Oracle and SUN Archive

Review: Sun T2000 Coolthreads Server

Submitted by Dually 2006-03-24 Oracle and SUN 15 Comments

Anandtech reviews Sun's T2000 Coolthreads server, and concludes: "At first sight, Sun has won the performance/watt battle for now, but it cannot rest on its laurels. Low voltage versions of the Xeon 'Woodcrest' and Opteron might be able to come very close to the performance/Watt levels that the T1 offers. We also can't shake the feeling that the number of applications, which will really exhibit the kind of exceptional performance that Sun's own heavily optimised benchmarks show, will be quite limited. Last, but certainly not least, Sun's solid engineering has impressed us. Sun's meticulous attention to detail resulted in a sturdy, well-polished machine." More benchmarks here.

Sun Grid Hit by Network Attack

Submitted by george 2006-03-23 Oracle and SUN 18 Comments

Sun's Grid network was hit by a denial-of-service attack on its first day. "To let people try out the Sun Grid, the company made a text-to-speech translation service publicly accessible for, for example, turning blog entries into podcasts. 'It became the focus of a denial of service attack,' said Aisling MacRunnels, Sun's senior director of utility computing said in an interview." However, the attack was easily delt with: "Sun moved the service to be within the regular Sun Grid, which requires authorisation to use. The attacks didn't disturb the regular grid, Sun said.

Sun Expands OpenSPARC Program

Thom Holwerda 2006-03-21 Oracle and SUN 9 Comments

A month after releasing the architecture specifications and hypervisor APIs for its UltraSPARC T1 processor to the open-source community, Sun is putting out more information on the chip. Sun on March 21 will publish the hardware design for the T1 - formerly codenamed Niagara - and the Solaris operating system simulation specifications for the chip. The move is the latest in the company's OpenSPARC project, designed to enable hardware and software developers to build atop the new chip's architecture. The goal is to build an ecosystem around the processor that will expand the reach of the SPARC platform. In addition, Sun's grid will finally launch this week.

Sun’s Rock Goes 16 Cores

Thom Holwerda 2006-03-14 Oracle and SUN 13 Comments

More details are available concerning the successor of Sun's UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) processor. The Rock processor - due out in 2008 - will have four cores or 16 cores, depending on how you slice the product. By that, we mean that Sun has divided the Rock CPU into four, separate cores each with four processing engines. Each core also has four FGUs (floating point/graphics units). Each processing engine will be able to crank two threads giving you - 4x4x2 - 32 threads per chip.

Submitted by misha 2006-03-04 Oracle and SUN 72 Comments

Sun's CEO Scott McNealy has published an open letter to HP, proposing a merger of their respective UNIX platforms. In the past, Sun's top execs have been highly critical of HP-UX's future. Sun's president Jonathan Schwartz has repeatedly referred to the 'demise' and its troubled commitment to Intel's Itanium chip. Now, it seems, they've hit on a new idea. "We propose an alternative," writes McNealy in the letter, "that Sun and HP commit to converge HP-UX with Sun's flagship volume UNIX, Solaris 10.'

Submitted by 0xbadbeef 2006-02-15 Oracle and SUN 12 Comments

Sun Microsystems is trying to persuade Hewlett-Packard to move its HP-UX Unix customers over to Sun's Solaris, Sun President/COO Jonathan Schwartz said at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. But HP is not interested, an HP representative said. During his presentation at the conference and in a subsequent interview, Schwartz said Sun has proposed merging the road maps of HP-UX and Solaris. And on a related note, HP will offer complete SUSE Linux server packages.

Sun Releases Sparc Specs to Lure Linux

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-14 Oracle and SUN 23 Comments

Sun Microsystems fulfilled a pledge Tuesday to release UltraSparc chip details in an effort to make it easier to bring Linux and versions of BSD Unix to its systems. Sun announced the availability of the specifications in conjunction with this week's Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, at which Sun President Jonathan Schwartz is delivering the opening keynote speech on Tuesday morning.

Sun’s Next Goal: a Linux Ecosystem

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-08 Oracle and SUN 30 Comments

Sun's ambitions have grown another size larger. The server and software company launched its servers based on its own UltraSparc T1 'Niagara' chips in December, a major part of a drive to restore its lost luster and financial strength. But alongside the hardware launch came a more quiet software push: an attempt to make the Linux and BSD Unix open-source operating systems a serious option for buyers of Sparc-based computers. To promote the technology combination, Sun is trying to coax an accompanying software business into existence.

Sun Wants Linux on T1

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-30 Oracle and SUN 82 Comments

Sun is keener than ever to port Linux to its new multicore T1 chip, even if it's not expected to happen for six to nine months. The company has made T1 servers available to Linux developers and is working with unnamed Linux distributors to develop the port. And while a port may be completed this year, it will be a while before Linux on T1 appears in production environments; application certification and support will be needed as well.

Sun Ultra 40, Ultra 45 Workstations

Submitted by GR 2006-01-30 Oracle and SUN 22 Comments

Not too long ago word came out that Sun was preparing the release of two new workstations, one Opteron and the other UltraSPARC, because it had published manuals and pricing. Now, the machines appear to be officially on sale, even though announcements have not been made yet. First of is the Sun Ultra 40, the bigger and badder brother of the Ultra 20. It can handle up to two dual-core Opteron processors, and 16GB of memory. Secondly, we have the Ultra 45, an UltraSPARC IIIi-based workhorse, holding two UltraSPARC IIIi processors at 1.6Ghz each, also capable of 16GB of RAM.

Submitted by Nehemoth 2006-01-25 Oracle and SUN 15 Comments

Sun Microsystems later this year will introduce virtualization technology to let its newest Sparc-based servers run multiple operating systems simultaneously, catching up to a feature already built into Unix machines from rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Sun Ultra 40: the Ultra 20s Bigger, Badder Brother

Submitted by James Dickens 2006-01-17 Oracle and SUN 35 Comments

Someone has found the manual to Sun's Ultra 40 - which hasn't even been announced yet. The machine clearly is the bigger brother of the Ultra 20. It apparently sports two AMD Opteron processors (single or dualcore; 2.0Ghz or faster; 1MB cache), eight PC3200 DIMM slots (2GB per DIMM), and more. It will come pre-loaded with Solaris 10 (obviously) but RedHat/SUSE Linux Enterprise/Windows are also supported, in both 32bit and 64bit.

Oracle, Sun Team Up to Provide .NET Alternative

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-15 Oracle and SUN 11 Comments

Sun and Oracle have established a new strategic partnership in an attempt to challenge Microsoft with what Oracle CEO Larry Ellison calls 'standards-based systems.' According to Ellison and McNealy, their mutual goal is the production of a complete Java-centric enterprise datacenter architecture that leverages Solaris 10 and Oracle's Fusion middleware. Designed specifically as an alternative to Microsoft's .NET technology stack, the new platform is competitively priced and based on robust frameworks.

Sun and Apple Almost Merged Three Times – Bill Joy

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-12 Oracle and SUN 30 Comments

Sun Microsystems tried to acquire Apple once and then almost merged with Apple on two other occasions, according to Sun co-founder Bill Joy. Beyond these deals, the two companies almost teamed on three other projects including sharing a user interface and the SPARC architecture.

Oracle and Sun Tie the Knot

Submitted by Mark Brunelli 2006-01-11 Oracle and SUN 13 Comments

Oracle and Sun yesterday renewed their vows of collaboration and detailed their plans to give Microsoft .NET a Java-based run for its money.

Sun: No Rush to Open Software

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-21 Oracle and SUN 32 Comments

Those who hope Sun will open-source all of its software products anytime soon are in for a big disappointment. Sun executives, including president Jonathan Schwartz and John Loiacono, the executive vice president for software, have all repeatedly said that the company intends to open-source its entire software stack over time. However, they have not been specific about the time frame for that, which has left the impression that it is imminent. But Simon Phipps, Sun's chief open-source officer, said in an interview that this process is not going to be rushed and will not happen quickly.

Sun Pours Niagara II All Over Great Lakes

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 Oracle and SUN 2 Comments

"It's all a gush in Sun Microsystems' low-end SPARC server business with code-names flowing toward El Reg at speed. Last week, we brought you the details on Niagara II, and this week we bring you Michigan and Huron. The 1U Michigan box will replace the 1U Erie system and boast twice as much memory support - up to 64GB. Huron will be the 2U replacement for Ontario and also double the memory support, stretching up to 128GB." Sun also released the open-source Java database.

Niagara I Out the Door, Time for Niagara II

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-08 Oracle and SUN 25 Comments

If you thought Sun's chip division had already gone mad when they announced and built the Niagara (the UltraSPARC T1), you'll be happy to know that with the first Niagara servers out the door, they haven't exactly been resting on their laurels. Niagara II is on its way: like the T1, it has 8 cores, but now with 8 threads each instead of 4, adding up to a total of 64 threads (the T1 has 32, logically). And, instead of the much-critizised one floating point unit per processor, the Niagara II will feature one floating point unit per core. The chip is set to be released in 2007, at an initial speed of 1.4Ghz.

Sun Open Sources UltraSPARC T1 Processor

Submitted by Sebastian Schildt 2005-12-07 Oracle and SUN 40 Comments

Sun announced plans to publish specifications for the UltraSPARC-based chip, including the source of the design expressed in Verilog, a verification suite and simulation models, instruction set architecture specification (UltraSPARC Architecture 2005) and a Solaris OS port. The goal is to enable community members to build on proven technology at a markedly lower cost and to innovate freely. The source code will be released under an Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved open source license. The 'older' SPARC architectures were also open.

Niagara Servers To Be Released Tomorrow

Submitted by Robert Milkowski 2005-12-05 Oracle and SUN 17 Comments

This website is reporting that Sun is going to announce its first Niagara-based server, the T2000, tomorrow at a network computing event. The T2000's CPU, the UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) has 4, 6 or 8 cores; each of these cores has 4 threads, so that adds up to 16, 24 or 32 virtual CPUs. The maximum amount of RAM is 32GB DDR2. More information can be found in the documents section, or in the short summary here. A smaller version, dubbed T1000, is also supposed to be announced.