14th July 2008

Today, Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems have released new SPARC Enterprise models M9000, M8000, M5000 and M4000 based on quad core SPARC64 VII processors.

Use of quad cores and max. 2.52 GHz clock rate allows SPARC Enterprise with SPARC64 VII to deliver around 1.8 times the performance of systems based on SPARC64 VI. Continuing the high reliability environments of SPARC64 VI, fostered in mainframes, and with the higher performance of quad core processors, SPARC Enterprise continues to be the optimal mission critical server.

Use of SPARC64 VII also shrinks the energy use of SPARC Enterprise. Its higher energy efficiency compared with SPARC64 VI means power consumption per core is reduced by 44 %, and power consumption per server by 44%.

SPARC Enterprise also protects customer investments by allowing upgrade from SPARC64VI to SPARC64 VII just be adding SPARC64 VII CPU modules.

With superior performance, reliability, energy savings, and investment protection, SPARC Enterprise maintains it position as the cost effective long term solution to mission critical operation.

Accelerated Business : 1.8 times performance of existing models

Use of 65 nm technology allows SPARC64 VII to provide quad cores in almost the same physical space as existing dual core processors. The result is much superior performance and greatly improved cost efficiency.

Thread counts have also doubled, with dual threads per core (that run in parallel) making very efficient use of each core. Referred to as Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) these core mechanisms are a major enhancement over the Vertical Multithreading (VMT ) implemented on SPARC64 VI.

Use of SPARC64 VII also takes SPARC Enterprise M9000 scalability up to 256 cores and 512 threads; this has also resulted in a gain of 1.8 times the performance over existing high-end models. (*1)

Continuous Business : Reliability derived from mainframes

SPARC64 VII has the same outstanding RAS technology heritage found in Fujitsu mainframes systems. With error detection and recovery mechanisms in all processor circuits, systems halts due to processor error can be avoided. In addition some 3400 data validation circuits in the SPARC64 VII processor support SPARC Enterprise’s high reliability profile.

SPARC Enterprise incorporates multiple levels of reliability functions, covering all system modules and circuits. This ensures high availability across the entire server. Data protection mechanisms are embedded in processors and memories. Redundancy, hot replacement and downgrading of almost all the components further improves server availability. Total system level reliability, including applications, middleware and storage can be further improved using PRIMECLUSTER.

Green Business : Energy saving and investment protection -

Quad core SPARC64 VII processors can be incorporated with dual core SPARC64 VI processors in the same server and even the same partitions. Using this outstanding technological compatibility, existing SPARC Enterprise servers can be upgraded to quad core based systems just by the addition of SPARC64 VII processor modules. By such efficient use of existing servers and the performance improvements that can be achieved, customer IT investments are well protected.

Customers can enjoy performance improvement while protecting their IT investment by upgrading existing servers adding the new processors.

With SPARC64 VII, power consumption per core has been shrunk by 44%. Overall power consumption per server has also been reduced by 44 % for the same performance level. SPARC Enterprise is therefore able to improve performance and shrink power use on a grand scale. (*2)

The availability and flexibility of SPARC Enterprise Mid-range and High-end models make them outstanding server consolidation platforms. Faulty isolation using hardware partitioning further raises server availability and accommodates the running of multiples of systems in each server. Further, Solaris Containers make it possible to allot server resources flexibly, according to workload changes, during server operation. Plus, the doubling of cores, to a maximum of 256, extends scalability for even greater server consolidation capability.
Such dense server consolidation capability not only shrinks operational costs and software licenses, but also shrinks energy consumption and data center space.

SPARC Enterprise Mid-range and High-end models take on board both Fujitsu’s mission critical technologies and Sun’s open server technologies. The result is the ability to meet the highest performance and reliability demands of the largest businesses. In addition, environmental impact can be minimized with even lower power consumption per system performance than ever before. This makes SPARC Enterprise the optimal server for eco-conscious customers, as well.

---

---