Sun renews itself to defend against rivals

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): They say there is nothing new under the sun, but Sun Microsystems has found that it has to come up with a lot of new things in order to defend itself against rivals IBM and HP, as well as Microsoft. And it has to do it quickly, as news of the memory problems of its previous servers -- which hung frequently for no apparent reason -- threatens to taint its image as a technology pioneer.

Last December, for example, Sun introduced its latest processor, Sun UltraSPARC III, to the Indonesian market. Incidentally, the first UltraSPARC processor was introduced as a 32-bit processor in 1987, and UltraSPARC III is the second generation of Sun's 64-bit processor. Apparently, Sun has some legitimate reasons for being proud of this processor. In a press release last week, it reported that it had received the MicroDesign Resources (MDR) Microprocessor Report 2001 Analysts Choice Award in the Best Server/Workstation processor category for UltraSPARC III.

Unlike the Pentium processors from Intel or the Athlon from AMD, the UltraSPARC is not meant for a desktop PC that you use to run word processor, spreadsheet and Internet browser software. With initial clock speeds of 600, 750 and 900 MHz, it may seem a much slower processor compared with the 1.5 GHz Pentium 4, but the UltraSPARC is meant to drive servers in networked environments. An UltraSPARC III processor contains 29 million transistors. It does not run on Windows, it runs Solaris, Sun's own version of the UNIX operating system.

To match the scalability of the Pentium processors, the UltraSPARC III can now be used in the hundreds and Sun boasts that they will all have the capability to address a single coherent memory domain. This means that the more processors are added, the larger the overall system memory will be.

Sun talks about the Net Effect, which is basically what we know as the impact of the Internet on our lives -- how we work, play and learn. The latest processor and its accompanying technologies are meant to reinforce Sun's penetration into the Internet world. It may be a little bit too late, as the Wintel platform has been gaining a lot of ground on the same turf.

New Server & Workstation

During last month's launch at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta, Sun also introduced a server that used the new processor, the Sun Fire 280 R server. There is no standard nomenclature in the industry, but the "R" at the end of a server's model name usually indicates that the machine is to be placed on a rack. Such servers are also called "rackable" or "rack mountable", and this is a common way to solve space limitations in corporate data centers.

The Sun Fire 280 R uses one or two UltraSPARC III processors with a clock speed of 750 MHz. As a machine targeted for the Web, e-commerce or Internet gateway servers, it also came with 8 MB of cache memory, a high-speed I/O subsystem and two hard disks that were connected through Fiber Channel connection to the system. You may recall that Fiber Channel is a newer standard for linking peripherals to a system, and it provides faster data transfer speeds than the more commonly used SCSI. It is also very expensive, and therefore it is not very common to find it on an entry-level server such as Sun Fire 280 R.

As consumers and users, we like competition. And, because Sun has to compete with Intel-based servers, which have been rapidly gaining in popularity, the company claims the price of this server is comparable to PC servers. Well, at a starting price of US$10,000, it may be comparable to a high-end PC server.

During the same event, Sun also introduced a workstation that used the UltraSPARC III processor, the Sun Blade 1000. Sun claims that it controls 60 percent of the UNIX workstation market worldwide. These are very powerful computers for people who create technical designs, simulation, etc. Like the new Sun Fire server, the Sun Blade 1000 workstation, which costs from $9,995 and up, also uses Fiber Channel hard disks. It can be fitted with 8 GB of memory, and if you add an extra processor both will run at their respective clock speeds. In this high-performance workstation segment, Sun is definitely competing with Silicon Graphics, another big name in powerful workstations.

To increase the number of processors beyond the two accommodated in a single server or workstation, additional software called Sun Grid Engine is needed. This software will be required, for example, to build a server farm involving 100 processors. The software was also part of Sun's launch last month in Jakarta.

Sun Microsystems traditionally has been known for its high-end and expensive servers and workstations. Today it has no choice but to work hard to lower the prices of its servers, as servers based on the Intel architecture have been gaining acceptance as a reliable, scalable and, most importantly, cost efficient alternative for the Internet and enterprise. With the price of a fully loaded Sun Fire 280 R reaching $89,995, it seems that Sun still has quite a long way to go. Besides, the philosophy that it is better to trust your hardware and software requirements to one single reliable vendor is now being challenged as people are finding cheaper choices with equal reliability, scalability and ease of maintenance in Intel-based servers.

Fortunately, Sun has taken some significant steps in several areas. Its Solaris 8 operating system, for instance, is available free of charge (you will have to pay $75.00 for the media and shipping costs). A version of Solaris 8 can be run on a PC. Incidentally, if you want to use a word processor that can read and write Word-compatible documents but you do not want to use a pirated Microsoft Office product, you can download StarOffice 5.2 from Sun's website (www.sun.com/staroffice/get.html). You can choose the right version for your operating system -- Solaris, Linux or Windows. This application suite is free and it has all the basic functions that you may need. (zatni@cbn.net.id)