DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 11, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 32    ( Table of Contents )

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Sun To Ship 1.05Ghz Sun Fire Servers

Sun Micro plans to announce that it is able to ship its 1.05GHz UltraSparc-III processors in its four-way Sun Fire V480 servers.

Sun will ship the faster processors in machines at the same price it was charging for V480s that were previously configured with 900MHz UltraSparc-III processors.

These V series machines do not support the dynamic partitioning features found in the Sun Fire midframe machines, which include the now discontinued Sun Fire 3800 and the continuing Sun Fire 4800 and 6800 as well as the enterprise-class Sun Fire 12000 and 15000 machines. The V series machines have lower prices than the midframe machines, mainly because they do not support dynamic system domains and other RAS features that the midframe line does.

Sun also added the 1.05GHz version of the UltraSparc-III processor to the V800, which is an eight-way machine code-named "Daktari," that Sun launched in October 2001. The initial machine had from one to four of Sun's two-way uniboards with the 750MHz version of the UltraSparc-III processor. The V480 servers, code-named "Cherrystone," were launched in June 2002 using the 900MHz versions of the UltraSparc-III processors; at that time, Sun rolled these faster processors into the V880 servers. The 1.05GHz version of the UltraSparc-III processor first shipped in Sun's Blade 2000 workstations in March 2002, was rolled into midframe servers (which have 8, 12, and 24 processors, respectively) and enterprise servers (that's the 36-way Sun Fire 12000 and 72-way Sun Fire 15000) in August 2002.

Back in June, Warren Mootrey, director of marketing for Sun's Volume Systems Products group, said that the price cuts on configured V480 and V880 systems were possible because of manufacturing efficiencies at Sun's factories as well as an anticipated rise in main memory costs that did not materialize. Sun is passing the savings on to customers. When you add the faster 1.05GHz processor to the V480, as Sun did in June with the V880, the price/performance increase is substantial after the price cuts. A two-way V480 using the 900MHz processors and equipped with 4GB of main memory and a 72GB disk sells for $19,995. A four-way V480 with 8GB of main memory and 72GB of disk costs $34,995. A large configuration of the V480 machine with four 1.05GHz processors and 16GB of main memory costs $42,995. By the way, a V880 with four processors, 8GB of memory, and 438GB of disk costs $44,995. Any customer who thinks they might need a four-way now and an eight-way later might just as well get the eight-way.

It is reasonable to assume that as soon as Sun can make enough 1.2GHz UltraSparc-III processors, it will roll them into the V480s and V880s. This could happen next quarter, if history is any guide. Mootrey would not comment on Sun's plans for the dual-core UltraSparc-IV processors with the V480 and V880 machines, except to say that Sun was looking into the possibility of plugging them into these boxes. The UltraSparc-IV processors have two UltraSparc-III+ cores (these are the ones that ran at 900MHz or higher) on the same chip and plug into any socket that supported an UltraSparc-III+. Mootrey says that there is enough I/O bandwidth to put these chips in the V480 and V880 boxes, effectively making them eight-way and 16-way machines, and that improving densities with main memory should allow Sun to boost the main memory. There might be some power supply changes necessary as well to support these future chips. But just because it is possible doesn't mean Sun will have enough yields on the UltraSparc-IV to put them into these machines. Time will tell.