Sun
cracks 1GHz with new chips
Sun Microsystems Inc. has passed the 1GHz
barrier with its UltraSparc III chips and will begin shipping
workstations early next year with the speedier processors, the company
announced Monday.
The latest benchmark results from Sun
show the UltraSparc III Cu 1050 processor running at 1.05GHz, the
company said in a statement. The new chips are 17 percent faster than
those currently shipping in Sun servers.
Sun has gradually upgraded its entire
server line with 900MHz UltraSparc III's. The company earlier added the
900MHz on its high-end Sun Fire 15K and started shipping midrange
servers with the 900MHz chips this month. The vendor is now looking to
boost speeds even higher to offer users more processing power and to
better compete against the likes of IBM Corp.
IBM has a large performance lead over its
rivals with the company shipping Power4 processors running at either
1.1GHz or 1.3GHz in its high-end servers, said Nathan Brookwood,
principal analyst with Insight 64 in Saratoga, California. While it has
fallen behind the competition, Sun should be able to hold on to
customers with the speed bump to its chips, he said.
"To a large extent, folks who are
already using (Sun's) Solaris will find that upgrading to new versions
of the chip is always going to be easier than shifting everything over
to (IBM's) AIX operating system," Brookwood said. "Sun is
working to keep its current customer set happy and make sure the
customers don't have a reason to move."
Still, both Sun and Hewlett-Packard Co.
have a ways to go before they can compete with IBM's latest chips,
Brookwood said.
"IBM absolutely shattered everything
when they came out with the Power4," he said.
