Sun-4
Series of Unix workstations and servers
title: "Sun-4" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["sun-servers", "sun-workstations", "sparc-microprocessor-products", "computer-related-introductions-in-1987", "32-bit-computers"] description: "Series of Unix workstations and servers" topic_path: "general/sun-servers" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-4" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Series of Unix workstations and servers ::
Sun-4 is a series of Unix workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, first appearing in July 1987, with the launch of the Sun 4/260. The original Sun-4 series were VMEbus-based systems similar to the earlier Sun-3 series, but employing microprocessors based on Sun's own SPARC V7 RISC architecture in place of the 68k family processors of previous Sun models.
Sun 4/280 was a base system used for building an early RAID prototype.
Models
Models are listed in approximately chronological order.
:{| class="wikitable sortable" |- !Model !Codename !CPU board !CPU !CPU MHz !Max. RAM !Chassis |- |4/260 |Sunrise |Sun 4200 |Fujitsu SF9010 IU, Weitek 1164/1165 FPU |16.67 MHz |128 MB
| 12-slot VME (deskside) |
|---|
| 4/280 |
| Sunrise |
| Sun 4200 |
| Fujitsu SF9010 IU, |
| Weitek 1164/1165 FPU |
| 16.67 MHz |
| 128 MB |
| 12-slot VME (rackmount) |
| - |
| 4/110 |
| Cobra |
| Sun 4100 |
| Fujitsu MB86900 IU, |
| Weitek 1164/1165 FPU |
| (optional) |
| 14.28 MHz |
| 32 MB |
| 3-slot VME (desktop/side) |
| - |
| 4/150 |
| Cobra |
| Sun 4100 |
| Fujitsu MB86900 IU, |
| Weitek 1164/1165 FPU |
| (optional) |
| 14.28 MHz |
| 32 MB |
| 6-slot VME (deskside) |
| - |
| 4/310 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 32 MB |
| 3-slot VME (desktop/side) |
| - |
| 4/330 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 96 MB |
| 3-slot VME w 2 memory slots (deskside) |
| - |
| 4/350 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 224 MB |
| 5-slot VME (desktop/side) |
| - |
| 4/360 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 224 MB |
| 12-slot VME (deskside) |
| - |
| 4/370 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 224 MB |
| 12-slot VME (deskside) |
| - |
| 4/380 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 224 MB |
| 12-slot VME (rackmount) |
| - |
| 4/390 |
| Stingray |
| Sun 4300 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 25 MHz |
| 224 MB |
| 16-slot VME (rackmount) |
| - |
| 4/470 |
| Sunray |
| Sun 4400 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 33 MHz |
| 768 MB |
| 16-slot VME (deskside) |
| - |
| 4/490 |
| Sunray |
| Sun 4400 |
| Cypress Semiconductor CY7C601, |
| Texas Instruments 8847 FPU |
| 33 MHz |
| 768 MB |
| 12-slot VME (rackmount) |
| } |
In 1989, Sun dropped the "Sun-4" name for marketing purposes in favor of the SPARCstation and SPARCserver brands for new models, although early SPARCstation/server models were also assigned Sun-4-series model numbers. For example, the SPARCstation 1 was also known as the Sun 4/60. This practice was phased out with the introduction of the SPARCserver 600MP series in 1991. The term Sun-4 continued to be used in an engineering context to identify the basic hardware architecture of all SPARC-based Sun systems.
Sun 4/110, 4/150, 4/260 and 4/280 systems upgraded with the Sun 4300 CPU board (as used in the SPARCserver 300 series) were referred to as the 4/310, 4/350, 4/360 and 4/380 respectively.
Sun-4 architecture
The Sun-4 architecture refers to the VME-based architecture described above and used in the Sun 4/100, 4/200, SPARCserver 300 and SPARCserver 400 ranges. Sun-4 support was included in SunOS 3.2 onwards and Solaris 2.1 to 2.4. OpenBSD and NetBSD also will run on the Sun-4 architecture families.
Several variations on the Sun-4 architecture were subsequently developed and used in later computer systems produced by Sun and other vendors. These comprised: ;Sun-4c: (c presumably for Campus, the codename of the first Sun-4c model, the SPARCstation 1) This desktop workstation/low-end server variant substituted the 32-bit SBus expansion bus in place of VME and introduced a new MMU design. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3c onwards and Solaris 2.0 to 7. ;Sun-4e: A hybrid Sun-4c/VME architecture found in the SPARCengine 1 (Sun 4/E) VME embedded controller. This board was originally designed by Force Computers and licensed to Sun. Supported by SunOS 4.0.3e and 4.1e and Solaris 2.1 to 2.4. ;Sun-4m: Originally a multiprocessor Sun-4 variant, based on the MBus processor module bus introduced in the SPARCserver 600MP series. The Sun-4m architecture later also encompassed non-MBus uniprocessor systems such as the SPARCstation 5, utilizing SPARC V8-architecture processors. Supported by SunOS 4.1.2 onwards and Solaris 2.1 to 9. SPARCserver 600MP support was dropped after Solaris 2.5.1. ;Sun-4d: (d for Dragon, the codename of the SPARCcenter 2000) A high-end multiprocessor architecture, based on the XDBus processor interconnect, scalable up to 20 processors. The only Sun-4d systems produced by Sun were the SPARCserver 1000 and SPARCcenter 2000 series. The Cray CS6400 was also nominally a Sun-4d machine (sun4d6), although it required a custom version of Solaris. Supported by Solaris 2.2 to 8. ;Sun-4u: (u for UltraSPARC) - this variant introduced the 64-bit SPARC V9 processor architecture and UPA processor interconnect first used in the Sun Ultra series. Supported by 32-bit versions of Solaris from the version 2.5. The first 64-bit Solaris release for Sun4u is Solaris 7. UltraSPARC I support was dropped after Solaris 9. Solaris 10 supports Sun4u implementations from UltraSPARC II to UltraSPARC IV. ;Sun-4u1: Sometimes used to identify the Sun Enterprise 10000 (Starfire) 64-way multiprocessor server architecture. The Starfire is supported by Solaris 2.5.1 onwards. ;Sun-4us: A variant of Sun-4u specific to Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER systems based on SPARC64 V processors. ;Sun-4v: (v presumably for "virtualized") A variation on Sun-4u which includes hypervisor processor virtualization; introduced in the UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) multithreading processor. Supported by Solaris version 10 starting from release 3/05 HW2, and Solaris 11.
References
References
- "Berkeley Hardware Prototypes".
- "OpenBSD/sparc".
- "NetBSD/sparc".
- McLaughlin, John. (November 1992). "SunFLASH Vol 47 #26".
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