Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sun Cancels UltraSPARC IIIi+

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the belated-goodbyes dept.

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."

3 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. UltraSPARC IV is the replacement for UltraSPARCIII by IYagami · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...)

  2. Of course they've been having great success.... by Chineseyes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Spammers having been letting me know about Niagara for years

    --
    I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended

    --A wise old fart named SC0RN
  3. Re:Ho Hum by P+Fayers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The concentration of R&D on the high end and then deriving a cheap version of the chip is what has been causing Sun trouble for a while. Intel tried the same thing with Itanium and it didn't work for them either.

    Sun's current method, introduce the low end chip - Niagara - first and then build up to the high end stuff (the Rock CPU) seems to be a much better idea. Produce the high volume stuff first and use the revenue from that to produce the high end, high margin stuff.