Sun Microsystems
Sun has released the first servers to use its new UltraSparc T1 processor

Sun unveils first Niagara servers

New systems target web server market

Tom Sanders in California

Sun Microsystems is expected later today to unveil the first servers that use its new UltraSparc T1 processor, previously codenamed Niagara.

The new servers are a "game changer" for Sun, according to Fred Kohout, vice president of marketing at Sun's Scalable Systems Group.

Advertisement

"We think we are five years ahead of the competition," he told vnunet.com. "There is not another system vendor in the world that can field a platform with this kind of performance, power and space efficiency." 

The new servers come in the 1U T1000 and the 2U T2000 and target high throughput systems such as web servers and email servers.

The new T1 processor was officially unveiled last month and features up to eight cores with four threads each. This allows it to act as 32 individual processors. In addition to performance, Sun touted the chip's low power consumption.

Online auction website eBay is among the early customers of the system, along with Air France and EDS.

The new servers target systems running on Intel's Xeon processor. Although the T1 systems could also be used to compete with Sun's Galaxy servers powered by AMD's Opteron processors, Kohout emphasised that both target distinctly different markets.

The AMD systems are designed for compute intensive applications such as large databases and analyses. The T1 is built to quickly perform many relatively easy tasks.

While the T1 itself is a new chip architecture, developers will not need to recompile their applications to benefit from the new multi-threading capabilities.

But applications will get even better performance if they use Sun's new Studio 11 development tools designed to support the chip's multi-threading capabilities.

The servers will only support Sun's Solaris operating system for now. The vendor is inviting developers of other operating systems, including Linux and Windows, to port their software to the new server.

The T2000 is currently shipping. Prospective buyers will have to wait until the first quarter of 2006 to purchase the T1000. Prices start at $2,995 for the T1000 and $7,795 for the T2000.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Further reading

Sun Microsystems

Sun unveils 'eco-friendly' UltraSparc T1

Former Niagara has 'green' credentials

Sun/Fujitsu APL strategy

Sun and Fujitsu lay out chip plans

Merged Sparc development will free Sun budget for next-gen 'system on a chip'

Sun and Fujitsu to target IBM mainframes

Giants combine Solaris and SPARC product lines to win over Big Blue customers

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

eu flag

V3.co.uk weekly debrief, 6 Nov 09

This week, Europe decides what to do with illegal file sharers

Intel unveils its micro server platform

Small-enclosure systems take aim at hosting market

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

Piracy, privacy and processing power set to be hot topics for V3.co.uk Summit

Have you got a burning desire to quiz experts from...

iPhone

World's first iPhone virus surfaces

Images of 80s icon Rick Astley spell trouble

Airvana HubBub

Airvana debuts 3G femtocell for offices

HubBub improves indoor network coverage for businesses

shopping key

E-commerce on brink of SaaS revolution

Figleaves founder argues platform-as-a-service vendor will emerge to shake up...

Primary Navigation