Co-Developed “SPARC Enterprise” Servers to Be Co-Marketed by Fujitsu and Sun
April 17, 2007
Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today unveiled a new line-up of co-developed servers that hold the promise of dramatically reshaping the computing market by delivering mainframe-class reliability with open systems advantages. The new servers, based on the SPARC® architecture and running the Solaris(TM) 10 operating system (OS), are the fastest SPARC servers ever, and will be marketed by both companies and affiliates under the “SPARC Enterprise” product brand. The systems are ideal for customers requiring highly scaleable, reliable servers, and needing to achieve increased system utilization and performance through virtualization. The servers leverage the powerful combination of Fujitsu’s expertise in mission-critical computing technologies and high-performance processor design, and Sun’s expertise in open, scaleable, network computing.
The SPARC Enterprise server line-up is the culmination of over two years of joint development between Fujitsu and Sun, building on their 20-year strategic relationship. The new servers address the growing customer need to maximize system utilization by offering an array of highly granular partitioning and domaining technologies. The SPARC Enterprise servers are also designed to ensure minimal downtime. They contain mainframe-class RAS (Reliability, Availability, Serviceability) features such as hot-swappable components (which includes memory and processors), redundant hardware, instruction retry, memory mirroring and extensive diagnostic and healing capabilities.
To protect customers’ existing datacenter investments, Sun guarantees 100% Solaris binary compatibility. This means Fujitsu’s PRIMEPOWER or Sun’s Sun Fire server customers can adopt the new SPARC Enterprise platform with ease and confidence, enabling them to continue to use the broad range of proven Solaris applications (the No. 1 share in the UNIX market) from the world’s top ISV/IHV providers.
“These new systems help customers tackle the world’s most challenging computing problems, whether in the back office or in high-performance computing,” said John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun’s Systems group. “And they achieve this performance while delivering mainframe reliability with the unmatched virtualization capabilities that Solaris customers expect.”
“The combination of Fujitsu’s mission-critical computing technology and Sun’s Solaris in the new SPARC Enterprise server line-up, enables us to deliver maximum business value to our customers,” said Chiaki Ito, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President, Fujitsu Limited. “Not only will they see outstanding performance, smarter resource management and reduced administrative intervention, but unparalleled levels of quality and scalability, that mean increased longevity of use and improved business growth potential.”
The new servers are already demonstrating their performance leadership. The SPARC Enterprise M8000 (16 processors, 32 cores, 64 threads) with SPARC64 VI 2.4 GHz processor running SAP ERP 2005, Oracle® Database 10g and Solaris 10 set a new world-record for the SAP SD 2-tier standard application benchmark for systems with 16 processors as of 04/17/07, achieving 7,300 SD benchmark users.*
New SPARC Enterprise Servers
The new SPARC Enterprise servers will include six models. Entry models use the UltraSPARC(TM) T1 processor developed by Sun Microsystems. Mid-range and high-end models use the SPARC64 VI processor developed by Fujitsu. These systems deliver up to 50 percent more performance than current SPARC-based servers. All the new servers run the Solaris 10 operating system.
Both Fujitsu branded and Sun branded SPARC Enterprise servers will be marketed worldwide. All other features are identical. The systems are available today.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting device technologies, highly reliable computing and communications products, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers’ success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of about 4.8 trillion yen (US$40.6 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006. See http://www.fujitsu.com for further information.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris and the Network is the Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in 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.
*The SAP SD standard SAP ERP 2005 application benchmark performed on March 28, 2007 by Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems in Walldorf, Germany has been certified with the following data:
Number of benchmark users & comp.: 7,300 SD (Sales & Distribution) Average dialog response time: 1.98 seconds Throughput: Fully Processed Order Line items/hour: 731,330 Dialog steps/hour: 2,194,000 SAPS: 36,570 Average DB request time (dia/upd): 0.018 sec / 0.041 sec CPU utilization of central server: 99% Operating System central server: Solaris 10 RDBMS: Oracle 10g SAP ECC Release: 6.0 Configuration: Central server: SPARC Enterprise Server Model M8000, 16 processors / 32 cores / 64 threads, SPARC64 VI, 2.4 GHz, 256 KB L1 cache per core, 6 MB L2 cache per processor, 256 GB main memory
The SAP certification number was not available at press time and can be found at the following web page: www.sap.com/benchmark.