SYSTEMS

Continuing its leadership in the UNIX server market, Sun Microsystems, Inc. is now shipping the first of its mid-range UltraSPARC IV processor-based throughput computing systems, the Sun Fire E4900 and E6900 server systems. Customers are already reaping the benefits of nearly double the performance in their data center in the same footprint, with the new enterprise systems from Sun. The University of Zurich, DaimlerChrysler, and Vodafone have all upgraded to the new systems. At the University of Zurich, the UltraSPARC IV processors have increased the power of applications used for the development of numerical algorithms for physical chemistry and partial differential equations. Departments using the new Sun systems which support multithreaded computing at the University have seen large improvements in overall throughput in a number of tests. "These new UltraSPARC IV systems double our computing capacity which in turn allows us to solve large scale problems for real-world applications and this was not possible before," said Dr. Stefan Sauter, professor of mathematics at the University of Zurich. "The new systems make it possible to run more extensive parameter tests with perfect scaling." Powered by the UltraSPARC IV processor and SMP architecture, the high-performance Solaris Operating System, Sun Java Enterprise System software and multithreaded applications, the Sun Fire systems tightly integrate on-chip capabilities with the operating system to enable customers to mix and match UltraSPARC III and UltraSPARC IV processors in their systems. This allows customers to accelerate performance at a fraction of the cost of upgrading the entire system. "Sun delivers integrated hardware, software and storage systems that allow customers to evolve their data centers to respond to changing business demands, without milking them on expensive service contracts," said Steve Campbell, vice president of marketing for Sun. Big Gain, Zero Pain The new Sun Fire E4900 and E6900 servers are the company's first implementation of multithreading technology for the mid-range and are one of the industry's most cost-effective platforms for customers to run mission-critical applications and databases. Customers can easily mix and match speeds and generations of UltraSPARC processors within the same domain, and achieve double the performance without disruption or downtime. Products currently shipping include the Sun Fire E4900 – a mid-sized 12-processor departmental server system – and the E6900 – a large 24-processor server – are ideal for data center tasks such as large databases, data mining or server consolidation applications. These additions to the Sun Fire family of products provide hot swap and plug-and-play capabilities through dynamic reconfiguration technology, as well as support for clustering and linear scalability. The new servers are based on the Sun Fireplane interconnect, multithreaded UltraSPARC IV 1.05 to 1.2 GHz processors and scalable high-end SMP architecture. Customers have early access to upcoming Solaris OS features through Sun's Software Express program, which helps enable IT managers and developers to plan ahead for new technologies coming in future versions of the Solaris OS, as well as test the new features in fault-isolated domains. In addition, qualified customers can gain early access to the Solaris 10 OS through Sun's iForce Partner Program. A full range of pricing promotions for hardware and storage are further reducing costs for qualified customers from 10 to 40 percent. For complete details see www.sun.com/servers/midrange.