Tadpole SPARCbook 1 and 2

Tadpole SPARCbook 1992
© Byte 1992

Tadpole SPARCbook 1 and 2 were RISC laptops from the early 1990s for Unix computing. SPARCbook 1 was the first laptop Unix system that lives up to its name, introduced when most laptops were PC models with Intel 486 and MS-DOS.

These early SPARCbooks were not 100% compatible to Sun SPARC offerings and needed modified Solaris and SunOS. Reviews of the SPARCbook 1 were pretty positive, noting the unique possibilities of a truly mobile Unix syste with good performance and solid devices.

SPARCbook 1 SPARCbook 2
Introduced 1992 1993
CPU CY7C600 SPARC
25 MHz		 CY6111 SPARC
40 MHz
Cache 64 KB L1 8? KB L1
Design 32-bit RISC Sun SPARC with Sun custom chipset
RAM 8-32 MB 16-32 MB
Video GD6430
Screen 9.4″ LCD 9.4″ TFT
Drives Two IDE drives, floppy Two SCSI drives
I/O Ethernet, PS/2, VGA, modem, serial, parallel
OS Solaris, SunOS
Price $4,950-14,850 $10,950-14,600

The SPARCbook 1 processor consisted of multi-chip Cypress CY601, CY602, CY604; there might also have been LSI Logic L64811 IU/L68414 processors. SPARCbook 2 consisted of multi-chip SPARC CY6111, maybe also MB86903.

Tadpole produced many SPARC-based SPARCbooks in the 1990s – the 1 and 2 were followed by SPARCbook 3 and 3000 and later by 64-bit Ultrabooks. Main competition of SPARCbook 1 and 2 were RDI PowerLites with faster microSPARC processors, introduced two years later in 1994.

Tadpole SPARCbook Tadpole SPARCbook ad Tadpole SPARCbook
Tadpole SPARCbook © Unixworld 1991, Tadpole 1991, Unixinfo 1992

Technical details

SPARCbooks were 32-bit SPARC computers based on non-standard workstation design, which Tadpole integrated into a laptop. Chipset and devices used were:

SPARCbook 1

[i] - integrated into chipset
Pbus might be ISA PC/AT style
Usage Device Type External Bus
Chipset CY604 Memory controller 64-bit Mbus
Chipset MPI ASIC Tadpole Mbus to Pbus controller Mbus/Pbus
Chipset 82C710 Universal Peripheral Controler (UPC) Pbus
Storage 82C710[i] Floppy controller NEC765 Pbus
Storage 82C710[i] IDE controller Pbus
Network Fujitsu 86960 10 Mbit Ethernet controller AUI Pbus
Video GD6410
GD6430		 display controller
color display controller		 VGA Pbus
I/O [i] Serial and parallel I/O RS-232C mini-DIN
Centronics port
I/O [i] PS/2 for mouse one port Pbus
Network SC11054 SPARCbook 1 Modem 2400bps RJ11 Pbus

SPARCbook 2

Tadpole SPARCbook 2 were quite different to their version 1 counterparts, however not much information can be found on specifics nowadays.

Expansion and I/O

There were only few possibilities to expand SPARCbook 1 and 2 with devices:

Device Type Details
Memory DRAM SPARCbook 1 8-32 MB RAM
SPARCbook 2 16-32 MB RAM
Storage Drives SPARCbook 1 Two IDE drives (85-125MB)
SPARCbook 2 Two SCSI drives
Media Floppy 3.5″ Floppy for 1.44MB
Input PS/2 82-key keyboard with Mousekey
Output Screen SPARCbook 1 9.4″ LCD 640×480 color (256) or monochrome (64)
SPARCbook 2 9.4″ TFT 640×480 color

The SPARCbook case was made out of magnesium alloy (AZ91). Battery was NiCad on SPARCbook 1 for up to 2.5 hours or more and less than an hour in SPARCbook 2s.

The sleep function, a soft shutdown when power-off (or low), was revolutionary for laptops and Unix systems in the 1990s.

Operating systems

Tadpole SPARCbook 1 and 2 were portable Unix workstations, shipped with Sun Solaris. Supported were Solaris 1 and Solaris 2, specifically Solaris 1.1vA (Sun OS 4.1.3) and Solaris 2.3vB.0 (Sun OS 5.3).

It seems no further versions or operating systems were ported since early SPARCbooks used uncommon hardware not shared with Sun designs. Supported Solaris versions were apparently not Y2K-compliant.

Benchmarks

SPEC benchmark data and comparisons to contemporary laptops and workstations:

Based on old SPEC95 archives
* - approximate
Model CPU SPEC92 int SPEC92 fp SPEC95 int SPEC95 fp
Tadpole SPARCbook 1 CY7C600 SPARC
25 MHz		 about 18 MIPS
Tadpole SPARCbook 2 CY6111 SPARC
40 MHz 		21.8* 21.5* nearly 30 MIPS
Comparison
reference Intel 486DX 33 MHz 19.5 8.9
reference Intel 486DX2 66 MHz 32.4 16.1
Siemens PCE-5S Intel Pentium 100MHz 96.2 81.2 4.04 2.35
Sun SPARCstation 20 Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz 125.8 121.2 3.11 3.10

References

Specifications

Articles and reviews

Announcements

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