Sun joins benchmarking council for financial trading technologies

Sun Microsystems has joined The Securities Technology Analysis Center (Stac) Benchmark Council, to help define standard performance metrics for trading technologies.

Sun has become an Innovation Sponsor for the Manhattan-based Stac Lab into the bargain.

The Stac Lab is a research facility where end-user firms can evaluate new technologies under simulated trading conditions.

It contains advanced load-generation mechanisms, precise timing equipment, market data and test tools pre-integrated with many of the products to be tested.

On the Stac Benchmark Council, Sun will contribute to specifications under consideration by its participating trading firms.

The Council is a group of trading firms and vendors who are defining industry-standard ways of measuring latency, capacity, power efficiency, and other key performance attributes of solutions used in the trading process.

Announced last September, the Council includes a number of global trading firms including Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and HSBC.