The benefits of 64-bit computing and the battle against spam were
key talking points at last week's Comdex IT show and conference in
Las Vegas. James Rogers reports.
Sun used the Comdex show to announce an alliance with processor
firm AMD. The companies plan to roll out two-way and four-way Sun
Fire servers with 64-bit Opteron processors during 2004.
AMD will also work with Sun to develop the Solaris operating system
and Java on the 64-bit processors, with 64-bit Solaris becoming
available on Opteron in the first half of 2004. Currently, users
can run Solaris software on AMD's Opteron processor in 32-bit
mode.
Sun chairman Scott McNealy said the move promised to deliver
greater choice of processor and better performance to
customers.
Mike Davis, senior research analyst at Butler Group, believes the
agreement will drive down the cost of 64-bit computing. "For users,
this should mean higher performance at lower cost," he said. "This
will contribute to the wider adoption of 64-bit, which will
inevitably reduce costs further."
Analyst firm Gartner also said the deal could be good news for
users, particularly Solaris or Unix customers seeking a migration
path to Linux. Sun's Opteron should be considered for 32-bit and
64-bit solutions, particularly in high-performance applications,
Gartner said.
However, Gartner warned enterprise Linux users to wait until there
is evidence that a combination of Opteron and Sun would succeed as
a platform, before switching to the new products.
IBM is already selling systems using Opteron technology. It
launched the eServer 1350, an Opteron-powered super cluster,
earlier this month.
There has been a flurry of activity around 64-bit computing this
year. In September, Intel unveiled its low-voltage Deerfield
Itanium 2 processor and AMD launched its Athlon 64-bit chip for
desktop and mobile PCs.
AMD also announced three additions to its Opteron range at Comdex.
The 148 model is for single-processor workstations and entry-level
servers, the 248 version is for dual-processor servers and
workstations and the 848 is for high-end enterprise-class servers.