【Fujitsu】FUJITSU PRIMEPOWER Series

Fujitsu’s PRIMEPOWER series of UNIX servers replaced the FUJITSU GP7000F series, which used the SPARC 64-GP*1 64-bit RISC*2 processor. Fujitsu announced the PRIMEPOWER series in May 2000 as its new global UNIX server brand. The first models — the FUJITSU PRIMEPOWER 800/1000/2000 — inherited technology from the FUJITSU GP7000F 2000 (announced in July 1999) while adding the following performance and scalability improvements.

Features of the FUJITSU PRIMEPOWER series:

（1）Improved SPARC 64-GP processor performance

Fujitsu boosted the processor’s clock frequency from 300 MHz to 450 MHz.

（2）SMP architecture*3 made expandable up to 128 CPUs

Fujitsu increased the SMP architecture’s scalability from 64 CPUs on the GP7000F 2000 to 128 CPUs.

（3）Enhanced system bus performance

Although the PRIMEPOWER server models used the same 0.18-micron CMOS crossbar bus that had been in use since the GP7000F 2000, Fujitsu managed to push the top system bus speed to 57.6 GB/s (in a 128-CPU configuration).

（4）Other aspects

Fujitsu retained key features of the GP7000F 2000 including the 99.999% system availability and the partition function, which allowed one machine to be partitioned into multiple operating system environments.

*1. SPARC 64-GP: A 64-bit SPARC processor developed by Fujitsu. SPARC is a processor standard developed by SPARC International. The SPARC 64-GP was based on the SPARC V9 64-bit architecture specification.
*2. RISC: Reduced instruction set computer.
*3. SMP: Symmetric multiprocessing. A multiprocessor architecture where multiple processors, which function identically, are connected to a single shared main memory.

The specifications above were correct at the time the products were announced. Some specifications were later revised due to product upgrades. Many further models were added subsequently to the PRIMEPOWER series after the initial announcement.