Archive | February, 2005

Sun Boosts System Performance to Optimize Data Center Workloads

By SPARC Editor on February 23, 2005 in 2005

Over 2x Application Throughput and 34 Percent Better Price/performance on Solaris Servers on UltraSPARC Platform

SANTA CLARA, Calif.

February 23, 2005

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW) today reinforced its commitment to the SPARC platform, Solaris Operating System (OS) and optimizing its systems to run multithreaded, data-centric workloads by boosting performance across its popular UltraSPARC IV processor-based server family. The new UltraSPARC IV 1.35 GHz processor, available immediately, gives customers over 2x the throughput(i) at 34 percent better price/performance when compared to the fastest UltraSPARC III systems, and can be mixed and matched with previous UltraSPARC III and UltraSPARC IV processors(ii). This enables several primary customer benefits: enhanced price/performance significantly increases the product’s value proposition, while the versatile architecture helps deliver investment protection, significant deployment agility and improved risk management.

Sun also unveiled a new world-record benchmark the enhanced platform has already achieved, further demonstrating the best-in-class results made possible by the combination of the new 1.35 GHz processor and the leading Solaris OS. Sun has unmatched binary compatibility and there are over 8,000 Solaris applications. Solaris 10 delivers unparalleled availability, performance and security – all at an extremely competitive price.

“Sun reinforces its vision to create the next-generation datacenter providing customers with technology innovation and the best price/performance through its UltraSPARC processor-based servers,” said Sun’s David Yen, executive vice president, Scalable Systems. “Today’s announcement is further evidence of Sun’s commitment to the Solaris OS for SPARC platform roadmap to deliver throughput computing to optimize customer workloads and increase application performance in the datacenter. Each of the upgraded servers will be compatible with the latest version of Solaris in order to take full advantage of all its new features and functionality while supporting existing versions to ensure customer’s investments are protected.”

Double the Throughput and 34 Percent Better Price/Performance

Sun’s UltraSPARC IV 1.35 GHz processor upgrade gives customers enhanced throughput computing power on the Sun Fire V490, V890, Sun Enterprise 2900, 4900, 6900, 20000 and 25000 servers. These UltraSPARC IV and Solaris OS-based systems deliver Chip Multithreading Technology (CMT), driving over double the application throughput and 34 percent better price/performance in the same physical footprint as its predecessors, which helps reduce the cost and complexity of doing business for Sun’s customers. In conjunction with Solaris OS, Sun’s servers for the UltraSPARC platform deliver higher performance, utilization, security and RAS (reliability, availability and serviceability) allowing IT groups to better meet Service Level Agreements. Full binary and application compatibility allows risk reduction as customers deploy new applications, services and infrastructure.

UltraSPARC IV processor-based Sun Fire mid-range servers deliver more than 7x the performance of UltraSPARC II servers(i), while offering greater scalability, RAS and investment protection with lower operating costs. For customers using UltraSPARC II technology, Sun is offering double trade-in values for upgrades to UltraSPARC IV technology through its Sun Upgrade Advantage Program. For more information, please visit http://sun.com/ibb/promos/USIVpromo.html.

Record-Setting Benchmark Proves Superior Performance

The Sun Fire V890 server, based on the UltraSPARC IV 1.35 GHz platform, outperforms IBM Power5 on the Lotus Domino R6iNotes(iii) benchmark in users per processor.

Through the world record Lotus Domino R6iNotes benchmark, the Sun Fire V890 server delivers 16.5 percent more users per processor than proprietary IBM Power5 systems and the best overall price/performance in the mid-range class of servers.(iv) In addition, the UltraSPARC IV-based system delivers the leading number of users per processor for servers equipped with more than 2 processors.

The new 1.35GHz UltraSPARC IV processors can be mixed and matched with 1.05GHz and 1.2GHz UltraSPARC IV processor-based servers and UltraSPARC III processor-based Sun Fire servers. All processors run at their rated speeds, further enabling customers to take advantage of higher performance while increasing agility and efficiency.(v)

For more information on the new 1.35GHz UltraSPARC IV processors and world record performance benchmarks, visit www.sun.com/servers/midrange and www.sun.com/servers/highend.

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, Solaris, Sun Fire, Java, 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.

(1) The Sun Fire E6900 server achieved a SPECint_rate2000 of 364 and the Sun Fire 6800 server achieved a SPECint_rate2000 of 180. The Sun Fire V890 server achieved a SPECfp_rate2000 of 161 and the 8 processor Sun Enterprise 4500 server achieved a SPECfp_rate2000 of 20.9. SPEC and the benchmark names SPECint and SPECfp are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results stated above reflect results published on www.spec.org as of 02/17/05. Sun Fire V890/E6900 server results submitted to SPEC for review on 02/17/05. For the latest SPEC CPU2000 benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/.

(2) Price/performance based on $ per SPECint_rate2000. Sun Fire V480, configured with 4P/16GB memory = $58,995, produced a score of 31.7, resulting in $ per SPEC of $1,861. Sun Fire V490, configured with 4P/32GB memory = $75,995, produced a score of 65.2, resulting in $ per SPEC of $1,220

(3) Sun Fire V890 server (8 UltraSPARC IV processors) running the Solaris OS and Lotus(R) Domino 6.5.1 configured in 4 partitions achieved 16,600 users at $12.18 per user, 14,020 NotesMark tpm, and 464 ms average response time. The benchmark results stated above reflect results published on http:/www.notesbench.org as of 02/15/05. The IBM iSeries 570 server (16 Power 5 processors), running OS/400 V5R3 and Lotus Domino 6.5.2 configured in 10 partitions achieved 28,500 users, 24,145 NotesMark tpm, and 269 ms average response time. The results reflect results published on http://www.notesbench.org as of 02/15/05.

(4) The Notesbench R6iNotes benchmark published as of 02/15/05 results can be found at http://www.notesbench.org.

(5) Mixed CPU support offered on the Sun Fire V1280, 4800, 6800, 12K, 15K, E2900, E4900, E6900, E20K, E25K servers.

Sun Boosts Performance on Solaris OS for UltraSPARC® processor-Based 4-Way Carrier Grade Server

By SPARC Editor on February 14, 2005 in 2005

Combined with Solaris OS and Java Technology, Netra 440 Servers Provide Reliable, Scalable Delivery of Next-Generation Telecom Services

Running on the UltraSPARC IIIi with carrier-grade Solaris Operating System and Sun Java Enterprise Systems technologies, the upgraded Netra 440 server can enable the delivery of next-generation, high-bandwidth, telecom infrastructure applications such as 3G wireless and broadband services. This upgrade builds upon Sun’s leadership in the telecom data server market, as Sun currently offers the most complete family of highly-reliable, scalable NEBS Level 3 certified rack servers on the market today.

“With the increase in bandwidth intensive applications driving the wireless and broadband markets, network equipment providers require a cost-effective scalable delivery platform,” said Raju Penumatcha, VP Netra Systems and Networking (NSN), Sun Microsystems.. “The upgrade to the Netra 440 server will provide our customers the performance, reliability and scalability needed to meet these demands.”

Lowest Cost, Highest Density

Sun’s highly-reliable Netra 440 server is the lowest cost, highest density, NEBS-Level 3 certified (Network Equipment Building Systems), 4-way carrier grade server on the market today. The Netra 440 server start at $13,995 (U.S. list price), up to 45% lower in price than HP’s Itanium2 carrier grade servers, and almost 75 percent less than HP’s PA-RISC carrier grade servers (source: Ideas Int’l Ltd, 1/24/05). The Netra 440 also offers the best compute density (4P/5U) of any comparable carrier grade server, helping to enable service providers and carriers to deploy more capacity and capability in a single rack. For more information, visit: http://www.sun.com/netra.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Netra, Java 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.

Sun Expands x64 Network Computing Options

By SPARC Editor on February 14, 2005 in 2005

Adds world’s highest performing processors from AMD for 2- and 4- way x64 systems outperforming IBM, HP and Dell; Expands operating systems (OS) choice with new SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9; Demonstrates dual-core technology

BOSTON, MA

February 14 , 2005

LinuxWorld Conference — February 14, 2005 – Expanding its offerings for network computing, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced performance and feature enhancements for its AMD Opteron processor-based systems that achieved seven new world-record results. Often referred to as x64 systems, the Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers outperformed 2- and 4-way servers from IBM, HP and Dell on industry-standard benchmarks. The news comes in conjunction with AMD’s announcement of its latest enhancements to the AMD Opteron processor – Models 252 and 852, and continues to feature highly optimized systems running Solaris 10, common Linux distributions or Windows operating systems. In addition to unmatched OS support, customers can enjoy up to a 25 percent performance increase on the Sun Fire V20z server(2), and up to a 29 percent performance increase on the Sun Fire V40z server(3).

Sun also unveiled new pricing promotions for select Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers, and Sun Java Workstations, giving customers even better price/performance for these products. Additionally, Sun announced it has certified its x64 systems to fully support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 9 for AMD64 technology, broadening customers’ OS choice and increasing the availability of applications for Sun’s x64 systems.

“Sun is strategically positioned to continue leading with x64 systems, and the company continues to offer customers unparalleled performance with systems powered by the latest AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture,” said Lisa Sieker, vice president, Network Systems Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Today’s performance increases at no additional cost, attractive price promotions and the certification of SLES 9 demonstrates our commitment to our customers, and reflects our ability to deliver leading edge technologies. We’ve seen double digit growth in demand for these systems from Sun, proving that when you add valuable business and technical innovation to industry-standard hardware, customers will reap the benefits.”

Customers Choose Sun’s Industry-standard x64 Systems

In just over a year since Sun announced its first system with the AMD Opteron processor, customers including China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Dygra Films, E! Networks, EDS, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Schlumberger, Overture Services, Inc. (A Yahoo! Company), University of Leicester and University of Nottingham have run their applications on Sun’s x64 systems running standard Linux distributions. Enterprise customers in financial services, manufacturing and oil industries to name a few, as well as customers in government, research, and education among other markets, are reaping the benefits of Sun’s OS-independent, high-performance x64 systems, with tens of thousands of unique customers in 49 countries worldwide.

“Sun’s x64 systems powered by AMD Opteron processors run anywhere from three to ten times faster than what we had before. That translates to substantial growth in work productivity,” said Eric Greenwade, chief IT architect at Idaho National Laboratory (formerly INEEL). “We can work simultaneously on models, which are several thousands times larger than our previous ability. The end result is we can do problems that are up to 10 to 100 times bigger and get them done in as little as 1/10th the time and our confidence in results also has vastly improved.”

Sun Delivers Extreme x64 Performance

The Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers, and the Sun Java Workstations just got faster. These systems are now powered by the world’s highest performing AMD Opteron processor Model 252 for the Sun Fire V20z server and Sun Java Workstation W2100z, and AMD Opteron processor Model 852 for the Sun Fire V40z server. These systems also support the fastest 400 MHz Double Data Rate (DDR) memory that is available for AMD Opteron processors. Systems equipped with AMD processors deliver incredible performance and competitive advantages with its Direct Connect Architecture, designed to help eliminate the bottlenecks inherent in competitor’s front-side bus and enable overall system performance and efficiency.

“Sun and AMD have teamed to continue to advance 32-bit performance in the enterprise with a simplified migration to 64-bit computing on dual-core ready platforms, while providing a choice of operating systems including Solaris 10, Red Hat and SUSE Linux as well as Windows,” said Ben Williams, vice president, Commercial and Server/Workstation Business, AMD. “We are seeing a growing number of customers interested in taking advantage of the reliability and virtualization features of Solaris 10, which together with Sun Studio 10 is optimized for AMD Opteron processor-based systems.”

Sun Posts Seven New World-Record Results – Outperforms Dell and HP

The Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers provide excellent deployment platforms for a number of high-performance and compute-intensive applications. These x86 systems recently achieved world-record benchmarks running Solaris 10(1), as well as the following seven new records:

SPEC CPU2000: This benchmark measures CPU and memory intensive computing tasks based on integer and floating point performance.
- The Sun Fire V40z server achieved two new world-records for the 4-way x86 systems on integer and floating point throughput suites of the benchmark. The Sun Fire V20z server posted the new x86 world-record score on floating point intensive SPECfp2000 suite of the benchmark, as well as the best 2-way result on floating point throughput suite. The enhanced servers exhibit improved scalability and optimized performance for both floating point and integer performance, demonstrating up to a 25 percent improvement when compared with the previous results obtained on the same platforms(2).
SPEC OMPM2001: This benchmark compares the performance of shared memory servers executing compute-intensive scientific applications.
- The Sun Fire V40z server, equipped with the award-winning EKOPath Compiler Suite from PathScale Inc., has set a new world-record for all systems running four parallel threads. This 4-way server also achieved a 29 percent boost in performance when compared with the previous results on the same platform that were published by Sun(3).
SPECjbb2000: This benchmark measures the implementation of the Java Virtual Machine, the performance of the underlying operating system and the scalability of the system’s processors and memory.
- The Sun Fire V20z server geared up with the latest version of Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 has posted a new 64-bit 2-way world-record. It has also demonstrated the superior scalability by improving upon the previous best score achieved on the same configuration, by up to 7 percent. Furthermore, Sun’s server beat Dell’s result on the 2-way Itanium-based system running the Windows OS by 17 percent(4).
SPECweb99_SSL: This benchmark establishes a standard performance measure for systems that execute secure web serving transactions.
- The Sun Fire V40z server set a new world-record in the 4-way category. This result supersedes the performance of the HP Integrity rx4640 Itanium2-based server by 8.5 percent. It also improves upon the previous Sun result by over 8 percent(5).

Sun Servers Outpace IBM Servers by up to 23 Percent

Sun’s x64 systems with the AMD Opteron processor continue to outperform comparably configured IBM servers equipped with Power5 processors. A recent SPEC OMP2001 benchmark demonstrates that the Sun Fire V40z server, in a 2-way configuration, outruns the 2-way Power5-based IBM eServer OpenPower 710 server by 23 percent using half the number of parallel threads(3). In addition, based on SPEC CPU2000 suite, a 2-way Sun Fire V20z server beat a 2-way IBM eServer p5 510 by 22 percent on SPECint_rate2000 benchmark and by over 7 percent on the SPECfp_rate2000 benchmark. When compared to the 2-way IBM eServer OpenPower 710, which only runs Power-specific version of Linux, the Sun Fire V20z server is faster by over 15 percent on SPECfp_rate2000 benchmark(2). On Web-intensive workloads, the Sun Fire V40z server tops the previous IBM eServer p5 570 SPECweb99_SSL record without resorting to the use of specialized SSL encryption cards, demonstrating the true computing capability of this highly successful platform(5).

Customers Receive Significant Cost Savings

The pricing promotions for x64 systems include:

Customers can purchase the Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers with AMD Opteron processor Models 244 and 844, and 250 and 850 for up to a 20 percent price reduction. The servers start at $2,595 U.S. list price and $6,995 U.S. list price, respectively.
Customers can get a price reduction of up to 22 percent when they purchase a Sun Java Workstation W1100z or W2100z with AMD Opteron processor Models 150, 250 or 246. The Sun Java Workstations start at $1,795 U.S. list price and at $2,595 U.S. list price respectively. The reduced prices will be available as of March 8, 2005. All prices quoted are in U.S. Dollars.

Customer Options Continue to Grow

Extending its offerings for 64-bit network computing, Sun announced a number of new options for x64 systems including:

SLES 9 added support: By further extending the range of Linux distributions available with Sun’s x64 systems, customers can be assured of a wider selection of applications and configuration options.
NVIDIA’s new extreme high-end Quadro FX4000 graphics card: The Research community can now take advantage of high-end graphics with the Sun Java Workstations powered by the AMD Opteron processor for virtually any OS.

Dual-core Sneak Preview

Visit Sun’s booth #123 to see the latest demonstration of AMD64 dual-core technology.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Sun Fire, Java 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.

SPEC and the benchmark names SPEComp, SPECweb99_SSL, SPECcpu and SPECjbb are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive benchmark results reflect data published as of 02/11/05. For the latest benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/. Sun has submitted all results to SPEC. The 2-way systems have 2 cores. The 4-way systems have 4 cores.

(1) The results can be found at: http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2005-02/sunflash.20050201.6.html
(2) The Sun Fire V20z server (2xAMD Opteron processor Model 252, SLES9): SPECfp2000 – 2036, SPECint_rate2000 – 40.4, SPECfp_rate2000 – 46.5. The Sun Fire V40z server (4xAMD Opteron processor Model 852, SLES9): SPECint_rate2000 – 76.7,SPECfp_rate2000 – 87.1. The above results were obtained using the compiler suite from PathScale Inc,. The Sun Fire V20z server (2xAMD Opteron processor Model 250, SLES8): SPECfp_rate2000 – 37.2.IBM eServer OpenPower 710 (2×1.65 GHz Power5, Linux): SPECfp_rate – 40.2. IBM eServer p5 510 (2×1.65 GHz Power5, AIX): SPECint_rate2000 – 33, SPECfp_rate2000 – 43.2. The IBM results can be found at: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=80529
(3) The Sun Fire V40z server (2xAMD Opteron processor Model 852, SLES9): SPECompM2001 – 6486 (2 cores, 2 chips, 2 threads). The Sun Fire V40z server (4xAMD Opteron processor Model 852, SLES9): SPECompM2001 – 11223 (4 cores, 4 chips, 4 threads). The above results were obtained using the compiler suite from PathScale Inc, The Sun Fire V40z server (4xAMD Opteron processor Model 850, SUSE Linux): SPECompM2001 – 8694 (4 cores, 4 chips, 4 threads). The IBM eServer OpenPower 710 (1.65 GHz POWER5, Linux): SPECompM2001 – 5282 (2 cores, 1 chip, 4 threads). IBM results can be found at: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/050124/079508.html
(4) The Sun Fire V20z server (2xAMD Opteron processor Model 250, SLES8): 59648 JBB operations per second (JBBops/s). The Sun Fire V20z server (2xAMD Opteron processor Model 252, SLES9): 63743 JBBops/s. Dell PowerEdge 3250 (2×1.5 GHz Itanium2, MS Windows 2003 ES): 54617 JBBops/s
(5) Sun’s results were obtained using the Zeus 4.2 Web Server. More information about Zeus Technology Limited can be found at: http://www.zeus.com. The Sun Fire V40z server (4xAMD Opteron processor Model 852, SLES8): 5005 conforming connections. The Sun Fire V40z server (4xAMD Opteron processor Model 850, SLES8): 4608 conforming connections. IBM eServer p5 570 (2×1.9 GHz Power5, SLES9) – 4970 conforming connections. HP Integrity rx4640 server (2×1.6 GHz Itanium2, HP-UX) – 4615 conforming connections.

Sun’s UltraSPARC® IV Processor-based Sun Fire Servers Set 14 World Records with Real World Applications

By SPARC Editor on February 8, 2005 in 2005

Outstanding Performance Results with SPECweb99_SSL, Linpack, and Leading Business Application Providers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.

February 8 , 2005

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced new industry-leading results with its Sun Fire UltraSPARC IV based servers running SPECweb99_SSL for secure web-based applications and Linpack for high performance computing. This follows similar records for the Sun Fire midrange platform with key ISVs such as Siebel Systems, further demonstrating the ability to deliver optimized application performance and breakthrough price/performance through Sun’s balanced system architecture. Since the launch of UltraSPARC IV based system, Sun Fire servers have set 14 world records across a range of industry standard and ISV-specific benchmarks.

Sun Fire V490 Servers Set World Record with SPECweb99_SSL

The SPECweb99_SSL is an industry-standard measure of secure web and application serving performance, relevant to all organizations looking to create secure network computing infrastructures such as secure online banking and ecommerce, provision of public health services, or supply chain management. Sun’s world record SPECweb99_SSL result was over 18 percent faster than the previous record from HP1 and supported 10,700 conforming connections on a cluster of 4 Sun Fire V490 servers, each powered by 4 UltraSPARC IV 1050MHz processors. This result was achieved using Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP2, a “real world” web server on the Solaris Operating System (OS), that demonstrated a secure web solution can sustain a large and scalable number of high throughput secure web server connections.

System Processor	OS	Web Server	Connections	Connections per Processor
Sun Fire V490	Solaris 9	Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP2	10700	668.75
HP Integrity rx8620	HP-UX 11i V2	Zeus 4.2r3	9060	566.25
HP Integrity rx7620	HP-UX 11i V2	Zeus 4.2r3	5388	673.5

Sun Fire E6900 Server Delivers on High Performance Computing

The Sun Fire E6900 server utilizing UltraSPARC IV processors demonstrated over 2x performance improvement over the previous generation Sun Fire 6800 servers on the Linpack benchmark1. The doubled performance boost is attributable to Chip- multithreaded processors combined with the new Solaris 10 Operating System optimized for multi-threaded workloads. The Linpack Benchmark is a high performance computing benchmark that measures a computer’s floating-point rate of execution. The results reflect the computer systems capability to solve a dense system of linear equations.

Leading Application Providers Deliver World Records on Sun

Previously announced results on Sun Fire midrange servers were achieved with Siebel Systems2 and other key ISVs for their enterprise applications on the UltraSPARC IV processors and Solaris OS. These results demonstrated that Sun builds systems optimized to run in real-world application performance versus benchmarks that are tuned for lab environments. The high availability, reliability, and record-breaking performance of Solaris running on Sun Fire systems makes it an ideal platform for the most demanding organizations running mission-critical enterprise, High Performance Technical Computing (HPTC), and compute-intensive applications.

For more information on Sun Fire systems and world record price/performance on real-world applications, visit http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v490/benchmarks.html and http://www.sun.com/servers/midrange/sunfire_e2900/benchmarks.html

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

1. SPEC and the benchmark name SPECweb99_SSL are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. HP’s 16-way rx8620 Itanium 1.5GHz server produced a SPECweb99 score of 9060 simultaneous user connections. Comparisons are based upon published results as of 2/1/05. For the latest SPEC benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/web99ssl/results/.

2. All results current as of January 10, 2005. Based on 24-way Sun Fire E6900 server (1.2 GHz) Linpack Rmax result of 98.26 as compared to the 24-way 1.2GHz Sun Fire 6800 Linpack Rmax result of 47.52. Source: http://performance.netlib.org/benchmark/performance.ps

3. Siebel and Siebel PSPP are trademarks of Siebel Systems, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. The Siebel PSPP standard benchmark results are audited and certified by Siebel Systems. For benchmark results and criteria, visit www.siebel.com/crm/performance-benchmark.shtm.

Sun and The Archipelago Exchange to Partner in World’s First Online Compute Exchange

By SPARC Editor on February 3, 2005 in 2005

Technology and Stock Trading Innovators Join Forces in Trading of CPU Usage Cycles

SANTA CLARA, Calif. And Chicago, Mass.

February 3 , 2005

During its quarterly Network Computing ’05 (NC05Q1) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and Archipelago Holdings Inc. (PCX: AX), operator of the Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx), the first totally open, all-electronic stock exchange in the United States, announced the companies plan to build the world’s first online compute exchange.

Based on the new Sun Grid and Archipelago’s electronic matching technology, the companies plan to introduce a new electronic trading environment that will allow customers to bid on CPU usage cycles. Being able to dynamically bid for open compute cycles will provide companies across the globe with unprecedented flexibility in planning for the purchase and use of compute power. This is a new paradigm in computing where companies can access an unlimited number of CPUs as they need them.

“Archipelago leads the way when it comes to electronic trading technology,” said Robert Youngjohns, executive vice president of strategic development and Sun financing at Sun Microsystems, Inc. “With Sun Grid, and Archipelago’s matching technology, we expect companies will be able to access an unlimited number of CPUs as they need them–and have access to technology that is reliable, simple to use, powerful, and sophisticated–at a single point of contact.”

“We believe the technological underpinnings of the Archipelago Exchange could be customized to trade nearly anything, and as the demand for computing power increases, we see great potential in building an exchange for trading CPU usage cycles,” said Steve Rubinow, CTO of the Archipelago Exchange. “We’re excited about partnering with Sun and developing this opportunity.”

The compute exchange announcement comes on the back of Sun’s new utility offerings, which include the Sun Grid compute utility, a $1 (USD) per CPU per hour pay-per-use offering ($1/cpu-hr), and the Sun Grid storage utility, a $1 (USD) per gigabyte per month offering ($1/GB-mo). In the coming months, Sun will also roll out additional Sun Grid offerings for the desktop and developer communities.

Sun’s NC05Q1 Web event is available on the World Wide Web at sun.com/nc/05q1. More information on today’s announcements, including full press releases and product details, can be viewed at Sun’s online press kit(http://sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/networkcomputing05q1/).

About Archipelago

Archipelago Holdings Inc. (PCX: AX) operates the Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx), the first open all-electronic stock market in the United States. ArcaEx trades Nasdaq-listed equity securities and exchange listed equity securities, including those traded on the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Pacific Exchange. ArcaEx offers corporate issuers and investors the advantages of meeting directly, without intermediaries, within a fully electronic and totally transparent environment. ArcaEx is a facility of, and regulated by, the Pacific Exchange, a registered exchange. ArcaEx was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2001 and began trading operations in March 2002. The Archipelago ECN, a precursor to ArcaEx, was one of the four original ECNs, formed in December 1996 with Townsend Analytics. For more information please visit http://www.arcaex.com.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Java, N1 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.

Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the companies’ current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. There can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause the companies’ results to differ materially from current expectations include without limitation: general economic and business conditions, industry trends, competitive conditions, regulatory developments as well as other risks identified in the companies’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release is for informational purposes only and is not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any security.

Sun Microsystems and EDS Extend Strategic Partnership

By SPARC Editor on February 2, 2005 in 2005

Companies enter exclusive negotiations to renew managed services agreement; jointly deliver utility computing services

PLANO, TEXAS, AND SANTA CLARA, CALIF.

February 2, 2005

Sun Microsystems and EDS today announced they are in exclusive negotiations on an eight-year services agreement, whereby EDS will transform the operations of Sun’s data centers to the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform, its next-generation global delivery system. Financial details of the proposed transaction were not disclosed.

In addition, the two companies have agreed to jointly deliver IT services, including utility computing services based on Sun’s Solaris 10 OS, to some of the world’s largest enterprise customers.

“Customers are telling me everyday that they are experiencing tangible, bottom-line business benefits from the strong partnership between Sun and EDS,” said Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “The combination of EDS’ services, plus Sun’s solutions is powerful. We share the same vision for the future – to deliver highly reliable IT solutions to customers more efficiently. Today that strong relationship is advancing forward by leveraging each other’s strengths for our collective customers worldwide. It proves the old adage that two heads are better than one.”

“An extension of the data center contract with Sun further validates the strong partnership between EDS and Sun,” said Michael Jordan, chairman and chief executive officer, EDS. “The combination of Sun’s world-class technology with EDS’ world-class IT services not only benefits our two companies, but also extends this value to our mutual clients. We look forward to elevating that relationship individually and as we work collaboratively with other EDS Agility Alliance partners.”

Sun is a founding member of the EDS Agility Alliance, a federation of market-leading technology companies collaborating to innovate, develop and deliver the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform. Sun is also EDS’ preferred partner for enterprise-wide network computing, outsourcing environments and utility-based computing for the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform. EDS has been providing data center services to Sun since 2000, and the two companies have been strategic partners since 1997.

Sun Influences EDS’ Agile Enterprise Platform

EDS’ Agile Enterprise Platform will provide flexible IT systems that empower enterprises to manage change through agile processes, applications and technology architectures. Sun’s SolarisTM 10 OS provides the operating system base demanded by this technology architecture. Solaris 10 OS also includes features from predictive self-healing to secure grid containers that reduce costs and reduce complexity.

Because Solaris 10 OS runs on Sun’s high-performance servers using the company’s SPARC® processors, or on industry-standard servers based on x86 processors like the AMD Opteron, EDS and Sun will be able to provide services to customers within a wide variety of budgets.

Greater Efficiencies for Sun from Outsourcing

One of the cornerstones of the partnership is EDS’ management of many Sun back-office IT functions. Using the same technology and approach the two companies will offer their mutual customers, EDS will operate Sun’s data centers and data center systems, and provide other technical services related to business systems and Internet operations.

In addition to Sun’s EDS-managed data centers in Europe, Asia and the U.S., the companies will jointly develop and test enterprise offerings in Sun’s iForce partner center in Menlo Park, Calif., and EDS’ Agility Alliance Development Center in Plano, Texas.

“At Sun, we not only talk about the value of delivering IT resources as a service, but we consider it vital to how we run our business,” said Bill Vass, chief information officer, Sun Microsystems Inc. “By moving Sun back-office functions such as IT Help Desk/first tier support to EDS’ front office, Sun can better focus its resources on the innovation that is the core of our company.”

About EDS

EDS provides a broad portfolio of business and technology solutions to help its clients worldwide improve their business performance. EDS’ core portfolio comprises information-technology, applications and business process services, as well as information-technology transformation services. EDS’ A.T. Kearney subsidiary is one of the world’s leading high-value management consultancies. With more than $20 billion in annual revenue, EDS is ranked 87th on the Fortune 500. The company’s stock is traded on the New York (NYSE: EDS) and London stock exchanges. Learn more at eds.com.

The EDS Agility Alliance

A federation of market-leading infrastructure, application, BPO and industry providers collaborating to innovate, develop and deliver the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform – EDS’ next generation global delivery system. Current EDS Agility Alliance partners include Cisco, Dell, EMC, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, Sun Microsystems and Xerox.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, iForce 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 US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company Ltd.

Sun Announces Availability of Solaris 10 Operating System; World’s Most Advanced OS Available for Free on Sun’s Web Site

By SPARC Editor on February 1, 2005 in 2005

Momentum Continues with New Services, More Than 400 New ISVs and Expanded Platform Support

SANTA CLARA, Calif.

February 1, 2005

During its quarterly Network Computing ’05(NC05Q1) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced that the highly anticipated Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System (OS) is available for customers to download and deploy, free of charge from Sun’s Web site (http://sun.com). Customers will benefit from increased performance as demonstrated through world-record benchmarks, affordable new service and support models and 400 new ISVs supporting Solaris 10. Solaris 10 is a vendor-neutral operating system that is available on more than 340 different hardware platforms from vendors as diverse as Dell, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, IBM and HP.

“There are already 750,000 installations of Solaris 10 through the Software Express for Solaris program. This strong interest underscores the fact that Solaris 10 is delivering tremendous value to customers, partners and developers,” said John Loiacono, executive vice president, Software at Sun. “Coming on the heels of Sun’s OpenSolaris announcement last week, the availability of Solaris 10 is the latest in a series of milestones for Sun.” Extreme Performance With Solaris 10

Sun also announced world record 64-bit results for the Java(TM) platform on Sun’s one-, two- and four-way servers powered by AMD Opteron(TM) processors for the SPEC JBB2000 benchmark (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation Java(TM) Business Benchmark). This achievement highlights Sun’s unmatched performance and success in delivering high performance systems for 64-bit computing. The results were achieved on Sun Fire(TM) V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers using the latest AMD64 implementation of the standard Java Platform (Java 2 Platform (J2SE(TM) 5.0), that was compiled with the new Sun(TM) Studio 10 software. Additionally, the two-way result on the Sun Fire V20z server signifies the advantage of running Java technology-based applications on the industry’s highest performance operating system, Solaris 10, by surpassing previous high marks achieved on the same server with a Linux OS. The SPEC JBB2000 benchmark measures the implementation of Java Virtual Machine (JVM) as well as the performance of the underlying operating system, scalability of processors and memory on Shared Memory Processors (SMPs) platforms. New Services and Support Now Available

The comprehensive set of new services includes flexible subscription-based offerings, migration and education services. Customers and partners can now download Solaris 10 OS free of charge for commercial use. Sun also offers service and support for the Solaris OS that is up to 40 percent less expensive than the leading Linux distribution. Similar to phone calling plans, the subscription-based Solaris Service Plans provide customers and partners with choice and flexibility to receive the level of support they need. Customers can choose Basic, Standard or Premium Solaris Service Plans, each with scalable and predictable pricing, based on the number of processor sockets. To date, more than 7,200 people have registered for the no-cost Web-based Solaris 10 education preview class, and more than 1,400 people have signed up for Early Advantage classroom courses. More information about the Solaris 10 Services portfolio is available at http://sun.com/service/solaris10.

Unprecedented Partner Support

Fueling demand for Sun’s enterprise-class UNIX(R) OS is unprecedented support from Sun’s partner community. Independent hardware vendors, software vendors (ISVs) and OEMs are seeing increased demand and opportunity for Solaris 10. Since November 2004, more than 400 new ISVs, including the leading ISVs from EMEA and APAC, have committed to Solaris 10 through the “Ten Moves Ahead” Partner Initiative which provides technical, marketing and sales benefits to partners developing applications on Solaris 10. Additionally, to help customers and ISVs protect their investment in Solaris, Sun is the only vendor to offer an application guarantee that applies to binaries and source code. With more than 12,000 existing commercial applications today, Solaris has one of the most vibrant ecosystems in the industry. More than 700 business software partners have committed to delivering Solaris 10 applications by the end of this year.

“Strong customer demand has accelerated our support for Solaris 10,” said Sean Duclaux, director, Product Management and Infrastructure Management at BMC Software, Inc. “On the heels of Sun’s release of Solaris 10 to the public, we intend to extend PATROL’s already rich Solaris support to include Solaris 10.”

Sun Studio 10 Now Available for Download

Solaris developers can also take full advantage of the Sun Studio 10 development environment, now available for download from the Sun Web site. Sun Studio 10 makes it simple to get outstanding performance when developing C, C++ and FORTRAN applications for Solaris 10. The product provides a comprehensive environment for developing scalable 32- and 64-bit applications on Sun’s newest UltraSPARC(R), Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron processor-based systems. Sun Studio 10 software is fully compatible with previous releases, making it easy for users to upgrade.

To fully demonstrate the capability of Sun Studio 10 and Solaris 10 OS, Sun has submitted the new world record SPECompM2001 result in the two-way category. The SPEC OMPM2001 benchmark is a test of the performance of 11 High Performance Computing (HPC) applications. All C and FORTRAN applications in this suite use the OpenMP programming model and were compiled using the latest Sun Studio 10 development environment, which contributed to as much as a 20 percent boost in performance, when compared with previous Linux-based results published by Sun.

The new score also demonstrated that the Sun Fire V20z server eclipsed the recent IBM eServer OpenPower(TM) 710 server result by 14 percent. Not only did the Sun Fire V20z server outperform the Power5-based server running Linux, it also outperformed the server with half the number of parallel threads.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, OpenSolaris, Sun Fire, Java, J2SE 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 United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.

SPEC and the benchmark names SPEComp and SPECjbb are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive benchmark results reflect data published as of 02/01/05. For the latest benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/. The 2-way systems have 2 cores. The Sun Fire V20z server (2xAMD Opteron Model 250, Solaris 10): SPECompM2001 – 6033 (2 cores, 2 chips, 2 threads). The Sun Fire V40z server (2xAMD Opteron Model 850, SuSe Linux): SPECompM2001 – 5000 (2 cores, 2 chips, 2 threads). The IBM eServer OpenPower(tm) 710 (1.65 GHz POWER5, Linux): SPECompM2001 – 5282, 2 cores, 1 chip, 4 threads. Result is at: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/050124/079508.html The Sun Fire V20z server (1xAMD(tm) Opteron Model 250, Solaris 10): 39950 JBB operations per second (JBBops/s). The Sun Fire V20z server (2xAMD Opteron Model 250, Solaris 10): 61314 JBBops/s. The Sun Fire V40z server (4xAMD Opteron Model 850, Solaris 10): 107465 JBBops/s.