The Sparc Architecture Manual/Version 9 - Softcover

Sparc International, Inc.; Weaver, David L.; Germond, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130992275 ISBN 13: 9780130992277

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1993

Synopsis

This is the definitive reference for the latest generation of the enormously popular and influential SPARC microprocessors — the 64-bit SPARC-V9 — which is now being used by a variety of computer system vendors and is destined to set the standard for high performance capacity into the next century. Describes the architecture and instruction set of the 64-bit SPARC-V9 — a RISC-style processor architecture that supports a linear address space accessed by 64-bit addresses, fault-tolerance, object-oriented software, lightweight threads, and superscalar and multiprocessor implementations. MARKETS: For implementors of the SPARC architecture, microprocessor designers, hardware engineers, developers of SPARC-V9 system software, software engineers who write SPARC-V9 software in assembly language; and for students of computer architecture.

About this title

From the Back Cover

SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is the industry's only openly defined and evolved RISC architecture. Version 9 is the new 64-bit incarnation of SPARC - the most significant change since SPARC's introduction in 1987! Unlike other RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) designs, SPARC specifies not a hardware implementation ("chip"), but an open, standard architecture belonging to the community of SPARC vendors and users. The SPARC specification is defined by the SPARC Architecture Committee, a technical arm of the computer-maker consortium, SPARC International. Version 9 provides 64-bit data and addressing, support for fault tolerance, fast context switching, support for advanced compiler optimizations, efficient design for Superscalar processors, and a clean structure for modern operating systems. The V9 architecture supplements, rather than replaces, the 32-bit Version 8 architecture. The non-privileged features of Version 9 are upward-compatible from Version 8, so 32-bit application software can execute natively, without modification, on Version 9 systems - no special "compatibility mode" is required. Publication of the Version 9 architecture marks a three-year development effort by SPARC International member companies from a broad cross-section of disciplines.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0130992275
• ISBN 13: 9780130992277
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384