Sun Releases Servers Built On T2Plus Processors

Sun Microsystems on Wednesday unveiled two new two-socket servers built on UltraSPARC T2 Plus processors code named Victoria Falls which are expected to be available in the Fujitsu SPARC Enterprise server line. A four-socket version is slated for release in the second half of the year.

The Santa Clara Calif.-based company said that the new servers, the SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240, deliver 16 times higher compute density than competitive two-socket x86 systems and up to 32 times more compute density than competitors' four-socket x86 systems. The servers also have up to 128 threads in one or two rack units and as much as four times more memory and internal disk capacity than competitive x86 systems, according to the company.

The SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers are ideal platforms for creating and delivering innovative Web scale applications and running enterprise database applications. The new servers also help customers to consolidate their datacenter infrastructure into a smaller, more powerful, energy-efficient environment.

The servers also have what the company said is the industry's only flexible, open source, no-cost virtualization technologies with Solaris Containers and Logical Domains. Sun said that by allowing up to 128 virtual servers per system, customers can deploy 5,120 isolated domains per rack.

Mark Teter, CTO of Denver-based solution provider Advanced Systems Group, said he is impressed with the servers' features and is replacing Dell Linux systems with the new Sun servers.

"We can replace 10 to 15 Dell servers with one T2 server," he said. "With a Dell if you wanted virtualization you could install VMware, but hypervisors are built into these."

Sun said it is also "aggressively" pricing the servers. The SPARC Enterprise T5140 starts at $14,995 and the SPARC Enterprise T5240 starts at $17,995. "We want developers to take advantage of these threads, whether it's fine tuning or creating new apps," said Warren Mootrey, senior director of Volume SPARC Systems at Sun.

Under Sun's "Try and Buy" program, which channel partners can also participate in, customers can buy certain products at 25 percent to 45 percent off the list price. Trial products are shipped new and users can run it for 60 days. If they don't like the product they can send it back, and Sun will pay the shipping both ways.