Sun Microsystems has launched three new x86 servers,
powered by AMD Opteron processors.
The Sun Fire X4600 server, Sun Fire X4500 data server and Sun
Blade 8000 modular system are high-end products designed to handle
datacentre applications, high-performance computing, virtualisation
and web-tier applications.
The x86 64-bit machines run the Solaris 10 Unix-based operating
system and also allow users to run standard distributions of Linux
and Windows.
Sun said the Tokyo Institute of Technology had already installed
more than 650 of its Fire X4600 servers to help build TSUBAME, the
fastest supercomputer in Asia and the seventh fastest in the
world.
The launch comes as Sun seeks to lift its struggling server
sales. Industry analyst Gartner estimated that the company had just
4.2% market share in May when founder Scott McNealy stepped down as
chief executive in the wake of third-quarter losses of £120m – the
latest of a series of reported quarterly losses. Sun cut around 200
jobs from its high-end server division in April.
Vote for your IT greats
Who have been the most influential people in IT in the past 40
years? The greatest organisations? The best hardware and software
technologies? As part of Computer Weekly’s 40th anniversary
celebrations, we are asking our readers who and what has really
made a difference?
Vote now at:
www.computerweekly.com/ITgreats