The V1280 is based on the existing 900MHz UltraSparc-III+ processor, not the new 1.2GHz shrink of the UltraSparc-III chip, which suggests that Sun has limited supplies of these processors as well as versions that run at 1.015GHz and 1.05GHz.
The V1280 fits in a 12U chassis and supports from 8GB to 96GB of main memory. The UltraSparc-III+ processors used in the machine are equipped with 8MB of L2 cache. The Sun Fireplane interconnect bus on the machine offers a sustained bandwidth of 9.6 GB/sec, and the machine, which was code-named Light Weight 8, offers up to six PCI slots and an integrated Ultra3 SCSI controller for supporting up to 15 SCSI devices. It also has two integrated Gigabit Ethernet ports and two 36 GB disk drives. It does not support Sun’s WildFire Sun Fire system interconnect, which was announced last year and which is used for HPC and commercial clustering. CPU/memory boards used in the V1280 cannot be used in the Sun Fire 4800 or any other Sun product, for than matter. Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 are supported on the box.
There’s been a lot of speculation that Sun might aggressively chop the prices on the V1280 in recent days, but the V1280 prices are exactly what many had expected. A base configuration of the V1280 with four 900MHz processors and 8GB of main memory lists for $79,995. An eight-way configuration with 16GB of memory sells for $127,495, while a twelve-way machine with 24GB of memory sells for $174,995. A fully loaded V1280 with 96GB of main memory sells for $274,995.
Sun also announced a new 1.2GHz shrink of the UltraSparc-III processor, which is based on a 0.13 micron copper process that allows the chip to be about 30 percent smaller and therefore run at a higher clock speed than the current 1.05GHz top speed of the UltraSparc-III+ chips used in the Sun Fire line. This chip uses the same 8MB L2 cache memory as the other UltraSparc-III processors. The 1.2GHz processor can be used in any machine that is also UltraSparc-III+ capable already, which means any machine using a 900MHz, 1.015GHz, or 1.05GHz, according to Sun. This includes the V-class of servers of low-cost volume servers – the V480, V880, and the new V1280 – as well as the Sun Fire 3800, which will, as we expected, be discontinued in August but which will be supported in the coming years. When Sun rolls this faster chip into these other products is a matter of yields and certification.
Chris Kruell, director of marketing at Sun’s Enterprise Systems Products group, said that in terms of raw clocks, the 1.2GHz processor was able to do about 14% more performance than the 1.05GHz chip, and obviously the chip has a clock speed that is 33% higher than the 900MHz variant of the UltraSparc-III processor used in the Sun Fire machines. However, he said that a new feature of Solaris 9 and the Sun Fire hardware called memory placement optimization (MPO), which is a feature intended for Sun’s Sun Fire servers that use SMP clustering to tightly couple anywhere from 2 to 72 processors in a single system image, was adding significantly to performance. For instance, on the SAP Sales & Distribution benchmark, the aggregate clocks in the Sun Fire 15K box went up by 33%, but performance increased by 52% because of the 1.2GHz UltraSparc-III+ chips and the MPO feature.
The combination of faster 1.2GHz UltraSparc-III processors and price cuts have resulted in price/performance improvements across the Sun Fire line of between 25% and 35%, says Sun. Kruell said that the company had lowered pricing on its base Sun Fire 4800, 6800, 12000, and 15000 server configurations, and that the company had also cut prices on four-way uniboard processor/main memory cards for the line as well. He said further that heavier configurations of the Sun Fire line received the deepest cuts, which suggests that the price cuts has as much to do with passing on decreases in memory prices as well as cost savings that result in Sun’s getting better yields on its processors from chip fabrication partner Texas Instruments, Inc.
To get a gauge of the price cuts, Sun told us that prior to the February 10 announcements, a Sun Fire 4800 with 4GB of main memory and four 1.05GHz processors cost $189,395; today, that machine will cost only $132,395. That’s a 30% price cut on a base machine. A mid-sized Sun Fire 6800 with 16 1.05GHz processors and 32GB of memory cost $811,595 before the cuts, and $573,595 after the cuts – a decrease of 29%. Prior to the cuts, a 20-processor Sun Fire 12000 with 40GB of main memory cost $1,236,390, and that price has been chopped by 27% to $906,309. And finally, a Sun Fire 15000 with 32 processors and 64GB of main memory had a list price of $2,018,090, but now lists for $1,512,090, a decrease of 25%. Whether or not these discounts bring Sun down to the street price level out there in the Unix market is unclear, and it is the math that rivals IBM and HP will be doing today.
Sun did not announce its 1GHz UltraSparc-IIIi two-way and four-way entry servers, the V240 and V440 machines, and now that it is moving to a quarterly product launch schedule, as CEO and chairman Scott McNealy explained this week, we might see these products in about 90 days. These servers were expected alongside the blade servers late last year.
Source: Computerwire
