The hottest topic at Sun's recent Worldwide Analyst Conference was our new microprocessor plan. Peter Glaskowsky, editor of The Microprocessor Report, called it "the most ambitious processor roadmap I've ever seen in my life." So why should you care? Because the way a chip is designed can have a huge impact on your bottom line.

At Sun, we're taking processors in a new direction because traditional designs have reached the point of diminishing returns. They run faster and hotter, but don't get a lot more work done. In fact, the industry's dirty little secret is that microprocessors spend most of their time — up to 75 percent — just waiting around.

I'm not talking about your personal computer waiting for you to type something; I'm talking about network servers with plenty to do — they just can't get to it. The reason? They're waiting for the computer's memory to fetch the required data.

The processors Sun is developing solve that major obstacle. Instead of waiting for memory, each of the processor's multiple cores will simply start processing another thread. It's really a radically simple notion — replacing wasted wait cycles with useful work — but just think what that can do for throughput. Systems will be able run tens of threads at a time, exponentially increasing the amount of data processed each second.

Within two years, we intend to deliver blade processors with 15 times the throughput of today's blades. Moving beyond 2005, we are scheduled to ship system processors that will do 30 times as much.

Of course, throughput computing requires more than microprocessors. To be effective, chip multithreading (CMT) systems need to be managed by a highly thread-capable operating environment such as the Solaris™ Operating System — which makes Sun uniquely positioned to deliver on the throughput computing vision.

What does this all mean for customers? Significant performance improvements. Reduction in equipment costs. Floor-space savings as you use fewer servers to get more work done, not to mention all the extra boards, connectors, wires, and cables you won't need. Even reduction in power usage, cooling, and maintenance costs. But most important, you get reliability.

The bottom line: Companies will need fewer systems to handle the same workloads — and that will drive down costs, leading to radical reductions in total cost of ownership.

For more information, please contact execboardroom@sun.com.