Features

Sun Unveils New Server Systems to Gain More Market Share

By Sophia Mayengbam

Sun Microsystems has introduced three computer servers -- the Sun Fire X4600 and Sun Fire X4500 servers and Sun Blade 8000, each powered by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture. With the new products, the company expects to extend its reach into the USD 25.3 billion addressable market opportunity for volume and midrange servers.

The Sun Fire X4500 server, a hybrid data server combining a 4-way server, is designed to deliver storage density that is up to five times that of traditional server offerings, which will enable companies to host high-bandwidth applications and data on a single platform at approximately half the cost of alternative solutions.

The new server by integrating high storage density and throughput with a "Galaxy" Sun Fire x64 (x86, 64-bit) server, is ideal for customers that use high-bandwidth applications, such as HPC, data warehousing/business intelligence, digital media streaming, digital surveillance and data analysis.

It offers up to 24 terabytes (TB) of storage in seven inches of rack space with sustained throughput of up to 2 gigabytes per second from disk to memory, and costs as low as USD 2 per gigabyte.

The Sun Fire X4500 server also has the flexibility to run many commercial Linux distributions.

Sun Blade 8000 modular system is designed specifically for high-end x86 computing that delivers the performance, price and flexibility of top-of-the-line rackmount servers together with the serviceability and efficiency of blade servers.

The system is designed to offer at least twice the I/O throughput and up to 40% lower power requirements in only half the space. These benefits can translate into a 49% reduction in ongoing environmental costs at an acquisition price that is up to 60% lower than comparably configured rackmount and blade servers.

The Sun Blade 8000 modular system also provides support for Linux or Windows environments. In addition, the system is designed to support future increases in I/O, power, cooling and blade real estate -- doubling the system's longevity compared to today's leading blade servers.

The Sun Fire X4600 server is a 4-way server that can scale to 16 ways in a single 4U chassis. This makes it possible for customers to build their datacenter to meet today's needs while gaining the flexibility to support tomorrow's business growth. The server enables customers to consolidate more than 50 x86 servers onto a single Sun Fire X4600 server.

Sun claims the Fire X4600 server delivers more than twice the performance of Intel Xeon MP-based systems, such as the HP ProLiant DL580G4 server, and also offers twice the density of an HP ProLiant DL585 server.

Sun had earlier this year reported a decline in it server revenue. To improve it shortcomings the company has revamped its products, shifting towards lower-cost computer servers.


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