January 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Sun Microsystems's new deal with Intel just expands its product base rather than negatively impacting its commitment to SPARC or rival AMD chips, a Sun official said in an interview on Monday.
In a quick question-and-answer session with InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill, Tom Goguen, Sun vice president of Solaris marketing, and Doug Fisher, Intel vice president of systems software, talked up Monday's Sun-Intel arrangement.
InfoWorld: What does this mean for SPARC?
Goguen: The long and short of [this agreement] is we see this as an opportunity to grow the market. We are in no way divesting from SPARC but rather looking at this as a great opportunity to move Solaris into new market opportunities and to build systems leveraging Intel's extensive technology and innovation.
InfoWorld: Weren't you already leveraging Intel platform technology in your arrangement with AMD?
Goguen: Clearly, when you take a look at the market, there are customers who prefer Intel-branded architecture and Intel-branded technology so first and foremost we'll be able to serve those customers with the new systems and optimize Solaris and Solaris 10. Intel is driving innovation in Xeon with technologies such as virtualization through I/0.
InfoWorld: What new products is Sun planning based on Intel technology?
Goguen: We have a pretty broad and extensive virtualization roadmap. We'll do things like our Xen hypervisor for the x64 architecture.
InfoWorld: Will Sun push SPARC over Intel-based systems?
Goguen: We like to offer customers a very broad choice. We would like to see them leveraging as much Sun intellectual property as we can but there's clearly markets and customers where they are best-served by an Intel-based solution.
InfoWorld: Which customers would those be?
Goguen: Customers make a rational decision about their needs. There are customers who have a preference for Intel-based solutions.
InfoWorld: Will Sun still sell AMD-based systems?
Goguen: We've not discontinued anything there.
InfoWorld: Is this deal in response to Intel's recently reporting a 39 percent drop in profits?
Fisher: Clearly not.
Goguen: It takes many months to sort out an agreement like this.
InfoWorld: Is this arrangement going to result in lower prices for Sun workstations and servers?
Goguen: I can't speak to the prices. This brings an opportunity for Sun and Intel to work more closely together to leverage each other's innovations.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 22, 2007 02:55 PM
August 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Update: Sun spills UltraSparcIIIi+ delay
Note from the writer, Aug. 31: Reports today say Sun has announced it is cancelling the UltraSprac IIIi+ line entirely.
If you're eagerly awaiting the release of servers running Sun's UltraSparc IIIi+ processor, you may have a lot more waiting to do -- perhaps until mid-2007.
Reports say that nugget slipped out Wednesday during a Sun-sponsored online Q&A. The admission was likely not intentional. During the forum, an participant with the screen name spp made the following comment, which was labeled as a "private response for Martin".
"The V215/245 and the V445 will be shipped without the USIIIi+ because of manufacturing/yield issues and we shouldn't expect to see them until mid-year next year."
"Martin" likely refers to Martin Shepard, a Sun product line manager, ZDNet reports.
Sun revealed last July that the forthcoming trio of Sun Fire servers would come running the UltraSparcIIIi -- which came out in 2003, not its much-anticipated son. But the company also said the USIIIi+ would come out this year.
The USIIIi+ was originally slated to debut in 2005, but Sun delayed its development in order to get the UltraSparc T1, code-named Niagara, out the door.
Designed for lower-end servers, the USIIIi+ is an improved version of the 1.6GHz USIII with higher speed and more memory.
Posted by Ted Samson on August 30, 2006 09:46 PM
August 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Dell expanding its AMD partnership
Dell is reportedly set to announce that it is expanding its use of AMD chips to include AMD-based servers, desktops, and laptops.
The announcement will come Thursday when Dell reports its quarterly financial results, according to sources quoted in a cNet report.
While Dell isn't commenting, one source expects Dell to announce plans to sell dual-processor Opteron servers, while another says the partnership will include desktop and notebooks as well.
Dell broke its longtime exclusive relationship with Intel in May, when it announced plans to use AMD Opteron processors in its high-end, multiprocessor servers.
Posted by Caroline Craig on August 17, 2006 07:03 AM
June 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
By "freezing" chips to 451 degrees below zero, researchers have produced a semiconductor that operates 250 times faster than chips commonly used today.
According to a report in today's New York Times, researchers at IBM and Georgia Institute of Technology achieved the speed milestone using a cryogenic test station to freeze the chip with liquid helium to temperatures normally found only in outer space.
This development has the potential to rewrite ideas about the physical limitations of silicon-based chip performance. However the technology likely will not find its way into commercial products any time soon; Bernard Meyerson, a VP in I.B.M.'s systems and technology group, said in the New York Times article that developments like this typically find their way into commercial products in 12 to 24 months.
Posted by Caroline Craig on June 20, 2006 06:20 AM
TOP STORIES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Do you have the power to resolve technical issues with one call?
- Take control of your content- leverage Microsoft SharePoint
- Keeping the E-Mail Flowing
- SGI Adaptive Data Warehouse: Building a High-End Oracle Data Warehouse
- Five Steps to Secure Outsourced Application Development
- Global Shared Memory: Performance and Productivity Breakthroughs
