SPARCstation 1
SPARCstation 1+ | |
| Codename | Campus |
|---|---|
| Also known as | 4/60 |
| Developer | Sun Microsystems |
| Manufacturer | Sun Microsystems |
| Product family | SPARCstation |
| Type | Workstation |
| Release date | April 12, 1989 |
| Availability | July 1989 |
| Introductory price | US$8,995–15,400 |
| Units sold | Over 120,000 |
| Operating system | |
| CPU | LSI Logic SPARC at 20 MHz (1) or 25 MHz (1+) |
| Memory | 1–64 MB |
| Predecessor | Sun-4 |
| Successor | SPARCstation 2 |
| Related | SPARCstation IPC |
The SPARCstation 1 (Sun 4/60, code-named Campus) is the first of the SPARCstation series of SPARC-based workstations sold by Sun Microsystems. The design originated in 1987 by a Sun spin-off company, UniSun, which was soon re-acquired. The SPARCstation 1 has a distinctive slim enclosure (a square 3-inch-high "pizza box") and was first announced in April 1989; the first units shipped in July that year.
Based on an LSI Logic RISC CPU running at 20 MHz, with a Weitek 3170 (or 3172) FPU coprocessor, it was the fourth Sun computer (after the 4/260, 4/110 and 4/280) to use the SPARC architecture and the first of the sun4c architecture. The motherboard has three SBus slots, built-in AUI Ethernet, 8 kHz audio, and a 5 MB/s SCSI-1 bus. The basic display runs at 1152 × 900 in 256 colours, and monitors shipped with the computer were 16 to 19 inch greyscale or colour. Sun released the SPARCstation 1+, an upgrade to the SPARCstation 1 which increased the clock speed of the CPU to 25 MHz among other hardware improvements, in 1990.
Designed for ease of production to compete with high-end PCs or Macs, its principal competitors were the IBM PS/2 Model 80, the NeXT Computer, and Sun's own 3/80. It sold for between about US$8,995, with no hard disks, to US$15,400 with a hard disk (equivalent to $22,817–39,064 in 2024). Within the first 18 months of its introduction, over 120,000 units were sold. Sun ended support for the SPARCstation 1 and 1+ in 1995.