Tadpole SPARCbook 1 and 2

Tadpole SPARCbook 1992
© Byte 1992

Tadpole SPARCbook 1 and 2 are 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 64 KB L1
Design 32-bit RISC Sun SPARC with Sun custom chipset
RAM 8-32 MB 16-64 MB
Video GD6430 GD6410
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

SPARCbook 1 processor consists of multi-chip Cypress CY601, CY602, CY604; there might also have been LSI Logic L64811 IU/L68414 processors. SPARCbook 2 use 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 are 32-bit SPARC computers based on non-standard workstation design, which Tadpole integrated into a laptop. Chipset and devices used are:

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 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).

Apparently, there was support for the SPARCbook 1 in Linux 2.1.

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 SPEC92 and Dhrystone archives
* - approximate
System CPU SPEC92 int SPEC92 fp SPEC95 int SPEC95 fp MIPS
Tadpole SPARCbook 1 CY7C600 SPARC 25 MHz 18
Tadpole SPARCbook 2 CY6111 SPARC 40 MHz 21.8* 21.5* 30
Comparison
Sun SPARCstation 20 Sun SuperSPARC II 75MHz 125.8 121.2 3.11 3.10
IBM ThinkPad 850 PowerPC 603e 100 MHz 120 105
SAIC Galaxy 1100 HP PA-7100LC 80 MHz 99 122 3.12 3.55
Siemens PCE-5S Intel Pentium 100MHz 96 81 4.04 2.35 79
Reference Intel 486DX2 66 MHz 32 16 31

Documentation

Specifications

Articles and reviews

Announcements

↑ up