Sun Launches New Low-Cost Servers
Sun launched a new line of servers on Monday that it claims perform one-and-a-half times better that its current systems, while using only a third of the power and costing half as much as competing products.
The multi-core servers use AMD Opteron processors and will come standard with Sun's own Solaris 10 operating system. However, the company said a customer could run standard versions of Linux and Windows as well.
In fact, at a launch event on Monday, Sun shared the stage with Red Hat to announce a tighter partnership to promote use of Linux on its servers.
"Stay tuned on the Red Hat-Sun relationship," Sun President Jonathan Schwartz said at a launch event in New York. "We think there's ample opportunity to work together out there."
According to benchmarks provided by Sun, the X4000 series servers perform up to 21 percent better than competing servers from HP. Also, Sun claims savings of up to 60 percent in power and cooling costs with the Opteron processor.
"These systems deliver a combination of performance, features and value to customers that is not available from any other server supplier today," Andy Bechtolsheim chief architect at Sun Microsystems said.
Pricing for the servers will range from $745 USD for the base model Sun Fire X2100 to $2,595 USD for the top of the line machine, the Sun Fire X4200.