Sun Cancels UltraSPARC IIIi+

Doctor Memory writes "El Reg is reporting that Sun has finally come clean and admitted that they have killed the UltraSPARC IIIi+ chip. According to John Fowler, Sun's server chief, 'We canceled it last fiscal year to focus on the ramp (up) of UltraSPARC IV+, Niagara and Niagara 2.' Sun has had great success with its new Niagara line, and with it's line of AMD-based systems."

Comments

UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARCIII

[IYagami]

I think that Sun UltraSPARC IV can replace UltraSPARC III smoothly (they share the same socket, Sun can provide help doing this, c...) According to: http://www.sun.com/processors/UltraSPARC-IV/index. xml "Executing on Sun's Throughput Computing strategy, the dual-thread UltraSPARC IV processor marks the first milestone in Sun's Chip Multithreading (CMT) roadmap (...) It protects customers' investments through 100 percent application binary compatibility, and can provide an upgrade path for current UltraSPARC III processor-based systems " It's like replacing an Athlon Socket AM2 Single Core with a Dual Core (I think...)

Re:What the i Stands For

[CastrTroy]

No, i'm not thinking of j, I said i, like in math. Not j, like in electrical engineering. Because i was already used for current. Which doesn't make it any easier, becuas when many people write i and j, they don't look that much different. Even in this monospace font that i'm typing in right now (which will turn into arail after I post), they don't look that different.

Re:UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARC

[IYagami]

I'm afraid you're right (and I'm wrong).

According to
http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v240/specs.xml
or
http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v210/specs.xml
There are no processor upgrades avalaible to the Sun V240 or Sun V210 Server. I suppose that the upgrade is only avalaible to the Big Iron Systems.

Re:UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARC

[eclectus]

uh, the V490 does have hotswap power supplies. As a matter of fact, all servers that sun makes that have dual power supplies are hotswappable.

Office Space

[Double Mint Len]

In August of 2004, I was in Sillicon Valley, and I visited the Sun headquarters.

It was quite possibly the most disorganized, un-coordinated place on earth. If Disney World was run by a single quadrapalegic, I think it would still be more effecient.

We took a tour, and the guide honestly said that the only really interesting thing they had going on, was that they could bring their dogs to work....uh thanks man. really technologically advanced

Re:UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARC

[illumin8]

Except the smallest USIV box they make is the 490, 4RU and non-hs power supplies. Get me a 240 replacement with a USIV and I'll be all over it. Or better yet figure out how to add HS dual power and the USIV to the 210.

This is FUD plain and simple. The V490 was based on the V480 and both of these products have had HS power supplies since their release. The 440 came out later which has decent processor speed but a little less memory bandwidth than the full-fledged V490.

From this page:

RAS features include hot-pluggable disk drives; redundant, hot-swappable power supplies; environmental monitoring and fault detection; automatic failover capability; and error correction and parity checking for improved data integrity.

Re:UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARC

[htd2]

Not quite, the V210 and X2100, the X2200 and the T1000 do not have dual hot swapable PSU's.

They are all 1U boxes and most 1U boxes don't have dual hot pluggable PSU's.

Re:UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARC

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm under NDA so I'm posting as AC, but apart from the T1000/T2000 (which are nice) there are 3 new boxes about to be announced to modernise the low end range. I've deleted the presentation, but from memory US IV+ CPUs and modern busses are the main benefits. I think they were talking about a 15-30% performance improvement.

Expect the model number to be incremented by 5.