Virtualization News Desk
Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems Unveil Next-Generation SPARC Enterprise Virtualization Servers
New Servers Deliver Performance Increase, Provide Consolidation and Virtualization for Enterprise and HPC Applications
Jul. 23, 2008 09:45 AM
Fujitsu and Sun
Microsystems announced an enhanced line of SPARC Enterprise servers – M4000,
M5000, M8000 and M9000 -- that delivers a highly scalable, enterprise-class
virtualization and consolidation platform with up to 80 percent better
performance on commercial applications and 2x better performance on HPC
workloads and using 44 percent less energy per core. Based on the quad-core
SPARC64 processor and the Solaris Operating System (OS), the new SPARC
Enterprise servers are ideal platforms for high-availability, mission-critical
enterprise applications including large-scale databases, BIDW, ERP and CRM. The
new processor is also available as an option for seamless upgrades in existing
SPARC Enterprise servers.
"The SPARC Enterprise servers advanced to a new stage with the SPARC64
processor, which provides spectacular performance, reliability and eco-efficiency
and benefits from Fujitsu's unparalleled mainframe heritage," said Tatsuo
Tomita, corporate senior executive vice president and a board member at
Fujitsu. "We are confident that the SPARC64 processor which powers the
world's most scalable and flexible systems, not only protects but also
increases the value of our customer's investments."
"The new SPARC Enterprise systems up the ante on performance and deliver
the flexibility to address the most demanding enterprise workloads," said
John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems.
"Today, we're freeing customers from the constraints of the mainframe with
open systems that deliver the scalability, consolidation and virtualization
they want along with long-term investment protection features that can
future-proof their datacenters."
New Servers Provide Massive Scalability and Virtualization with Investment
Protection
The SPARC Enterprise servers announced build on the existing
systems co-designed by Fujitsu and Sun and extend long-term customer investment
protection through binary compatibility, industry leading hardware and software
partitioning and the ultra-flexible "mix and match" SPARC64 processor
architecture. These SPARC Enterprise servers are the only systems on the market
with the ability to mix SPARC64 and processors in a single domain, enabling
customers to increase performance – without downtime and without requiring
other hardware changes. Customers can also minimize upgrade costs by using the
new SPARC64 option in current SPARC Enterprise servers.
With the addition of the new quad-core SPARC64 processor, the SPARC Enterprise
servers also offer scalability in a single symmetric multi-processor system
(SMP) system – from 16 to 256 cores. The SPARC64 processor also delivers the
RAS functions of SPARC64, including hardware instruction retry, dynamic
degradation and parity-protected processor registers, to maintain the levels of
performance and reliability needed in mission-critical systems.
The new processor consumes 44 percent less energy per core than the SPARC64
chip, enabling customers to consolidate and minimize energy consumption.
Leveraging built-in hardware partitioning features and Solaris Containers, the
new SPARC Enterprise servers form an ultra-high density environment that
provides exceptional virtualization capabilities. As a result, customers can
increase system utilization by supporting larger application workloads and
services on their existing infrastructure, while controlling operating costs
and reducing environmental impact.
More information on the SPARC Enterprise server line is available at http://www.fujitsu.com/sparcenterprise/
and http://sun.com/sparcenterprise.
About Virtualization News DeskSYS-CON's Virtualization News Desk trawls the news sources of the world for the latest details of virtualization technologies, products, and market trends, and provides breaking news updates from the Virtualization Conference & Expo.