Toshiba SPARC LT

Toshiba SPARC LT
Toshiba AS1000/L10, © mc 1991

Toshiba SPARC LT AS1000 are RISC laptops, first released in 1990, based on Sun SPARC architecture for Unix. They were one of the first Unix laptops developed with still early RISC technology in the 1980s and mostly sold in Japan.

SPARC LT were close to Sun SPARCstations (1+ or 2) but needed modified SunOS for the custom Toshiba system design. After the original SPARC-based L10 and E10 versions, Toshiba added SuperSPARC C60, C70 and C80 models a few years later.

Contemporary reviews in the early 1990s were unsure on the need for mobile engineering computers: Some experts have questioned the need for laptop workstations because the scientists and engineers who use them are often networked into high-powered mainframes. As a result, the advantages of portability are not as clear-cut as they would be for personal computer users.

Toshiba SPARC LT laptops were marketed primarily in Japan, priced at ¥1,980,000 in 1990. There were many US and European press reports at time of release.

SPARC LT AS1000
L10 and E10		 SPARC LT AS1000
C60 and C70		 SPARC LT AS1000
C80
Introduced 1990 1995? 1996?
CPU CY7C601 SPARC CPU 25 MHz SuperSPARC+ 40-50 MHz SuperSPARC II 75 MHz
Cache 64 KB L1 36 KB L1 + 1 MB L2 36 KB L1 + 1 MB L2
Design 32-bit RISC Sun SPARC with custom Toshiba implementation
RAM 8-40 MB 32-96 MB ?
Video ? ? ?
Screen 12″ LCD 13.8″ TFT-LCD 13.8″ TFT-LCD
Drives One SCSI, floppy One SCSI, floppy
I/O Ethernet, VGA?, modem, serial, audio
OS OS/AS (SunOS) OS/AS (SunOS), Solaris
Price $13,000 ? ?

It seems there were different SPARC LT AS1000 laptops models: AS1000/L10 and AS1000/E10 are the early 25 MHz SPARC model with 12″ LCD. Toshiba later developed follow-on laptops with AS1000/C60 and AS1000/C70 with SuperSPARC and AS1000/C80 with SuperSPARC II processors.

Toshiba SPARC LT L10 Toshiba SPARC LT L10 Toshiba SPARC LT C60
Toshiba SPARC LT L10, L10 and C60 © Toshiba 1991, mc 1990, Toshiba 1995

System chipset

Toshiba SPARC LT are 32-bit SPARC computers based on Sun (SPARCstation 2) workstation design, which Toshiba customized into a laptop. Chipset and devices used are:

Usage Device Type Bus
Chipset L10/E10 CY604 Cache, MMU and Memory controller Mbus
FPU L10/E10 Weitek 3171 Floating point unit Mbus
Chipset Toshiba ASICs Toshiba chipset Mbus/Pbus
Storage Floppy controller Pbus
Storage SCSI controller Pbus
Network 10 Mbit Ethernet controller Pbus
Video display controller Pbus
I/O Serial and parallel I/O
I/O [i] PS/2 for mouse Pbus

Expansion and I/O

There were a few possibilities to expand SPARC LT with devices:

Device Type Details
Memory DRAM L10/E10 8-40 MB RAM
C60/C70 32-96 MB
Storage Drives One SCSI drive
Storage External SCSI 50-pin
Media Floppy 3.5″ Floppy for 1.44MB
Cards Sbus one slot
Network Ethernet AUI
Network Modem (opt) phone jack
Input PS/2
I/O Ports RS-232C
I/O Ports Parallel centronics
Output Screen L10 12″ LCD 1152×900 monochrome?
E10 12″ LCD 1152×900 color?
C60/C70 13.8″ TFT-LCD 1152×900 color
C80 13.8″ Color LCD 1152×900 color
Output Video VGA?

The SPARC LT case weighed 7.8kg to 8.7kg.

Operating systems

Toshiba SPARC LT laptops were delivered with a modified verion of SunOS Unix, possibly called OS/ASR4 (OS/AS) They were possibly binary-compatible with SPARC applications on SunOS.

The AS1000 C-models (C60, C70, C80) apparently also were supported in modified Sun Solaris 2.3, with the tsb architecture and OS/AS V4.13

Benchmarks

SPEC benchmark data and comparisons to contemporary laptops and workstations:

Based on SPEC92 and Dhrystone archives
* - approximate
System CPU SPEC92int SPEC92fp SPEC95int SPEC95fp MIPS
Toshiba SPARC LT AS1000/L10 CY7C601 SPARC 25 MHz 13
Toshiba SPARC LT AS1000/C60 SuperSPARC+ 40 MHz 76
Toshiba SPARC LT AS1000/C70 SuperSPARC+ 50 MHz 96
Comparison
Intel Intel 486DX2 66 MHz 32 16 31
Tadpole SPARCbook 2 CY6111 SPARC 40 MHz 21* 21* 30
Tadpole SPARCbook 1 CY7C600 SPARC 25 MHz 18
Sun SPARCstation 1+ SPARC 25 MHz 13
Intel Intel 386 40 MHz 10

Documentation

Specifications

Articles and reviews

Announcements

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