Archive | November, 2004

High Engergy Physics Leader Deploys Nearly 300 Sun Fire V20z Systems to Propel Leading Edge Research

Supercomputing 2004 Conference – November 8, 2004 – Demonstrating its leadership in high performance computing, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has purchased 296 Sun Fire V20z servers for use in advanced research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Projects include initial development of a Leadership-Class Computing Facility for Data-Intensive Science and the PEP-II/BaBar program making measurements at the frontiers of physics.

These AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire servers run the platinum standard for enterprise operating systems (OS) – Solaris, as well as Linux and Microsoft Windows through Windows Hardware Qualification List (WHQL) certification. Visit SLAC at the Supercomputing 2004 booth #2149, and Sun Microsystems at booth #1207.

“At SLAC we work with data-analysis clusters totaling thousands of nodes that access over a petabyte of data from hundreds of Sun data servers, so system management and system stability are important issues for us,” said Richard Mount, director of SLAC computing services. “Our selection of Sun x86 systems for our newest data-analysis cluster is a further step in our continuing efforts to achieve reliability and fully functional lights out management (LOM). This approach allows us to stop focusing on the datacenter floor and focus more on the services we deploy.”

Currently SLAC runs over 1000 SPARC(r) architecture-based systems and over 400TB of disk from Sun which are dedicated to SLAC physics and computer science research. The center plans to use a portion of the AMD Opteron processor-based systems to validate the use of a Large Memory System to resolve disk latency and bottlenecks, ultimately delivering a revolutionary increase in scientific productivity.

Sun is also partnering with SLAC to test and deploy new features of Solaris 10, highlighting the new TCP/IP architecture to scale from the low end to the high-end. The High Energy Physics (HEP) community is in the midst of running a new round of experiments to probe the fundamental nature of matter and space-time, to help us understand the origins of the universe. These experiments require working with volumes of complex data that need collaboration among scientists around the world. Sun systems with Solaris 10 will provide a portion of this massive infrastructure.

“Sun has always served high performance computing centers with our SPARC-based systems, and now that we have price/performance leading two and four way systems these traditional customers are bringing Sun into their tier 1 infrastructure,” said John Fowler, executive vice president at Sun. “We are thrilled to see a prominent high performance computing facility like SLAC choosing the Sun Fire V20z systems.”

“Sun fosters close working relationships with the top universities and colleges worldwide and we are recognized for our systems engineering and innovation,” said Kim Jones, vice president of global education and research. “SLAC’s choice of AMD Opteron processor-based systems from Sun will keep them at the leading edge of their research field.”

About the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is one of the world’s leading fundamental science research laboratories. SLAC designs, constructs and operates state-of-the-art particle accelerators and related experimental facilities used by high-energy physics studies probing the fundamental forces and structure of matter. The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), a premier national user facility at SLAC, enables research requiring ultra high-intensity x-ray beams for molecular and atomic scale studies in physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, and environmental science. The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at SLAC is one of the most important centers for the study of the exciting new science of Particle Astrophysics. The BABAR collaboration investigating matter/anti-matter asymmetry is a current focus of high-energy physics, as is a vigorous R&D program focused on development of the International Linear Collider. SLAC, operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy, Office of Science, is 40 miles south of San Francisco, California.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) 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, Sun Fire, Solaris, 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.

Next Generation UltraSPARC Capable of Doubling Throughput Performance of Existing Systems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today unveiled its next generation UltraSPARC IV+ processor at In-Stat MDR’s Fall Processor Forum. UltraSPARC IV+, powered by Chip Multithreading technology, continues Sun’s momentum in delivering on its Throughput Computing strategy by enabling a large number of operations, or threads, to be executed simultaneously in order to increase system performance.

“Sun is showing the market that it is serious about delivering on the promise of Throughput Computing,” said Kevin Krewell, senior analyst for Microprocessor Report. “The UltraSPARC IV+ is the second generation of Sun’s evolutionary dual-core design. We are impatiently awaiting the revolutionary Niagara processor to hit the market in 2006. This will be a huge departure from conventional processor design that will subsequently alter the face of network computing infrastructure as we know it.”

Implemented using Texas Instruments’ 90 nanometer process technology, UltraSPARC IV+ will double the application throughput of the existing UltraSPARC IV through expanded caches and buffers, a better branch prediction mechanism, augmented prefetching capabilities and new computational abilities. In addition, UltraSPARC IV+ incorporates a new 3-level cache hierarchy, with a fast on-chip 2MB second level cache and a large 32MB off-chip third level cache.

These new performance features combine with much higher operating frequencies (1.8 Ghz initially) to make UltraSPARC IV+ the highest throughput UltraSPARC processor ever built, with roughly twice the per-thread performance of the original UltraSPARC IV processor. At the same time, an array of new RAS features cooperate to make this design the most reliable UltraSPARC processor ever.

As with the UltraSPARC IV processor, this new second generation UltraSPARC IV+ processor maintains Sun’s tradition of binary compatibility, preserving the investment customers have made in development tools and application software. It provides Sun customers with an easy upgrade path that effectively raises both the performance and reliability of their system with no change in its footprint, and relatively little change in either its power or thermal envelope.

More information on Sun’s Throughput Computing strategy and Chip Multithreading can be found at www.sun.com/processors/throughput. More information on Fall Processor Forum can be found at www.mdronline.com/fpf04/.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) 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 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.