Frequently Asked Questions

We believe competitive advantage comes from three key components of our strategy:

1. Because we design the key pieces of our intellectual property, like UltraSPARC processors and the Solaris Operating Environment (OE) together with our system, we optimize our processors specifically to meet the demands of the applications intended for that system.

   Sun Fire high-end servers run the UltraSPARC III processor, which is tailored for applications like data warehousing, CRM or ERP applications. The transistor budget for this processor is spent on design requirements like RAS, massive scalability, and record-setting performance.

   Sun Fire entry-level servers are single-processor rack mounted dense 1RU servers, where our UltraSPARC processors are optimized to offer features like low power consumption, lower cooling requirements, integrated PCI and memory controllers to minimize circuit board real estate requirements and reduce chip count, lower cost and increased reliability.

2. Because SPARC processors provide binary compatibility across generations and platforms, customers benefit from unparalleled investment protection and flexibility
   • For over 15 years and across multiple microprocessor generations including today's 3rd generation 64-bit UltraSPARC III microprocessor and beyond, SPARC processors are binary compatible.
   • Across multiple platforms of Sun systems, from ultra-thin, rack-mountable servers priced under $1000 to massive, high-integrity systems in configurations costing as much as $10 million, SPARC processors are binary compatible.

   For example, UltraSPARC III processor-based systems will execute the same application binaries that run on all previous SPARC-based processors, so our customers can protect their investments in software development, staff training and upgrade strategy. A customer can easily upgrade an MRP system to a new Sun server with more capacity, knowing no software modifications are needed and seamlessly re-deploy the existing server to other tasks.

3. Because the SPARC/Solaris platform has one of the strongest development communities in the industry, customers benefit from industry leading software. The Sun Developer Connection developer program now includes more than two million members, which helps ensure a steady stream of new applications and web-based services running on Sun's UltraSPARC and Solaris-based systems.

   Fundamentally SPARC = competitive advantage. We spend transistors on solving real customer problems. We balance performance, throughput, RAS, integrated features, scalability, power consumption, and cost to meet the specific needs for targeted applications.

Sun is obsessed with binary compatibility. Only Sun offers 15 years of binary compatibility across multiple processor generations and multiple platforms. Sun maintains compatibility so our customers can protect their investments in software, staff training and processes as well as the SPARC/Solaris platforms.

Most IT managers will tell you hardware is a small fraction of the total cost of ownership. One way UltraSPARC processors help control the largest cost drivers and reduce the total cost of ownership is by allowing the customer to determine when they move to a new version of an application. When a customer builds their business on the UltraSPARC processor platform, they can confidently invest in software development, staff training and their upgrade strategy. Customers benefit from improved performance, capacity and reliability from new systems without having to upgrade or recompile the application software because the SPARC architecture provides scalability and binary compatibility.

UltraSPARC III-based systems offer customers investment protection with enterprise-class RAS, unparalleled scalability and best-in-class performance per watt, mixed speeds in a chassis, thermal and electrical footprint preservation enabling simple upgrade paths.

Sun's strategy is to balance the need for increased frequency with other key differentiating attributes such as RAS, performance, throughput, scalability, memory architectural improvements, power consumption and cost. This strategy results in Sun systems that are optimized to meet, or exceed, customer expectations providing real-world performance on real-world applications all at a low total cost of ownership (TCO).