
601 processor. [11] [93.35]
- Sun Microsystems ships the 60-MHz Sun SuperSPARC processor.
[90.134]
- Ross Technology begins shipping 55-MHz and 66-MHz hyperSPARC
processors.
Price in 1000 unit quantities is US$895 and US$1595, respectively.
[180]
[182]
- September
- IBM debuts and ships its first PowerPC-based RS/6000 systems,
the RS/6000
POWERserver 25S, POWERserver/station 250, POWERstation 25T and 25W, all
using the 66-MHz PowerPC 601 chip. [12.1] [43.191] [100.39] [103.1]
[132.81]
[169] (October [41.272] [90.134])
- IBM announces the Power2 processor, at clock speeds of up to
71.5-MHz.
It incorporates over 23 million transistors in eight separate chips for
integer unit, floating point unit, 32 KB instruction cache unit, and
four
64 KB data cache units. Performance is 126 SPECint92, 260 SPECfp92.
[103.2]
[169]
- IBM announces the RS/6000 Model 990 computer. It features
71.5-MHz
Power2 processor, CD-ROM drive, 15 Micro Channel slots. Prices start at
US$124,500. Performance is rated at 126 SPECint92, 260 SPECfp92.
[103.2]
[169]
- IBM announces the RS/6000 Model 590 computer. It features
66-MHz Power2
processor, 64 MB RAM, 2 GB hard drive, CD-ROM drive, seven Micro
Channel
slots. Price is US$72,500. Performance is rated at 117 SPECint92, 242
SPECfp92.
[103.2] [169]
- IBM announces the RS/6000 Model 58H computer. It features
55.5-MHz
Power2 processor, 64 MB RAM, 2 GB hard drive, CD-ROM drive, seven Micro
Channel slots. Price is US$62,500. Performance is rated at 98
SPECint92,
204 SPECfp92. [103.2] [169]
- Digital Equipment announces the 166-MHz DECchip 21066
processor. It
features 64 bit superscalar CPU and FPU, 8 KB instruction cache, 8 KB
data
cache, memory interface for SRAM, DRAM, and VRAM, and PCI bus
interface.
Price is US$424 in 1000 unit quantities. Performance is estimated at 70
SPECint92 and 105 SPECfp92. [168]
- 75 computer companies, including all major UNIX players, agree
to adopt
the Spec 1170 definition of UNIX, specifying a single set of 1170 API
calls.
[118.36]
- October
- Novell transfers the UNIX trademark to the international X/Open
standards
organization. [118.36]
- (month unknown)
- Sales of Sun 600MP systems worldwide: 13,000. [180]
- Sales of Sun SPARCstation 10 systems worldwide: 100,000. [180]
- October
- Sun Microsystems ships the 85-MHz and 110-MHz MicroSPARC II
processors.
[90.134]
- At the Microprocessor Forum, Digital Equipment announces the
21064A
Alpha processor, capable of 275-MHz. It is manufactured using a 0.5
micron
CMOS process. Dual cache sizes are 16 KB for data and instructions.
Pricing
is US$965 for 225-MHz, and US$1586 for 275-MHz, in 1000 unit
quantities.
[170]
- At the Microprocessor Forum, IDT and Toshiba announce the R4600
processor.
Initial version is 100-MHz, at a cost of US$240 in 10,000 unit
quantities.
Code name during development was Orion. [170]
- (month unknown)
- At the Hot Chips conference, Hitachi unveils its HARP-1
processor (Hitachi
Advanced RISC Processor). It is designed to run at 120-MHz. It was
created
using a 0.5 micron BiCMOS process, incorporating 2.8 million
transistors.
Approximate performance: 70 SPECint92 and 110 SPECfp92. It follows the
PA-RISC architecture, licensed from Hewlett-Packard. [167]
- Sun Microsystems announces the microSPARC-2 processor. Speed is
70-MHz.
0.5 micron CMOS process is used. 24 KB cache. 2 million transistors.
[180]
- November
- At Comdex, Steve Jobs announces that Next will port its
NextStep operating
system to the SPARC architecture. [181]
- At Comdex, MIPS Technologies demonstrates a system running a
200-MHz
R4400 processor. [181]
- At Comdex, Digital Equipment demonstrates a system running a
320-MHz
21064A Alpha processor. [181]
- At Comdex, several systems vendors announce or demonstrate
Windows
NT systems powered by Alpha or MIPS processors. [181]
- December
- SunSoft (a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems) ships the first
version
of WABI, providing Microsoft Windows application compatibility on
Solaris,
Intel, and Sparc versions of UNIX. [13]
- Hewlett-Packard announces the 125-MHz PA-7150 processor. [182]
[182]
- December 31
- Worldwide shipments of workstations: 621,919. [22]
- Workstation market share for the year: HP PA-RISC 34%, Sun
SPARC 23%,
MIPS 20%, IBM RS/6000 11%. [183]
