October 9, 2007 - Today, Sun introduces the first servers and blades based on the state-of-the-art, multithreaded UltraSPARC T2 processor. The new Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers and the Sun Blade T6320 server module provide the power and density of 64 systems in a single unit—that's 2500 systems in a rack, theoretically—and employ an innovative design that delivers Web-scale performance, built-in virtualization, advanced system utilization, and industry-leading energy efficiency.

Different by Design

This announcement continues a tradition of design innovation that has resulted in the introductions of the UltraSPARC T1 processor, one of the highest throughput chips ever created, the UltraSPARC T2 processor, the world's first system on a chip, and Project Blackbox, the world's first virtualized datacenter.

The new Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers and the Sun Blade T6320 server module are the result of a unified approach to system design that spans Sun's x64 and chip multithreading (CMT) architectures and delivers virtualization capabilities, Web-scale performance, and energy efficiency throughout the product line, enabling Sun to extend our multithreaded leadership from the operating system to the processor to the network.

Built-In Virtualization

When you combine the new servers with the Solaris Operating System (OS), you get a highly cost-effective platform for virtualization. Logical Domains (LDoms), Sun's unique server virtualization and partitioning technology, is designed into the new systems, enabling you to run multiple operating systems simultaneously, saving on capital expenses. On the software side, Solaris Containers, which are included for free in the Solaris OS, can virtualize and consolidate hundreds of applications on a single system, enabling you to reduce the number of systems you need to manage and save on power, space, and cooling.

Web-Scale Performance

Powered by the 64-thread UltraSPARC T2 processor, which combines the industry's lowest power consumption with double the cores, sixteen times the threads, and four times the throughput of competitive offerings, the new CoolThreads servers deliver massive gains in performance while cutting space, power, and cooling costs. With the capability of 64 threads, these new systems can scale at a moment's notice to meet the unpredictable peaks in demand of today's Web environment.

"These new servers more than double the performance of previous generation servers and deliver much higher density and the industry's best performance per watt," said Lisa Sieker, Sun's vice president of marketing for Sun's Systems and Storage Group.

With up to 320 cores and over 5000 threads per rack, and up to 128GB of memory, these new servers improve rack performance and deliver twelve times the bandwidth of competitive servers, eliminating I/O bottlenecks and driving faster network access.

These breakthrough systems follow the recent introduction of next-generation Intel Xeon processor-based servers that offer industry-leading resource utilization, scalability, and energy efficiency for x86 servers.