Sun Microsystems today announced the launch of its CoolThreads competition for innovation to inspire new software development for its breakthrough Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 server line. The CoolThreads competition sets the stage for developer communities to innovate, make money, gain international recognition and experience firsthand the new line of affordable high-performance Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. This no-cost-for-entry contest will not only open more doors to high-level innovation, but will also accelerate adoption away from more costly x86 servers to the new Sun Fire server line that boasts five-fold performance increase at one-fifth the power consumption over competing systems. CoolThreads Competition for Innovation Kicks-Off with $50,000 Cash Prize In response to the interest from the developer community, Sun Microsystems is challenging developers and ISVs to develop ground-breaking applications or improve on existing applications, in the next six months, for optimal throughput performance and scaling. All entries must be capable of running effectively on a Sun CoolThreads server with the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) and satisfy one of the following minimum requirements: (1) must be an application compiled through Sun Studio 11; (2) run in the Java Enterprise System environment or a standalone Java application or (3) run in any software which does not require a third-party commercial license to run. Submissions will be judged equally on performance, innovation, and scalability by a panel comprised of industry experts, including Rich Teer, author of the best-selling book "Solaris Systems Programming" and Sun Fellows Mike Splain and Marc Tremblay. "I'm looking forward to testing the boundaries of this highly anticipated new chip," said Steve Giovannetti, CTO and chief architect of Solaris development shop, SSI Hub City. "The impact it will have on system and application performance is unquestionable. The developer community has been anxiously waiting for a breakthrough like this for a long time. I'm excited about being a part of the team that is given the opportunity to create and innovate on this really cool new platform." "The UltraSPARC T1 processor represents a radical move in the industry toward chip multi-threading, and we believe there are applications in multimedia, e-commerce, search, etc., whose innovations will be spurred by this breakthrough. This competition will stimulate the genius in creative imaginations around the world. We are confident that the best and brightest minds out there can create the next Google using this radical innovation from Sun," said Marc Tremblay, Sun Fellow and holder of more than 100 patents on processor technology. Sun Announces New CoolThread Servers Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads technology are setting a new industry standard for performance, space and energy efficiency. What's more, existing Solaris OS and SPARC applications will just run - without costly porting or modification. The goal of this contest is to spur innovation and help enable designers to take immediate advantage of the performance optimization available in the breakthrough CoolThreads platform running the Solaris 10 OS and Java developer tools. With guaranteed binary compatibility, Solaris OS applications that run on existing SPARC-based systems will continue to run without alteration, meaning Sun customers and partners avoid costly and time-consuming porting efforts. Sun recently announced that it is extending the benefits of the Solaris 10 OS model to give developers no cost access to the Java Enterprise System, Sun N1 Management software, and Sun developer tools, all of which are key components of the only comprehensive and open infrastructure software platform available today, the Solaris Enterprise System, which is free for download at its Web site. Registration and Deadlines Registration to enter and contest submissions must be completed by March 29, 2006 to be eligible for first round judging. The four finalists selected in first round judging will each be awarded a Sun Fire CoolThreads T2000 server. Finalists will have until June 7, 2006 to tune their applications for second round judging. The first place winner will receive $50,000 in cash. For further details about the CoolThreads Developer Contest and full contest rules, please visit its Web site.