More smoke&hype than beef in SunMicro's land
Microsoft and Intel, meanwhile, continue to chip away at the market for
generally more powerful Unix servers. Microsoft Product Manager Michael
Gould, who helps oversee the company's Windows 2000 operating system,
argues that eight-CPU servers are now a fixture in the "Wintel" landscape
and that Intel chips cost less and advance faster than Sun's.
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NEW MIDRANGE SERVERS KEY TO SUN'S MARKET SHARE 03.23.01
COMMERCIAL NEWS HPCwire
==============================================================================
Stephen Shankland reported for CNET News.com: Sun Microsystems will unveil
four new midrange Unix servers Wednesday, a critical milestone in the
company's drawn-out effort to move its product line to UltraSparc III chips
and stave off reinvigorated competition from IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
The servers will come with eight, 12 or 24 CPUs and incorporate high-end
features previously available only in the current top-end 64-processor
E10000, said Shahin Khan, head of server marketing for Sun. The new
machines will range in price from about $80,000 to well over $500,000 and
will likely account for the bulk of Sun's sales, Khan said.
The servers are key for Sun. The Palo Alto, Calif., company caught IBM, HP
and Compaq Computer flat-footed by selling products in droves to Internet
companies and big businesses, but the competition has been fighting back
fiercely.
HP's Superdome and IBM's p680 have arrived to compete with Sun's E10000. HP
is working on new midrange server products coming later this year.
IBM also has been working behind the scenes to recruit administrators
familiar with Sun technology. Under its AIX for Solaris Administrators
Project, IBM has been teaching Sun customers how to migrate to IBM's
technology. Approximately 1,000 administrators have graduated from the
stealth program.
According to IBM, the program has helped the company nab $150 million worth
of business. In addition, the company has reorganized its product line and
management to dim Sun's prospects.
Besides fighting its competitors, Sun has had to grapple with a spate of
delays. The UltraSparc III processor arrived about a year late, and the
schedule for releasing the servers has slipped several times.
Better late than never
But now Sun is getting back in gear. "Sun doesn't get the next generation
out nearly as fast as they should or as fast as they tell you they will,"
said Illuminata analyst Jonathan Eunice. "But when they get into a good
groove, they tend to have the processor and server humming on the same
frequency. I think we're coming into that period again."
While Sun may be getting its new product line into shape, the overall
market hasn't been doing well. The Internet effect -- spawning start-ups and
new initiatives at traditional companies -- has waned in importance, and
slumping server sales have hurt Sun, HP, Intel and others.
Servers handle such critical computing tasks as keeping track of Macy's
sales or sending out eBay's Web pages. The market for servers increased 7
percent from $56 billion in 1999 to $60 billion in 2000, according to
market research firm IDC.
The new systems -- the eight-processor 3800, the 12-processor 4800 and 4810,
and the 24-processor 6800 -- all come with a technology called "partitioning"
that lets the computer be divided into several smaller machines.
Partitioning, once available only on traditional mainframe computers, has
been an advantage Sun has had over IBM, Compaq and HP for years.
Partitioning is useful for companies that want to test software without
disrupting the main job the server is working on, Eunice said. And when
partition sizes can be changed without having to reboot the server, the
technology is useful to adjust to changing demands handled by different
partitions.
"It gives you control over how much of your resources you throw at a
problem," Eunice said.
HP added partitioning with its Superdome server, and IBM is expected to add
a sophisticated version with its coming "Regatta" Unix server due this fall.
Sun calls its new servers "midframes" and acknowledges its debt to the
stalwart mainframes that once dominated computing but now are relegated to
a comparatively small corner of the market. "We continue to look at the
mainframe as a place that gives us new ideas," Khan said.
Sun also owes thanks to Cray Research, the company that originally designed
the E10000. Sun acquired the product line, and Wednesday's new servers will
be the first machines with partitioning abilities Sun itself has designed.
Microsoft and Intel, meanwhile, continue to chip away at the market for
generally more powerful Unix servers. Microsoft Product Manager Michael
Gould, who helps oversee the company's Windows 2000 operating system,
argues that eight-CPU servers are now a fixture in the "Wintel" landscape
and that Intel chips cost less and advance faster than Sun's.
"The UltraSparc III systems are late and they're not enough," he said.
Further delays?
Khan raised the possibility that the still-unreleased top-end Sun server,
"StarCat," could be coming later than Sun hoped, declining to comment on
whether the company will meet a deadline of this spring.
"We've learned a lesson not really specifying a certain date that can be an
anchor," Khan said. "These projects are complex, and they're looking good.
We're very much in the vicinity of the expectations we've set."
When the first UltraSparc III servers and workstations were released in
September, Sun said StarCat would be released in the spring, and the
UltraSparc III chip speed would be increased from 750MHz to 900MHz in the
first quarter of 2001.
The chip speed increase still hasn't happened, and the 3800, 4800 and 6800
will be released with 750MHz chips, Khan said. The 900MHz chips, which use
copper interconnect technology, are expected "within a quarter or so," he
added.
"You have to assume from time to time your yields will not be as high,"
Khan said, referring to the number of chips in a batch that can run at the
desired speed. Texas Instruments builds all of Sun's UltraSparc chips.
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FUJITSU CHALLENGES SUN IN SERVER ARENA 03.23.01
COMMERCIAL NEWS HPCwire
==============================================================================
Stephen Shankland reported: Sun Microsystems is beginning to face a new rival
in the market for high-end Unix servers. But the machines, instead of running
competing operating systems from IBM, Compaq Computer, or Hewlett-Packard, run
Sun's own Solaris.
Even as Sun launches its most important new products in years, servers based
on the UltraSparc III chip, Fujitsu's North American arm is likely to beat
Sun out of the gate with a new top-end server based on its own version of the
Sparc chip.
Fujitsu Technology Solutions has a 64-CPU server and will begin selling a
128-CPU model in mid-April, said Tom Donnelly, North American marketing
manager for the line, called the Prime Power family.
"We're going to go into the market, and we're going to have a competitive
Solaris platform," Donnelly said. Customers want a second choice besides Sun,
the dominant seller of Unix servers, when it comes to buying high-end systems,
he said.
But Donnelly insisted Fujitsu is as much Sun's ally as a competitor. "We're
targeting HP and IBM and Compaq specifically, and we're spreading the Solaris
base," he said. "We're not seeking out Sun customers and trying to displace
Sun."
Fujitsu's move was made possible by a complicated arrangement negotiated by
Sun, Fujitsu and Fujitsu subsidiary Amdahl that took effect in November. The
arrangement lets Fujitsu Technology Solutions, itself a subsidiary of Amdahl,
sell its own Sparc-Solaris systems in North America while prohibiting Amdahl
from selling Sun servers in that same market. Amdahl, meanwhile, may continue
to sell Sun servers in the rest of the world, including Sun's top-end
E10000s.
Fujitsu, while tiptoeing around Sun's customers, clearly doesn't lack
ambition. "From a pricing standpoint, we are about 10 percent below Sun on an
equivalent configuration," Donnelly said. "We are a new company, and we have
to get into the business."
A basic model with eight CPUs and 8GB of memory costs about $250,000. A fully
loaded 128-processor machine probably will cost about $7 million, Donnelly
said.
Fujitsu's designs are based on its Sparc64 chip, a CPU based on designs
licensed from Sparc International. It complies with version 9 of the
organization''s specification, as does Sun's new UltraSparc III.
The Unix server market, once thought to be quickly replaced by Microsoft
Windows servers, were reinvigorated by the Internet and by continued
computerization at large corporations. The market grew 14 percent, from $25.4
billion in 1999 to $29.1 billion in 2000, according to research company IDC.
The high end of the server market, long dominated by Sun's E10000, now is
seeing greater competition.
HP's Superdome, which began shipping in January, can accommodate as many as
64 CPUs and sports a feature that IBM mainframes and Sun's E10000 have had
for years -- the ability to split the computer into several independent
"partitions."
Meanwhile, IBM's 24-processor p680 began shipping last fall and is expected
to be replaced by a 32-processor system code-named "Regatta" this fall.
Regatta will incorporate sophisticated partitioning features that have the
potential to outpace Sun and HP.
Fujitsu's machine also offers partitioning, with the 128-CPU model able to be
subdivided into as many as 15 sections, Donnelly said.
Fujitsu sells several of the Prime Power models. The model 200 has one or two
CPUs; the 400 has four; and the 600 sports eight, with a new version coming
that can accommodate 16. At the higher end, the model 1000 can handle 32 CPUs,
and the model 2000 has room for 64.
But where Sun has sold thousands of its E10000s, Fujitsu has just begun.
Currently 12 customers, all Fortune 100 companies, have bought the top-end
model 2000, Donnelly said. Four customers have said they'll want the
higher-end 128-CPU model when it arrives.
One hurdle facing Fujitsu is that the beefier the computer, the more cautious
the customer. Companies buying these multimillion-dollar machines usually
require long periods of time to certify that the machine works as it should.
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DH Brown Reports On IBM Unix Server's Market Success 03.23.01
NEWS BRIEFS HPCwire
==============================================================================
Armonk, NY -- IBM today announced that independent research firm D.H. Brown
reported superior price/performance and scalability as the major reasons for
the IBM S80 server's unprecedented popularity in the UNIX server marketplace.
Since its introduction in September, 1999, the IBM S80 has become the fastest
selling UNIX server in history, with more than 3,000 systems sold in just
sixteen months. The D.H. Brown report cites three major factors why customers
chose the IBM system over the competition:
Price/performance -- An IBM S80 with 24 processors outperforms comparable
64-way systems from Sun Microsystems and other competitors. With many software
applications priced on a per processor basis, choosing a less expensive, but
faster S80 results in two cost savings, -- the initial one at purchase and a
savings on the purchase of software -- while actually gaining in performance.
Scalability -- Customers indicated the low entry price of a minimally
configured S80 allowed them to stay within budget, but the superior
scalability of the S80, which uses only 24 copper microprocessors to
outperform larger 64-way systems, gave them significant room to meet
technology needs as their businesses grew.
IBM's superior technology roadmap -- Customer frequently cited IBM's image,
level of service and technology roadmap as key factors in making a purchasing
decision.
Industry's Best Performing UNIX Servers
Soon after its introduction in September of 1999, the IBM S80 server became
the most decorated performer in the history of industry performance benchmarks
-- simultaneously holding ten number one positions, more than any other server
in history. IBM extended that record of dominance recently with the
introduction of the next-generation IBM eServer p680, which now holds the
number one spot on many of the same benchmarks.
In head-to-head comparisons versus the competition, the IBM eServer p680
equipped with up to 24 copper-based microprocessors wins the overwhelming
majority of performance benchmarks, exceeding the performance of more
expensive UNIX-based systems using up to 64 microprocessors. The performance
of a less expensive p680 with 24 microprocessors is about 40 percent better
than a comparable competitive system with 64 microprocessors.
For more information on record-setting benchmark performance of IBM UNIX
servers, see: rs6000.ibm.com
The 24-way p680 is over 40% faster than a more expensive 64-way Sun E10000
based on the leading industry transaction processing benchmark TPC-C.
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