Sun shipping x64 server line with AMD Dual-Core processor

Enterprise Networks & Servers, May 2005

Sun Microsystems Inc. has introduced its first dual-core server based on the new industry-standard Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor, and announced dual-core for its entire x64 product line.

The Sun Fire V40z server powered by AMD64 dual-core technology is an enhanced four-socket, eight-way server that integrates four microprocessors - each with two complete CPU cores.

John Fowler, executive vice president of the Sun Network Systems Group, said the dual-core architecture is designed to help customers achieve twice the performance and power efficiency over competitive x64 single-core server offerings based on Intel processors, resulting in half the operational costs that include power and cooling - in some cases saving customers an average of $2M annually per year.

"Our new dual-core server can deliver double the value. In some cases, the Sun Fire V40z servers powered by dual-core can take up to 60 percent less rack and floor space, require 50 percent less memory, disk space and I/O capacity, and cost less 50 percent less per node to manage than Xeon MP equivalent servers," Fowler said.

The Sun Fire V40z server with dual-core is designed to require only 42 percent of the power needed to support the same number of processor cores in servers using the Intel XeonMP processors, and runs virtually any operating system, including Solaris, standard Linux distributions or Windows. Sun's line of x64 servers equipped with single-core processors are also designed to be easily upgradeable to Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors, which in many cases may be as simple as replacing the processors and refreshing the BIOS (basic input/output system).

The Sun Fire V40z server equipped with the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor has achieved a world-record floating point throughput performance for all eight-way, x86-compatible systems.

With this result the dual-core Sun Fire V40z server demonstrates more than 2.5 times the performance of competitive four-processor single-core servers such as the HP ProLiant ML570 G3 and the Dell PowerEdge 6850 equipped with the newest Intel Xeon MP EM64T-capable processor. This benchmark addresses the advantages of the new AMD dual-core technology when compared to the traditional singlecore systems. The results for the most recent performance claims can be found at: sun.com/v40z/benchmarks.html.

Additionally, customers will be able to purchase an eight-way server equipped with the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor Model 875 and 16GB of memory for about the same price as a four-way server powered with the single-core AMD Opteron processor Model 850 when it was first introduced last year, for $38,995. The new dual-core Sun Fire V40z server is available this month.