Comment by aww_dang
4 years ago
Didn't the UltraSPARC lines have greater throughput as compared to x86 offerings, even when they couldn't keep up on single threaded performance?
4 years ago
Didn't the UltraSPARC lines have greater throughput as compared to x86 offerings, even when they couldn't keep up on single threaded performance?
Sun experimented with an UltraSPARC-branded ultra-wide CMT design in their last days -- Niagara. It was very unsuccessful, because, realistically, what can you do with 32 low-performance cores that you couldn't do with 8 high-performance cores?
The answer turned out to be "nothing"
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The "conventional" UltraSPARC designs -- US IIi, US IIIi, US IV, and the canceled "Rock" project -- were just really very mediocre chips sold at tens of times the cost of a similar x86.