Chronology
of
Workstation Computers
1995
- January
- Sun Microsystems ships the 85-MHz Sun SuperSPARC II processor.
[90.135]
- Digital Equipment ships the Alpha 21164 processor running at
266-MHz.
[90.135]
- February
- At the International Solid State Circuits Conference, Hal
Computer
Systems announces its first microprocessor, the Sparc64, implementing
the
64-bit SPARC V9 architecture. Performance estimates are 256 SPECint92
and
330 SPECfp92. [188]
- (month unknown)
- SunSoft releases Wabi 2.0 for Solaris 2 operating system. Wabi
supports
Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 applictions, but not Windows for
Workgroups
or MS-DOS. [160.148]
- March
- Digital Equipment ships the 166-MHz and 233-MHz Alpha 21066A
processors.
[90.135]
- Digital Equipment ships the 300-MHz Alpha 21164 processor.
[90.135]
- (month unknown)
- SPARC Technology Business ships 110-MHz MicroSparc-2 processor.
Price
is US$649 in 1000 unit quantities. [189]
- May
- MIPS Technologies ships the 90-MHz R8000 RISC microprocessor.
[90.135]
- SPARC announces sample availability of the 64-bit UltraSPARC
microprocessor.
[47] [189] (March [90.135])
- May 23
- Sun Microsystems launches Java at SunWorld. [143.102]
- June
- Data General announces that future Aviion workstations will use
Intel
processors, not Motorola's 88x00 processor family. [69.61] [190]
- NEC Technologies begins shipping the RISCStation 2200, with 64
MB RAM,
1 GB hard drive, dual 200-MHz processors, running Windows NT, for under
US$11,000. [124.21]
- July
- Silicon Graphics introduces Indigo2 Impact workstation.
[115.69]
- MIPS Technologies ships the 250-MHz R4400 RISC microprocessor.
[90.135]
- (month unknown)
- The System Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) announces
the
SPEC95 benchmark suite for Unix systems. The suite is scheduled for
release
in October, for US$600 to new customers. [191]
- September
- Novell sells UNIXWare and the rights to the UNIX operating
system to
The Santa Cruz Operation for US$145 million. [59.24] [73.12] [136.36]
(1994
October [44.4]) (1995 December [80.25] [92.A4]) (US$60 million [44.4])
- (month unknown)
- Sun Microsystems announces the 182-MHz UltraSparc processor.
Performance
is estimated at 260 SPECint92 and 410 SPECfp92. Price is US$1595 in
1000
unit quantities. [192]
- Digital Semiconductor announces the 300-MHz 21064A processor.
Performance
is estimated at 220 SPECint92 and 300 SPECfp92. [192]
- Digital Semiconductor announces the 330-MHz 21164 processor.
Performance
is estimated at 400 SPECint92 and 570 SPECfp92. [192]
- October
- Sun Microsystems ships the 143-MHz and 167-MHz versions of the
UltraSPARC
processor. [60.38] [90.135]
- Digital Equipment announces its Alpha 21164 processor running
at 333-MHz.
Performance is 400 SPECint92. [18] [53] [193]
- At the Microprocessor Forum, Digital announces a 417-MHz 21164A
processor.
It is manufactured using a 0.35 micron process. Performance is 500
SPECint92.
[193]
- November
- SPARC Technology Business, a division of Sun Microsystems,
Inc., announces
the sampling of the 200-MHz 64-bit UltraSPARC-I microprocessor. [53]
- Sun Microsystems introduces new Ultra 1 and Ultra 2
workstations, based
on the 64-bit UltraSparc microprocessor. Initial speeds are 143-, 167-,
and 200-MHz, with prices ranging from US$16,500 to US$60,000. [44.1]
[47]
[84.49] [91.52]
- Hewlett-Packard announces the Model C110 workstation. [91.52]
- December
- Digital Equipment ships the 300-MHz Alpha 21064A processor.
[90.135]
- Digital Equipment ships the 333-MHz Alpha 21164 processor.
[90.135]
1996
- January
- Silicon Graphics introduces InfiniteReality, an Indigo2
workstation
based on the MIPS Technologies R10000 microprocessor. [56.1] [91.53]
- February
- MIPS Technologies ships the 200-MHz R5000 RISC microprocessor.
[90.136]
- March
- Digital Equipment unveils 366-MHz and 400-MHz versions of its
Alpha
microprocessor. [75.8]
- MIPS Technologies ships the 200-MHz R10000 RISC microprocessor.
[90.136]
- Silicon Graphics buys Cray Research, at a cost of about US$765
million.
[68.1] [75] [78.3] [115.69]
- April
- Silicon Graphics completes its purchase of Cray Research, for
US$764
million. [77.1]
- June
- SunSoft releases Wabi 2.2 (Windows Applications Binary
Interface) allowing
SPARC processor-based computers to run Windows applications. [86.19]
- Digital Equipment ships 366-MHz and 400-MHz versions of its
Alpha 21164
microprocessor. [75.8] [90.136]
- (month unknown)
- Digital Equipment announces availability of the 500-MHz Alpha
21164
processor. The chip uses a 0.35-micron die. [94.1]
- July
- Digital Equipment begins shipping the 433-MHz Alpha 21164
processor.
[82.16]
- August
- Compaq Computer launches a dedicated workstation division.
[198.152]
- October
- Silicon Graphics introduces the O2 workstation computer,
replacing
the Indy series. It features 64-bit 180-MHz Mips R5000 processor,
10/100
Base-T Ethernet, PCI slots, two wide UltraSCSI channels, 128 MB RAM,
512
KB Level 2 cache, two 2 GB SCSI hard drive, 17 inch monitor, external
floppy
drive. Price is about US$8300. [115.70] [171.41]
- Compaq Computer enters the workstation computer market with the
announcement
of the Professional Workstation line of Pentium Pro based systems.
[197.9]
[199.30]
- December
- Digital Equipment begins shipping 500-MHz Alpha 21164
processors. [126.76]
1997
- January
- Silicon Graphics introduces the Octane workstation. [115.71]
- (month unknown)
- Digital Semiconductor introduces the 64-bit Alpha 21164PC
processor.
It features 16 KB instruction cache, dual integer units, dual floating
point units, L2 cache controller, and 8 KB data cache. The processor
was
co-designed by Digital and Mitsubishi, and incorporates 3.5 million
transistors
in a 0.35 CMOS process. Speed and price in 1000 unit quantities is
400-MHz
(US$295), 533-MHz (US$495). Performance of the 533-MHz processor is
1066
MFLOPS, 2133 MIPS. [157.59]
- May
- Digital Equipment files a lawsuit against Intel, claiming
infringement
of 10 Digital Equipment patents related to the Alpha RISC
microprocessor
in Intel's Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors. [97.3] [104.6]
- (month unknown)
- Sun Microsystems releases the Solaris 2.6 operating system for
SPARC
processor-based computers. [144.265]
- December 31
- Workstation shipments in Canada during the year:
Hewlett-Packard 14,000,
Sun Microsystems 8,000. [159.30]
1998
- January 31
- Compaq Computer ships its 100,000th workstation computer.
[197.9]
- (month unknown)
- Digital Equipment announces it plans to release a 1 GHz Alpha
21264
processor in two years. [142.35]
- September
- Sun Microsystems announces a SunPCi co-processor card for Sun
workstations.
SunPCi uses a 300-MHz AMD K6-2 processor, runs Windows 95 or 98, and
fits
in a PCI slot. [120.8]
- (month unknown)
- Sun Microsystems releases the Solaris 7.0 operating system.
[119.8]
- Sun Microsystems releases the Solaris 7.0 operating system for
SPARC
computers. Price is US$695 for a 5-user license. [200.75]
1999
- April
- Silicon Graphics Incorporated changes its company name to SGI.
[131.6]
- August
- EMC announces plans to buy Data General for about US$1.1
billion. [178.12]
- Compaq Computer ceases development work on 32-bit Windows NT
for the
Alpha processor. [177.4]
- Microsoft announces it will not release any more products for
the Alpha
platform. [177.23]
- September
- IBM introduces AIX version 4.3.3. [162.4]
- (month unknown)
- Workstation shipments during the year: Dell 238,184; Sun
Microsystems
322,541; Hewlett-Packard 312,031; Compaq Computer 208,268; IBM 217,774;
others 193,686. [196.20]
2000
- (month unknown)
- In New York, Sun Microsystems announces the UltraSPARC III
processor.
The processor incorporates 29 million transistors. Speeds availble are
600, 750, and 900-MHz. [194.1]
- Sun Microsystems introduces the Sun Blade workstation,
featuring 600,
750, or 900-MHz UltraSPARC processor. [194.14]
