Amdahl Corp, already an OEM customer of Sun Microsystems Inc’s Ultra server line, is to take on Sun Microsystems Inc’s latest high-end Ultra Enterprise 10000 server, launched last month. The Enterprise 10000 system, which will be available for delivery in March, were developed by Cray Research Inc and acquired by Sun when it took over Cray’s Sparc business last year (CI No 3,081). Sunnyvale, California based Amdahl believes that the introduction of the new server puts it in a position that will enable it to enhance the high-end Unix server. The $1bn Enterprise 10000 uses a partitioning system that is essentially very similar to Amdahl’s own Multiple Domain Feature part of Amdahl’s core business for 12 years. Amdahl and Sun have been working together since 1993. The Enterprise 10000 is said to offer twice the performance of Sun’s existing high end servers with its power capabilities believed to be approaching those of Amdahl’s mainframe system, the difference between the two being software availability.
