Sun Introduces The Most Open And Versatile Enterprise Blade Platform

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today introduced the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System, which redefines the datacenter lifecycle with up to double the memory and double the I/O capacity of competing blades and rackmount servers. The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System offers a choice of blades powered by the UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology, Intel Xeon processors or AMD Opteron processors, allowing customers to deploy the industry's broadest range of applications ranging from virtualization, database, web tier and high performance computing (HPC) on a single common modular design.


The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System provides customers the most versatility of any blade platform. It uses the industry's highest performing microprocessors from Sun, Intel and AMD, and provides support for Solaris, Windows and Linux operating systems. Its increased memory capacity and I/O bandwidth makes Sun Blade 6000 the optimal virtualization platform, enabling it to support large memory configurations at half the cost. In addition, the new systems have been designed to maximize customer investment by supporting microprocessors with four and eight cores. All this enables the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System to run virtually any enterprise application.

"With the three fastest processor platforms, three operating systems, the most memory and I/O bandwidth, Sun is delivering a system that enables customers to upgrade to virtualized blade platforms without the expense or technical compromises presented by all our competitors," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Sun Systems Group. "We are now offering the broadest support of volume architecture and operating systems in the industry - combined with the energy efficiency. The Sun Blade 6000 can be anyone's universal deployment platform."

As the industry's most open blade platform, the Sun Blade 6000 easily integrates into existing datacenter infrastructure and management systems, without requiring proprietary I/O, proprietary management or hidden licensing costs. System features and support for the Solaris 10 OS, Windows and Linux ensure optimal performance today, while allowing customers to scale for future growth without forklift upgrades.

The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System includes the following components and features:

• Sun Blade 10 RU chassis: Supports up to 10 blades per chassis with up to four chassis per rack for a full capacity of to up to 320 cores, 2.5 terabytes (TB) of memory and five Tbps usable I/O throughput per rack


• Sun Blade T6300 Server Module: 1-socket blade powered by an UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology


• Sun Blade X6250 server module: 2-socket quad-core ready blade powered by Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series, representing Sun's first Intel Xeon-based product since Sun and Intel announced their strategic alliance last January, and Sun's first quad-core based product.


• Sun Blade X6220 Server Module: 2-socket blade powered by Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors


• No-compromise power and cooling technology: Delivers optimized cooling and airflow, resulting in higher systems reliability and power efficiency


• Open industry standard I/O: Leverages industry standard PCI-Express I/O architecture and adapters, allowing customers to install or replace an I/O module without interfering with systems operation


• Open transparent management: Supports the most standard interfaces to facilitate fast and easy integration into customers' existing blade or rackmount management infrastructure, whether those management tools are from Sun or other vendors

Early access and beta customers such as College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and the University of Notre Dame have begun to test and implement Sun Blade 6000 Modular Systems in their datacenters. For quotes and more details on customer and ISV support of the Sun Blade 6000, please visit: http://sun.com/servers/blades/perspectives.jsp

Sun Blade Server Modules Set Multiple New World Records on a Broad Range of Industry Standard Benchmarks

The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System also packs a performance punch with its comprehensive choice of versatile server modules. Regardless of the underlying microprocessor architecture, the innovative system design combined with the latest capabilities of the Sun Studio 12 software running on top of the Solaris 10 OS propelled these new blades to the top of industry-recognized Java, HPC and compute-intensive benchmarks. Additional details on these record-breaking results can be found at: http://www.sun.com/servers/blades/6000/benchmarks

Sun Refresh Service: Build an "Always Fresh" Datacenter

The Sun Refresh Service now includes the Sun Blade X6220 Server Module, allowing customers to reach maximum performance and efficiency from their datacenters on an ongoing basis at half the cost of traditional acquisition methods. Future support is planned for the other server modules. The subscription service program includes installation of the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System with server modules, plus three refreshes of server modules over a 42-month period. Customers receive automatic upgrades to the latest blade architecture as soon as it becomes available. For more information on the Sun Refresh Service, please visit: http://www.sun.com/refreshservice. For information on additional Sun services and solutions that help datacenters and Sun Blade servers optimize their performance and efficiency, please visit: http://www.sun.com/services

Availability and Pricing

The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System is available now, with entry-level pricing starting at $4,995 for the Sun Blade 6000 Chassis; $5,995 per server module for the Sun Blade T6300; $3,695 per server module for the Sun Blade X6250; and $3,995 per server module for the Sun Blade X6220. For more information on the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System, including pricing, availability and promotions, please visit: http://www.sun.com/servers/blades/6000/