Sun Expands Open Network Systems Architecture; Delivers New Servers

Enhancing its Open Network Systems architecture, which converges compute, networking, software and storage, Sun Microsystems has announced new 1.6 GHz processors for its chip multi-threaded (CMT) Sun SPARC Enterprise systems running the Solaris Operating System (OS); new Sun Logical Domains (LDoms) virtualisation software, leveraging the latest release of the Solaris OS; and, new Open Network Systems-based solutions aimed to help increase application performance and return on investment. Sun has also rolled out new AMD Opteron processor-based blades and rackmount x64 servers.

New products and solutions announced include:

1. Sun 1.6 GHz UltraSPARC T2 and T2 Plus-based CMT systems and Sun LDoms 1.2 Software - Sun CMT servers and the Solaris OS deliver improved performance and scalability with built-in virtualisation capabilities and on-chip cryptographic acceleration, at no additional cost. Combining new 1.6 GHz UltraSPARC T2 and T2 Plus processors with new Sun LDoms 1.2 software provides additional virtualisation and compute performance, simplifying management, reducing I/O bottlenecks and accelerating application response time.

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The latest release of Sun LDoms 1.2 software, combined with the latest Solaris OS release, delivers new features including:

* Built-in Configuration Tools - Provides streamlined setup of Logical Domains with built-in command line configuration tools that enable customers to quickly begin using LDoms.

* CPU Power Management - Reduces system footprint through CPU power management, automatically powering off cores not in use.

* Jumbo Frames - Enhances efficiencies across network infrastructures with the support of jumbo frames, allowing customers to send more data at one time, reducing processing load requirements.

* Domain Mobility - Enables the dynamic migration of domains to accommodate increased resource demands, maintenance requirements, or to reduce energy consumption during low utilisation periods via a single migration command.

* Built-in Recovery - Automatically backs up LDom configurations on disk in case of system corruption.

* Physical-to-Virtual Migration Tool - Allows customers to adopt LDom infrastructures quickly when moving from existing legacy SPARC/Solaris systems to Sun CMT systems.

2. Sun Open Network Systems Enterprise 2.0 Solution for Oracle - Brings together Sun CMT blade servers running the Solaris OS, the Sun Blade 6000 Multi-Fabric NEM and Open Storage with Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Database to create a platform for deploying Enterprise 2.0 applications.

3. Sun x64 blade systems and servers - Sun’s new x64 blades and rackmount servers with the latest Six-Core AMD Opteron processors are suitable for virtualisation, enterprise workloads, data centre consolidation and compute-intensive high performance computing (HPC). Servers with the new Six-Core AMD Opteron processors include the Sun Blade X6440 and X6240 server modules, the Sun Fire X4440 server and the Sun Fire X4540 storage server.

Availability and Pricing

Sun’s enhanced CMT systems with 1.6 GHz processors start at $23,925 for blade server modules and $33,339 for rack servers. Sun’s new x64 products start at $2,794 US list price. Sun is also offering a number of promotions on the systems announced today.