Solbourne Computer
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware, computer consulting |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Defunct | 2008 |
| Fate | Majority of assets sold to Deloitte Consulting in 2008 |
| Headquarters | Longmont, Colorado (original), later Boulder, Colorado , United States |
Key people | Walt Pounds (CEO from 1994) |
| Products | Multiprocessor workstations and servers, single-processor workstations |
Number of employees | 100+ (transferred to Deloitte in 2008) |
Solbourne Computer, Inc. operated as a computer systems manufacturer headquartered in Longmont, Colorado, with an initial majority ownership stake of 52% held by Matsushita. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the company developed computer workstations and servers utilizing the SPARC microprocessor architecture, maintaining substantial compatibility with Sun Microsystems' Sun-4 platform. A distinguishing feature of Solbourne's systems was their early implementation of symmetric multiprocessing, preceding Sun Microsystems, which initially employed an asymmetric multiprocessing approach until it transitioned to symmetric multiprocessing with the release of Solaris 2.0 in 1992.
Due to escalating expenses in competing against Sun's hardware offerings and the loss of its symmetric multiprocessing edge, Solbourne discontinued its hardware production in 1994. Customer support responsibilities were assumed by Grumman Systems Support Corporation until the year 2000.
In 1994, leadership changed as Walt Pounds took over as CEO and moved the company’s headquarters to Boulder, Colorado. Subsequently, Solbourne redirected its business model toward consulting and solutions centered on Oracle Applications, earning a strong standing within the Oracle E-Business Suite ecosystem and becoming a prominent service provider for state and local government agencies.
On July 11, 2008, Solbourne divested the majority of its assets to Deloitte Consulting. The company's management team along with more than 100 employees integrated into Deloitte’s Enterprise Applications, Technology Integration, and Human Capital service divisions.
Models
Solbourne offered a range of products including:
- Multiprocessor workstations and servers that employed the KBus, a 64-bit inter-processor communication bus:
- Series4: equipped with 16.67 MHz Fujitsu MB86900 CPUs
- Series5: powered by 33 MHz Cypress CY7C601 processors
- Series5e: featuring 40 MHz Cypress CY7C601 CPUs
- Series6: utilizing 33 MHz SuperSPARC processors
- Series6E: incorporating 50 MHz SuperSPARC CPUs
- Single-processor IDT (Integrated DeskTop) workstations built around the Panasonic MN10501 KAP SPARC-compatible processor:
- S3000: a portable workstation with an integrated plasma display
- S4000: desktop "pizza-box" style workstation running at 33 MHz
- S4000DX: an enhanced S4000 model operating at 36 MHz with additional secondary processor cache
The MN10501 chip, co-developed by Solbourne and Matsushita, combined several advanced features such as a floating-point unit, memory management capabilities, branch prediction logic, an 8 KB cache, a 64-bit data bus, and predominantly 64-bit internal data paths. This integration provided competitive single-chip performance.
Operating systems
Solbourne’s entire product line ran on OS/MP, a version of SunOS 4.1 designed to support multiprocessor configurations. The last edition released was version 4.1D, corresponding to SunOS 4.1.3.
By 2017, there were ongoing initiatives aimed at porting OpenBSD to operate on Solbourne IDT workstations.
External links
- Articles with short description
- 2008 mergers and acquisitions
- American companies established in 1986
- American companies disestablished in 2008
- Computer companies established in 1986
- Computer companies disestablished in 2008
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- Defunct computer systems companies
- SPARC microprocessor products