Sun Showcases Next Generation Open Petascale Computing and Storage at Supercomputing 2007

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced two new systems designed to address the extreme computation, scale and storage requirements of today's HPC customer. The Sun Constellation System - the world's first open petascale computing environment - combines ultra-dense, high performance compute, networking, storage and software into an integrated general purpose system. Running the Solaris Operating System (OS), Linux and Windows, the Sun Constellation System is capable of scaling from departmental clusters to the largest supercomputer configurations to help customers to solve complex computational problems. The Sun StorageTek 5800 System is designed to help ensure long-term preservation, protection and integrity of massive data stores with extensive metadata facilities.


"With today's announcements, we've designed and are delivering the next big thing – open compute and storage platforms in an extremely scalable architecture that brings the power of industrial grade computing to department level clusters and all the way up to the petaflop environments," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems.



Sun will demonstrate a range of HPC products, services and solutions from servers to software to file systems to storage and archival tape at the Supercomputing 2007 conference in Reno, NV, as well as the systems announced today:

Sun Constellation System

The Sun Constellation System is the world's most scalable HPC computing architecture based on open standards and industry standard components. Scaling from departmental level clusters to systems capable of petascale level computing, the system features ultra-dense compute nodes, ultra-dense Infiniband switching and high performance storage.

Sun Constellation System comprises the following innovative components, bringing production-ready capabilities to petascale computing:

Sun Blade 6048 Modular System - An ultra dense blade server platform which supports SPARC, AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon processors and runs industry standard OS'es including Solaris and Linux.
Sun Datacenter Switch 3456 - world's first single chassis switch designed for petascale, delivers 12x the capacity of the largest Infiniband switch available today, enables the Sun Constellation System to require 1/6 the number of cables of competitive systems and simplifies the design and management of high performance clusters by reducing the number of Infiniband switching elements by up to 300:1.
High-throughput, high-density storage and high capacity tape archive in a unique end-to-end hierarchical storage solution with automated and seamless transfer supporting optimal placement of data.
New Sun Datacenter Express Services for HPC that can be combined with factory integration services and design through Sun's Customer Ready program provide a comprehensive, all-in-one systems and services solution that takes the cost and complexity out of HPC infrastructure procurement and management.
To learn more about the Sun Constellation System go to: www.sun.com/sunconstellationsystem

The Sun Constellation System will be demonstrated on-stage at the Sun Microsystems booth 514 at 11:00 a.m. PST on both Tuesday, Nov. 13 and Thursday, Nov. 15.

Sun StorageTek 5800 System

The Sun StorageTek 5800 System is a new category of storage system designed for large-scale storage of fixed data. The first commercially available fixed content storage system with a commitment to open source its code, the Sun StorageTek 5800 System helps ensure long-term accessibility to data and delivers simpler deployment and management capabilities than traditional file/block-based storage. The Sun StorageTek 5800 System allows customers to scale seamlessly, saving millions in administrative costs. Designed for long-term preservation and protection of data assets, the system helps protect against data corruption and loss with advanced data integrity functionality and assurances.

Check out the market's positive response to the Sun StorageTek 5800 System: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-11/sunflash.20071112.2.xml

To learn more about the Sun StorageTek 5800 System: http://www.sun.com/storagetek/disk_systems/enterprise/5800/index.xml

The Sun StorageTek 5800 system will be demonstrated on-stage at the Sun Microsystems booth 514 at 3:00 p.m. PST on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Sun at Supercomputing 2007

For more information on Sun Constellation System and the other innovative products that Sun is showcasing at Supercomputing 2007, including ROCKS on Solaris, Solaris for HPC, the Lustre Parallel File System and the new HPC Developer Community on OpenSolaris.org, visit: www.sun.com/hpc or visit the Sun booths# 514 and #2840 at Supercomputing 2007 for live demonstrations. Sun's Supercomputing 2007 online press kit can be found at: www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/2007-1112/index.jsp.

ESPN and Microsoft Offer Sporting Events and Programming On Demand for Xbox 360

ESPN and Microsoft Corp. today announced an agreement that will add high- and standard-definition full-length games, television shows and video game programming to Xbox LIVE, the online games and entertainment network on Xbox 360. Effective immediately, fans of all ages can access a growing catalog of marquee sporting events and timely programming, including full-length NCAA college football and basketball games, Summer X Games 13, “World Series of Poker,” “The Contender,” “Madden Nation” and much more on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the leading high-definition video download service.

“Establishing this relationship with Microsoft on Xbox 360 provides an innovative way to reach our target demographic through this dynamic next-generation entertainment console,” said Matt Murphy, senior vice president, Digital Video Distribution, Disney and ESPN Media Networks. “This agreement embodies our mission to deliver the best sports content to fans, and does it through an exciting and robust platform that reaches millions of people.”

Through this agreement, Xbox LIVE users can download a variety of popular events and shows available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace each week, highlighted by the best matchups from the world of college football and basketball.

For video gamers, ESPN content on Xbox LIVE will include the 2006 and 2007 seasons of “Madden Nation,” an ESPN reality series taking fans inside the world of Madden NFL football competitive gaming. Additional programming will include the 2007 “World Series of Poker,” the 2007 season of “The Contender,” the full-length high-definition surfing documentary “Down the Barrel” and some of the best college football bowl games.

“This is a natural fit for us, as so many Xbox 360 owners are huge sports fans,” said Ross Honey, senior director of the media and entertainment group at Microsoft. “We are dedicated to providing our diverse community of Xbox LIVE users the premium entertainment content they want, and partnering with ESPN is a great example of our continued dedication in the video-on-demand space, especially in high definition.”

Currently offering more than 3,200 hours of premium entertainment content from more than 30 studios and networks, Xbox LIVE Marketplace is the only online service offering downloadable movies and TV shows in high definition. More information about the great ESPN content being offered on the service is available at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/?WT.svl=nav.

About ESPN

ESPN, Inc. is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company with over 50 business entities. Sports media assets include ESPN on ABC, six domestic cable television networks, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and other growing businesses, including ESPN360.com (Broadband), ESPN Mobile Products (wireless), ESPN On Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV.

About Xbox 360

Xbox 360 is a superior video game and entertainment system delivering the best games, unique entertainment features and a unified online gaming network that revolve around gamers. Xbox 360 will have a portfolio of more than 300 games and will be available in nearly 40 countries by the end of 2007. More information can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/xbox360.

About Xbox LIVE

Xbox LIVE is the first and most comprehensive unified online entertainment network seamlessly integrated throughout the entire console experience, making it easy for people to find the friends, games and entertainment they want from the moment they power on their Xbox 360 system. Xbox LIVE connects millions of members across 25 countries to enjoy hundreds of multiplayer games, downloadable games via Xbox LIVE Arcade, free and premium playable game demos, music videos, TV shows and movies in the United States as well as new game levels, characters and vehicles for all their favorite retail games. More information can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live.