Bipolar ECL implementation of SPARC
A. Agrawal, Emil W. Brown, Dave Murata, Joseph Petolino · 2003
The scalable processor architecture (SPARC) defines a general purpose 32 bit RISC processor architecture. The simple nature of the architecture provides a migration path to higher performance levels as new technologies become available. The goal was to design an architecture that would scale with, or track, improvements in the circuit technology. It has been implemented in gate arrays, full custom CMOS and bipolar emitter coupled logic (ECL) technologies by four different vendors. A number of implementations in other technologies including BiCMOS and GaAs are underway. A description is given of the B5000, the bipolar ECL implementation of the SPARC architecture. Also covered are some of the system level considerations that influenced the design of the processor.>