OpenSPARC evaluation platform is rich in features

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Xilinx Inc. have unveiled a feature-rich, high-performance programmable OpenSPARC evaluation platform. According to the companies, the platform provides academic researchers and hardware developers with a flexible OpenSPARC-based platform to create, customize and deploy next-generation applications for a broad set of end markets including supercomputers, industrial, scientific and medical (ISM), aerospace and defense, and storage and networking.

Based on the power of an open-sourced 32-thread UltraSPARC T1 processor and combined with the high-performance Xilinx 65nm Virtex-5 FPGA technology, the platform will provide a foundation for innovation across a range of disciplines including; computer architecture, logic design, compiler techniques and parallel programming. Based on its programmable architecture, the platform allows multiple design iterations providing faster time- to- market, greater flexibility and reduced complexity.

"Our collaboration with industry leaders such as Xilinx will continue to drive the momentum and expansion of the UltraSPARC ecosystem," said Mike Knudsen, vice president, business development and marketing for Sun's Microelectronics unit. "The microprocessor industry is steadily shifting towards CMT architectures, and this new OpenSPARC FPGA evaluation platform puts us in a prime position to enable faster time-to-market for our customers."

The Sun and Xilinx-based OpenSPARC FPGA development platform is immediately available through Digilent. Visit http://www.digilentinc.com/v5osdk to order.