Find out about Sun's new 4-chip UltraSPARC T2 Plus system direct from the source: Sun's engineers.

Sun today announced the 4-chip variant of its UltraSPARC T2 Plus system, the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440. This new system is the big brother of the 2-chip Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 systems released in April 2008. Each UltraSPARC T2 Plus chip offers 8 hardware strands in each of 8 cores. With up to four UltraSPARC T2 Plus chips delivering a total of 32 cores and 256 hardware threads and up to 512Gbytes of memory in a compact 4U package, the T5440 raises the bar for server performance, price-performance, energy efficiency, and compactness. And with Logical Domains (LDoms) and Solaris Containers, the potential for server consolidation is compelling.

Standard configurations of the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 include 2- and 4-chip systems at 1.2 GHz, and a 4-chip system at 1.4 GHz. All of these configurations come with 8 cores per …

Sun engineers blog on the new multi-chip UltraSPARC T2 Plus systems

Today Sun is announcing new CMT-based systems, hard on the heels of the UltraSPARC T2 systems launched in October 2007 (the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 systems). Whereas previous Sun CMT systems were based around a single-socket UltraSPARC T1 or T2 processor, the new systems incorporate two processors, doubling the number of cores and the number of hardware threads compared to UltraSPARC T2-based systems. Each UltraSPARC T2 Plus chip includes 8 hardware strands in each of 8 cores, so the Operating System sees a total of 128 CPUs. The new systems deliver an unprecedented amount of CPU capacity in a package this size, as evidenced by the very …

Sun engineers blog on the new multi-chip UltraSPARC T2 Plus systems

Today Sun is announcing new CMT-based systems, hard on the heels of the UltraSPARC T2 systems launched in October 2007 (the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 systems). Whereas previous Sun CMT systems were based around a single-socket UltraSPARC T1 or T2 processor, the new systems incorporate two processors, doubling the number of cores and the number of hardware threads compared to UltraSPARC T2-based systems. Each UltraSPARC T2 Plus chip includes 8 hardware strands in each of 8 cores, so the Operating System sees a total of 128 CPUs. The new systems deliver an unprecedented amount of CPU capacity in a package this size, as evidenced by the very …

Sun engineers blog on the new multi-chip UltraSPARC T2 Plus systems

Today Sun is announcing new CMT-based systems, hard on the heels of the UltraSPARC T2 systems launched in October 2007 (the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 systems). Whereas previous Sun CMT systems were based around a single-socket UltraSPARC T1 or T2 processor, the new systems incorporate two processors, doubling the number of cores and the number of hardware threads compared to UltraSPARC T2-based systems. Each UltraSPARC T2 Plus chip includes 8 hardware strands in each of 8 cores, so the Operating System sees a total of 128 CPUs. The new systems deliver an unprecedented amount of CPU capacity in a package this size, as evidenced by the very …

Recently we put together a consolidation benchmark to see how an open-source stack performs against the proprietary stack from Microsoft. Solaris, MySQL, and Sun Web Server running on the open-source UltraSPARC T2 processor were pitted against a Microsoft SW stack running on a 4-socket QC Xeon server. This benchmark highlights the continued trend to incorporate MySQL open-source databases and how it works under virtualization (Solaris Zones).

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 (1.4 Ghz UltraSPARC T2 processor) and Solaris Containers managing a consolidation of Open-Source Software components (MySQL Database and Sun Java System Web Server) provided 2.4 times better performance than the HP DL580 system (four Xeon quad-core processors) and a major virtualization software, Microsoft Windows 2003 Server EE, Microsoft SQLserver database and Microsoft IIS webserver.

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 using the MySQL database in Solaris zones is …

Recently we put together a consolidation benchmark to see how an open-source stack performs against the proprietary stack from Microsoft. Solaris, MySQL, and Sun Web Server running on the open-source UltraSPARC T2 processor were pitted against a Microsoft SW stack running on a 4-socket QC Xeon server. This benchmark highlights the continued trend to incorporate MySQL open-source databases and how it works under virtualization (Solaris Zones).

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 (1.4 Ghz UltraSPARC T2 processor) and Solaris Containers managing a consolidation of Open-Source Software components (MySQL Database and Sun Java System Web Server) provided 2.4 times better performance than the HP DL580 system (four Xeon quad-core processors) and a major virtualization software, Microsoft Windows 2003 Server EE, Microsoft SQLserver database and Microsoft IIS webserver.

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 using the MySQL database in Solaris zones is …

Recently we put together a consolidation benchmark to see how an open-source stack performs against the proprietary stack from Microsoft. Solaris, MySQL, and Sun Web Server running on the open-source UltraSPARC T2 processor were pitted against a Microsoft SW stack running on a 4-socket QC Xeon server. This benchmark highlights the continued trend to incorporate MySQL open-source databases and how it works under virtualization (Solaris Zones).

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 (1.4 Ghz UltraSPARC T2 processor) and Solaris Containers managing a consolidation of Open-Source Software components (MySQL Database and Sun Java System Web Server) provided 2.4 times better performance than the HP DL580 system (four Xeon quad-core processors) and a major virtualization software, Microsoft Windows 2003 Server EE, Microsoft SQLserver database and Microsoft IIS webserver.

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 using the MySQL database in Solaris zones is …

As days goes by, more and more multi-core systems are popping up everywhere. Infact, with the advent of the new 4-socket quad-core Sun Fire X4450 , 16-core systems are soon becoming common out there.

However,personally, I think these systems are still underutilized from their true potentials.  Of course virtualization is a way of increasing the utilization but  that is like working around the symptoms and not fixing the real problems. Software Applications fundamentally has lagged behind the microprocessor innovations. Operating Systems too have lagged behind too. Solaris, however advanced opertating system has still lot to achieve in this area. For example, yes the kernel is multi-threaded, yes it can scale well easily to 100s of cores but that scaling is generally achieved by creating copies of the process (or multiple connections or multiple threads however you look at it) at the APPLICATION level.  One area however …

Sun engineers give the inside scoop on the new UltraSPARC T2 systems

[ Update Jan 2008: Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers were awarded Product of the Year 2007. ]

Sun launched the Chip-Level MultiThreading (CMT) era back in December 2005 with the release of the highly successful UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) chip, featured in the Sun Fire T2000 and T1000 systems. With 8 cores, each with 4 hardware strands (or threads), these systems presented 32 CPUs and delivered an unprecedented amount of processing power in compact, eco-friendly packaging. The systems were referred to as CoolThreads servers because of their low power and cooling requirements.

Today Sun introduces the …

Sun engineers give the inside scoop on the new UltraSPARC T2 systems

[ Update Jan 2008: Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers were awarded Product of the Year 2007. ]

Sun launched the Chip-Level MultiThreading (CMT) era back in December 2005 with the release of the highly successful UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) chip, featured in the Sun Fire T2000 and T1000 systems. With 8 cores, each with 4 hardware strands (or threads), these systems presented 32 CPUs and delivered an unprecedented amount of processing power in compact, eco-friendly packaging. The systems were referred to as CoolThreads servers because of their low power and cooling requirements.

Today Sun introduces the …