Sun-1

The Sun-1 was a workstation from Sun Microsystems, their first product, released in 1982. It was effectively a commercial version of the Stanford University Network workstation (the SUN); many of the principals at Sun had been involved in the creation of the SUN.

It used an asynchronous Multibus for communication with most device controllers, and a synchronous Sun-specific bus for communication between the CPU (a 10 MHz Motorola MC68000 microprocessor, on the first CPU cards) and the main memory (carried on the same PCB as the CPU; 256KB on the first cards). The CPU card carried PROMs, for both diagnostics and bootstrapping. Optional additional dynamic RAM boards from an outside vendor could be plugged into the Multibus.

A second Sun-specific card carried the bit-mapped display, driving a CRT display from an outside vendor. The display card implemented a few display updating operations in hardware. Another card was the Experimental Ethernet network interface. A keyboard and mouse were also provided, driven by the CPU board. For mass storage, controllers from other manufacturers were used.

They are apparently rare, as according to some sources, less than 200 Sun-1's were produced.

See also

• Sun-2
• Sun-3
• Sun-4

External links

• Sun1- documentation at Bitsavers
  • SUN-l System Reference Manual
• The Sun Hardware Reference, Part 1
• Sun-1 workstation - a Sun-at the CHM