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Sun To Build Opteron Servers

Posted by timothy on from the getting-in-on-the-new-deal dept.

geekee writes "According to an article at CNET, Sun is planning on creating Opteron-based servers. These are expected to include 2-processor and 4-processor models running either Solaris or Linux. This move isn't surprising, given the performance and cost gaps between the Opteron and UltraSPARC processors. A move to Opteron would allow them to be more competitve in cost and focus more on what they're good at, designing systems, not processors."

8 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. another dell/HP by stonebeat.org · · Score: 4, Interesting

    so Sun will become Dell or HP???

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    Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
    1. Re:another dell/HP by Pharmboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As much as I hate to admit it Dell is not bad for a x86 server...

      I have a few Dell servers. All and all, I am pretty happy considering what I spent, but they still do not compare in quality and reliability to my IBM servers (pc325's from 1997, running 24/7, still running). Its the difference in 99% vs. 99.9%. It may only seem like .9%, but its all the difference in the world. My Dell's cost 1/4th the price of the IBMs, but that .9% reliability has paid for itself a few times over.

      I will still use my Dells for non-critical web serving, routing, backup dns, etc. but the average Sun box would blow these lower/mid level IBMs away, and there really IS no comparison to Sun boxes. Apple is also much more reliable and robust than the average Dell. Same for HP, and others.

      I like my Dells, but realistically, they are decent boxes thrown together from off the shelf desktop grade parts.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  2. Competition is great by Zelet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I know this is the wrong thread - but I am so happy to see healthy competition in the market place. Check out what is happening
    - G5 vs. Opteron
    - OS X vs. Windows
    - Linux vs. Windows
    - Mozilla/Firebird/Thunderbird vs. IE/Outlook

    It is a good time for computing. Although, with Longhorn so far out (and no further IE improvements until then) I think the competition is going to be a little bit one sided.

    --
    ...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
  3. OP is Flamebait by kindbud · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A move to Opteron would allow them to be more competitve in cost and focus more on what they're good at, designing systems, not processors.

    So what does the 20+ years' lineage of the SPARC architecture represent, if not Sun's ability to successfully design, implement, market and deploy processors? Hello? McFly?

    --
    Edith Keeler Must Die
  4. 64-bit question... by (H)elix1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The question in my mind is are they going to use the full x86-64 extensions, or keep the sparc as the 'real' 64-bit processor and let Solaris x86 remain 32 bit...

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    +++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
  5. Sun's missed move by downix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Moving to Operton is a good move, but only after a serious of mistakes.

    First mistake was in not encouraging 3rd party vendors to adopt the higher-end SPARC's, and ignoring the low-end SPARCs that used to dominate the embedded space. They had a strong position when they moved the SPARC architecture into the open, but lost it when they failed to support that initiative with bare-bones development machines.

    Next mistake was creating Solaris for x86. Sun's logic was to hook folk on Solaris in order to get them to move over to their profit-making SPARC's. BIG MISTAKE. Instead, those SPARC vendors decide that they can instead move off of SPARC and keep using Solaris on the lower-cost x86 machines.

    Final Mistake was Sun ignoring the low-to-mid range workstation market that they dominated during the 80's. Sun's focus on extreme-high-end servers cost them the middleware support that made Sun boxes worth purchasing in the first place.

    This move to Operton might be the only step left for them if they are going to survive outside of a vertical market.

    --
    Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
  6. System level design by dpilot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's so much more to system level than the base technologies. I had an opportunity years back to work closely with a systems shop, selling/supporting my chip design. I learned a lot about system-level performance and reliablity in that year-or-two, and realize that those folks had forgotten more than your garden-variety PC folks had ever learned.

    Individual components and pieces of performance (CPU clock and IPC, for instance) are only part of the issue. System balance is important, and only learned with experience and sophisticated tools. True reliability is the same.

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  7. This was started last year by Groo+Wanderer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Last October (2002) I was talking to some AMD folk, and they indicated Sun was on board. Over the past year, those ties have gotten stronger, and the two companies have been getting closer and closer.

    There are a bunch of boxes on the drawing board, the ones they announced are just the first of many. The delay is that there is no real support for Opterons until they ship Solaris 10, which is due in the not to distant future. Until that OS hits, the Opteron support will be pretty half baked, just Xeon code, and no real use of AMD64 extensions.

    That said, without trying to sound to much like a whiny martyr, I have been writing this stuff up for the last year on the Inquirer, just no one believed me :). The first box that should hit is a dual CPU 1U opteron box, with a 4 way to follow shortly after that. The interesting stuff follows those vanilla boxes.

    -Charlie