Sun Still Taking RISCs

By Doug Barney

Sun Microsystems (Mountain View, CA) might havea healthy line of Intel quad-core Xeon-based servers, but it is far from backingaway from the SPARC family of processors. At a Las Vegas press conference, thecompany trotted out new servers based on the UltraSPARC T2 it claims hasunmatched density and impressive energy savings.

And when it comes tocompeting with IBM, Sun is clearly taking the gloves off. At its springannouncement, IBM claimed its Power6-based System p570 server was the fastestserver ever built — and was based on the fastest microprocessor everbuilt.

Sun’s press releases beg to differ. The company claims its SPARCEnterprise T5120 and T5220 servers pack the same performance as the p570 for 25percent of the cost and take up a quarter of the space.

Sun touts theadvantages of the servers’ built-in virtualization, but it is clear that rivalIBM has plenty of virtual punch built into its Power6-based line aswell.

Sun also sharpened up its blade line with the Sun Blasé T6320server module that works with the Sun Blade 6000 chassis and matches thecapabilities of the T5120 and T5220 servers.

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-10/sunflash.20071009.1.xml