SPARC Info Wanted

[Brett Glass]

I'm working on a detailed article about the SPARC architecture for BYTE
Magazine I've contacted Sun and SPARC International and gotten the "party
line;" I'd now like to get comments -- positive and negative -- from SPARC
users and from proponents and users of competitive architectures.

What do you think of SPARC as an architecture? Do you think it's well
thought-out? Did the designers provide well for the needs of a UNIX-based
workstation? For embedded applications? Did they leave sufficient room for
future enhancements? What are chip makers doing now to hot-rod the
architecture?

What do you think of SPARC as a strategy? Will the many SPARC "clone"
vendors be able to compete with Sun? If so, how?

What do you think of the SPARC-based machines you've seen? Are they good
performers? How do you think their price/performance compares to that of
competitive RISC workstations? CISC workstations? PCs?

I would also like the article to include some short, illustrative programs
in SPARC assembly language in the article.  Unfortunately, none of the
documentation I've found so far has included a complete programs and
makefile that would allow me to assemble, link and run a program on a
SPARC workstation. (I've tried passing the assembly-language output of a C
compiler through the assembler without success. If you have a "Hello,
world!" in assembler for the SPARC, a copy would be a tremendous help.

This is a big topic, and I want to make sure I cover it as well as
possible. Any and all input would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Brett Glass
(rogue at well.sf.ca.us)

[[Ed's Note: Please direct all followups directly to the author. -bdg]]