Sun is preparing to launch two systems that will make
its UltraSparc IV processor available for the low end of its server
product line.
The Sun Fire V490 and V890 servers are similar to Sun Fire V480
and V880 servers, which are based on single-core UltraSparc III
processors.
They have been redesigned to accommodate the cooling and power
requirements of the dual-core UltraSparc IV line of processors,
said Andy Ingram, vice-president of marketing for Sun's Processor
and Network Products Group.
Users will find that the systems behave the same way as their
UltraSparc III counterparts but with "twice the throughput", he
said. "What you're going to get with the [V890] is the footprint
and price point of an 8-way with the throughput of a 16-way."
The new systems will be priced "in the same range" as the V880
and V480, Ingram said, though he declined to be more specific.
Although they cannot be ordered on Sun's website, the company
actually began shipping the new systems in August, Ingram said.
When Sun launched its first UltraSparc IV systems in February,
it focused on big systems with between 12 and 72 processors. It
introduced the new processor on its high-end Sun Fire E25K and E20K
servers as well as the midrange Sun Fire E2900, E4900 and E6900
systems.
The UltraSparc IV currently is available in both 1.05GHz and
1.2GHz configurations. Sun plans to offer an UltraSparc IV "speed
bump" within nine months and, within 18 months, the company expects
to begin shipping systems with the next generation of the
processor, called UltraSparc IV+.
The UltraSparc IV+ will mark the end of the road for Sun's
conventional UltraSparc designs as it switches to the multicore
"throughput computing" chips it is now developing. The throughput
computing chips are being designed to execute a large number of
operations, or threads, simultaneously.
By 2006 - around the time Sun is expected to come to market with
the first generation of its throughput computing processors,
code-named Niagara - it will also begin shipping systems based on
an upcoming generation of Fujitsu's Sparc64 processor, code named
Olympus. Olympus will also be a multicore processor, but it is
expected to have twice the performance of the UltraSparc IV+.
Olympus will fill the role that Sun had expected to be served by
UltraSparc V processor, which it scrapped in April.
The launch of the two new systems brings UltraSparc IV to a
section of the market that has become extremely important to Sun,
said Gordon Haff, an analyst with industry research company
Illuminata.
"They've kind of done the enterprise systems; now they're doing
the high end of the volume space," he said. "Those have been pretty
important classes of products for them. In fact, it's probably one
of the few really bright spots in the UltraSparc line over the past
year or so."
Haff expects Sun to eventually bring the UltraSparc IV to its
single-processor and dual-processor Sun Fire systems as well,
though Sun has not said when it plans to do this.
Robert McMillan writes for IDG News Service