Introduction to Charon-SSP

In 1987, Sun Microsystems released the SPARC V7 processor, a 32-bit RISC processor. The SPARC V8 followed in 1990 – a revision of the original SPARC V7, with the most notable inclusion of hardware divide and multiply instructions. The SPARC V8 processors formed the basis for a number of servers and workstations such as the SPARCstation 5, 10 and 20. In 1993, the SPARC V8 was followed by the 64-bit SPARC V9 processor. This too became the basis for a number of servers and workstations, such as the Enterprise 250 and 450.

Due to hardware obsolescence and lack of spare or refurbished parts, software and systems developed for these older SPARC-based workstations and servers have become harder to maintain. To fill the continuous need for certain, end-of-life SPARC-based systems, Stromasys S.A. developed the Charon-SSP line of SPARC emulator products. The following products are software-based, virtual machine replacements for the specified native-hardware SPARC systems. A general overview of the emulated hardware families is shown below:

Charon-SSP/4M emulates the following SPARC hardware:

• Sun-4m family (represented by the Sun SPARCstation 20): originally, a multiprocessor Sun-4 variant, based on the MBus processor module bus introduced in the SPARCServer 600MP series. The Sun-4m architecture later also encompassed non-MBus uniprocessor systems such as the SPARCstation 5, utilizing SPARC V8-architecture processors. Supported starting with SunOS 4.1.2 and by Solaris 2.1 to Solaris 9. SPARCServer 600MP support was dropped after Solaris 2.5.1.

Charon-SSP/4U(+) emulates the following SPARC hardware:

• Sun-4u family (represented by the Sun Enterprise 450): (U for UltraSPARC) – this variant introduced the 64-bit SPARC V9 processor architecture and UPA processor interconnect first used in the Sun Ultra series. Supported by 32-bit versions of Solaris starting from version 2.5.1. The first 64-bit Solaris release for Sun-4u was Solaris 7. UltraSPARC I support was dropped after Solaris 9. Solaris 10 supports Sun-4u implementations from UltraSPARC II to UltraSPARC IV.

Charon-SSP/4V(+) emulates the following SPARC hardware:

• Sun-4v family (represented by the SPARC T2 and T4): this variation added hypervisor processor virtualization to the Sun-4u; introduced in the UltraSPARC T1 multicore processor. Selected hardware was supported by Solaris version 10 starting from release 3/05 HW2 (most models - including the hardware emulated by Charon-SSP - require newer versions of Solaris 10).  Several Solaris 11 versions are also supported.

Please note: For up-to-date information about supported features and guest OS versions refer to the section Virtual Hardware and Guest OS Supported by Charon-SSP. Unless otherwise mentioned, the terms Charon-SSP/4U and Charon-SSP/4V also include Charon-SSP/4U+ and Charon-SSP/4V+.

The image below shows the basic concept of migrating physical hardware to an emulator:

The Charon-SSP virtual machines allow users of Sun and Oracle SPARC-based computers to replace their native hardware in a way that requires little or no change to the original system configuration. This means you can continue to run your applications and data without the need to switch or port to another platform. The Charon-SSP software runs on commodity, Intel 64-bit systems ensuring the continued protection of your investment.

Charon-SSP/4U+ supports the same virtual SPARC platforms as Charon-SSP/4U, and Charon-SSP/4V+ the same as Charon-SSP/4V. However, the 4U+ and 4V+ versions take advantage of Intel’s VT‑x/EPT and AMD’s AMD-v/NPT hardware assisted virtualization technology in modern CPUs to offer better virtual CPU performance. Charon-SSP/4U+ and Charon-SSP/4V+ require CPUs with VT-x/EPT or AMD-v/NPT support and must be installed on a dedicated host system. Running these product variants in a VM (e.g., on VMware) is not supported. 

Please note: if you plan to run Charon-SSP/4U+ or 4V+ in a cloud environment, please contact Stromasys or a Stromasys VAR to discuss your requirements.