SunDragon, the Sun Microsystems Inc multi-processor due out on November 10, will initially be limited to maximum configurations of eight Sparc processors, we’re told, even though the company is bound to talk about a ceiling of 20 processors further down the road. Sun is planning to deliver 100 gamma Dragons in January with the beasts running an alpha release of Solaris 2.2. April is the best guess for first production deliveries, although these could slip into the third quarter. Speculation and that’s all it is – says that maybe it’s the scalability of the software that’s holding the company back from going to all 20 engines: Sun promises that the system software will improve by release date. An entry-level two-CPU Dragon with 64Mb memory will come in at around ?11,000 in the UK. Making way for the SunDragons, Sun has knocked down the prices of its existing 600MP multi-processing servers by 7% to 17%, it says. For example, the 670MP Sparcserver is now $50,000, down from $60,000. The newly-configured 690MP Sparcservers go from $70,000 for the model 120, $76,000 for the model 41 and $101,000 for the model 52. Meanwhile, Sun’s Tsunami line of low-end Sunergy workstations will initially come in two versions, both with colour and both running Solaris 2.1 – see above. The LX is a graphical box with 16-bit audio and ISDN which will come in above the Classic, a sub-$5,000 offering that lacks some of its cousin’s functionality.
