Sun Slashes Cost and Complexity From the Desktop to the Datacenter
New Sun Fire(TM) Servers Priced Up to 56 Percent Less Than Dell, HP and IBM
SAN FRANCISCO, SunNetwork 2003 Conference and Pavilion, Sept. 17
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today launched new servers, software and services designed to slash the cost and complexity out of network computing.
"We are once again setting the bar on price-performance and industry- leading R&D," said Neil Knox, executive vice president, Volume Systems Products at Sun. "In today's business environment, customers need more than a clever business model from their systems vendor. Our new innovative products deliver on price and performance, offer built-in security and provide integrated solutions that increase productivity, lower costs and reduce time to market."
Included in this announcement are three new UltraSPARC(R) and Solaris(TM) OS-based systems that are priced aggressively and designed to provide leading price-performance over competitive offerings from Dell, HP and IBM:
-- Sun Fire(TM) V440 Server -- The lowest priced, four-processor, rack-
optimized server on the market today, priced at $9,995 (US List), is
nearly 50 percent less than a comparable Dell system offering. The Sun
Fire V440 server leads by 26 percent in price-performance over the
closest competitor, the HP-DL580(1), based on published TPC
Benchmark(TM) H results. The Sun Fire V440 is a high-density, general
purpose SPARC and Solaris OS-based server that is ideal for
horizontally scalable application server deployments. The Sun Fire V440
server utilizes the UltraSPARC IIIi processor as well as the highly
secure and reliable Solaris operating system -- the industry-leading
UNIX(R) operating system that supports more than 12,000 ISV
applications. The Sun Fire V440 server is the latest in four-way
offerings that bolsters Sun's No. 1 position in the 4P rack server
market, according to recent figures released by IDC for Q2CY03.
-- Sun Fire V250 Tower Server -- This ready-to-deploy, enterprise and mid-
market system platform comes priced at or below most Wintel servers at
$2,995 (US List). Setting two new world records in the two-way space,
the Sun Fire V250 server combined with Sybase IQ 12.5 unseats the HP
ML3701(2) in TPC-H@100GB performance and price-performance, and
improves upon the current TPC-H@300GB(3) price-performance world record
held by the Sun Fire V240. Both Sun Fire V250 records are also the
first TPC-H submissions ever using internal storage only. The Sun Fire
V250 server, featuring the UltraSPARC IIIi processor, provides
business-critical secure and reliable solutions for the enterprise work
group and mid-market segment. The 2P tower expandability and form
factor allow for stand-alone deployment and over 1/2 terabyte of
internal storage, offering customers increased investment protection.
The Sun Fire V250 server offers free, pre-loaded enterprise software
that adds substantial value across target markets. Other key features
of the Sun Fire V250 server include:
-- SunPCi(TM) III Coprocessor Card: With the card installed, users can
run multiple separate operating environments -- Solaris, Linux and
Windows -- on a single Sun Fire V250 server. This provides a perfect
environment for users who want to develop in one operating
environment and deploy on another or who want to take advantage of
Solaris OS-based, Linux-based and Windows-based applications.
-- PC NetLink: Allows customers to run native Windows NT file and print
services on the Solaris operating system. PC NetLink provides
transparent connectivity into Windows NT network environments,
allowing customers to replace Windows NT servers with the more
reliable, scalable Sun solution.
-- Samba: Included with Solaris OS, Samba provides open source code for
running workgroup file and print applications. The combination of
the Sun Fire V250 server with both StarOffice(TM) software and Samba
offered free of charge creates a powerful, economical hardware and
software package to run office productivity, and file and print
applications.
-- Sun Blade 1500 Workstation -- Sun brings the UltraSPARC IIIi processor
to the desktop with the Sun Blade 1500 to deliver the best workstation
price-performance in history -- more than 70 percent better than
competing 64-bit UNIX workstations from IBM and HP.(4) Starting at
$2,995 (US List), the Sun Blade 1500 workstation is approximately one-
fifth the price of the comparable configuration of IBM's 44P-170
workstation and will extend Sun's leading market share in technical
markets. In addition, Sun has announced the introduction of
SunForum(TM) 3D, which allows users to collaborate using 3D (Open GL)
applications faster than ever before. This enables distributed teams to
work more closely together using 3D applications and utilizing Sun
Ray(TM) thin clients and Sun Blade workstations.
Sun also added new solutions and performance enhancements to its low-cost computing line-up:
-- Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid -- The Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid is an
integrated hardware and software solution that is ideal for technical
customers in electronic design automation (EDA), mechanical computer-
aided engineering (MCAE), petroleum and life sciences markets. The
management software including Sun Control Station 2.0 and Grid Engine
Enterprise Edition is pre-loaded on the Cluster Grid Manager management
node to help simplify compute grid management, reduce system
administration cost, increase system administrator productivity and
improve compute resource utilization all by up to 90 percent. A fully-
loaded rack, consisting of 32 dual-2.8 GHz or 3.06 GHz Xeon processors,
Sun Fire V60x servers and the integrated management software stack
starts at $185,000 (US List).
-- Sun Control Station 2.0 Lifecycle Management -- The Sun Control Station
2.0 lifecycle management software is ideal for deploying, monitoring
and managing hundreds of servers, such as the Sun Fire V60x and V65x
servers, through every stage of the IT lifecycle. Sun Control Station
2.0 software allows an administrator to cut costs and improve service
deployment times by delivering and updating software and services to
large numbers of remotely deployed, general purpose Linux and Solaris
servers. Sun Control Station 2.0 is offered at a starting price of
$1,995 (US List) for a single server with 10 node licenses.
-- Sun Fire V880 Server Outruns IBM -- With a boost from 1.05 GHz to the
latest 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC processors, the Sun Fire V880 server is now
14 percent faster at no additional cost. The Sun Fire V880 server,
powered by eight UltraSPARC III 1.2 GHz processors, using the Solaris 9
operating system, achieved 12 percent more users than IBM's x440 8-way
server, powered by 2.0 GHz Intel Xeon processors, according to a recent
Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark.(5) In another important head-
to-head battle with IBM, the Lotus NotesBench R6iNotes benchmark result
shows that the Sun Fire V880 server at 1.2 GHz is capable of supporting
18 percent more users per processor and at a better price-performance
point than the IBM iSeries 890, equipped with 1.3 GHz IBM Power4
processors.(6) The Sun Fire V880 server, with up to eight UltraSPARC
III 1.2 GHz processors and internal storage, is available now, starting
at $32,995 (US List) with 2 CPUs and 4GB of memory.
-- Sun Ray Client -- Sun also announces enhancements to its Sun Ray
product line including Sun Ray Building Blocks and a new and improved
Sun Ray system. Sun Ray Building Blocks is a maintenance-free desktop
offering that combines 15 Sun Ray 1 ultra-thin clients and a Sun Fire
V210 or V250 server with smart cards for a complete workgroup solution.
In addition, the Sun Ray 1g ultra-thin client is being added to the Sun
Ray family of products. As the first ultra-thin client that supports
resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 dpi at a full 24-bit color resolution,
the Sun Ray 1g is targeted for EDA, publishing, software development,
network operations centers and mission-critical defense customers.
More information on these products can be found at: http://www.sun.com/products/
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com/
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Sun Blade, Sun Fire, StarOffice, Sun Ray, SunForum and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.
(1)HP-DL 580 G2 4P at 38 US$ per QphH@100GB, 2605 QphH@100GB, Available
Date 08/15/03; Sun Fire V440 server at 28 US$ per QphH@100GB, 2428.6
QphH@100GB, Available Date 11/26/03 26% comes from (38-28/38). TPC
Benchmark(TM) is a trademark of the TPC -- Transaction Processing
Performance Council.
(2)TPC-H @100GB:HP-ML 370 G3 at 28 US$ per QphH@100GB, 1386 QphH@100GB,
Avail. Date 08/15/03; Sun Fire V250 at 23US$ per QphH@100GB, 1442.8
QphH@100GB, Avail. Date 11/26/03.
(3)TPC-H @300GB:Sun Fire V250 at 27 US$ per QphH@300GB, 1283.3 QphH@300GB,
Avail. Date 11/26/03; Sun Fire V240 at 49 US$ per QphH@300GB, 1026.5
QphH@300GB, Avail. Date 06/23/03.
(4)SPEC(R) and the benchmark name SPECcpu2000(R) are registered trademarks
of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive
benchmark results stated above reflect results published on
http://www.spec.org/ as of September 16, 2003. The comparison presented above
is based on the best performing single processor, 64-bit UNIX-based
workstation currently shipping by IBM and HP. For the latest
SPECcpu2000(R) benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/cpu2000.
(5)Sun Fire V880 Server @ 1.2 GHz results -- 6,328 users in the Oracle
Applications Standard Benchmark. Oracle Applications Standard
Benchmark: September 16, 2003.
(6)Notesbench R6iNotes on Sun Fire V880@1200 MHz results -- 8,400 users in
Lotus Domino 6.0 Mail Server: September 26, 2003.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Liza Santos
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
(415) 972-0624
liza.santos@sun.com
Jo Chun-Wood
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
(650) 786-5543
jo.chun@sun.com
CONTACT: Liza Santos, +1-415-972-0624 or liza.santos@sun.com, or Jo
Chun-Wood, +1-650-786-5543 or jo.chun@sun.com, both of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Web site: http://sun.com/
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