Sun Microsystems Inc claims that the UltraSparc chips which will power its new StarFire servers due next week – presumably the 450MHz UltraSparc II Sun said would be available this spring – offer the equivalent of 3,000 mainframe MIPS, or twice the power of IBM’s 10-way S/390 G5 mainframe which does 1.069 MIPS at $3,740 per MIPS versus Sun’s $1,000 per MIPS. The current 64-way, 336MHz servers offers 2,000 MIPS and the 250MHz configuration 2,000 MIPS. Sun has said it will ship its servers using its UltraSparc III Cheetah RISC by the end of this year. Sun claims to be running 35% to 40% of web sites and says it counts 10 of the top 12 ISPs as customers.
SUN SAYS NEW STARFIRE SERVERS WILL OUTSHINE MAINFRAMES
