Enhanced line of SPARC Enterprise servers unveiled by Sun and Fujitsu

Corporate IT Update,  July 15, 2008  

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CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Technology company Sun Microsystems Inc (NASDAQ:JAVA) and Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702), a provider of IT and communications solutions, announced on Monday (14 July) an enhanced line of SPARC Enterprise servers, M4000, M5000, M8000 and M9000, based on the quad-core SPARC64 VII processor and the Solaris Operating System (OS).

According to the company, the new SPARC Enterprise servers build on the existing systems co-designed by Sun and Fujitsu and extend long-term customer investment protection through binary compatibility, hardware and software partitioning and the flexible 'mix and match' SPARC64 processor architecture. The servers can combine SPARC64 VI and VII processors in a single domain, enabling customers to increase performance, without downtime and without the need for other hardware changes. In addition, customers can minimise upgrade costs by using the new SPARC64 VII option in current SPARC Enterprise servers.

The new servers reportedly offer high scalability in a single symmetric multi-processor system (SMP) system, from 16 to 256 cores. In addition, the SPARC64 VII delivers the RAS functions of SPARC64 VI, including hardware instruction retry, dynamic degradation and parity-protected processor registers, to maintain high levels of performance and reliability.

The new processor consumes 44% less energy per core than the SPARC64 VI, enabling customers to minimise energy consumption. Utilising built-in hardware partitioning features and Solaris Containers, the new servers form an ultra-high density environment that provides high virtualisation capabilities. As a result, customers can increase system utilisation by supporting larger application workloads and services on their existing infrastructure, while controlling operating costs and reducing environmental impact, the company said.

Both Fujitsu-branded and Sun-branded SPARC Enterprise servers will be marketed worldwide. All features are identical. No pricing details were disclosed.

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