Following up on last week's announcement from Sun of their new AMD based servers and the new blade server, we delve more deeply into the technical specs of the Sun Fire
X4600 server (see article [16468]) and the Sun Blade 8000 [16719]. New promotions for
these servers provide even more incentives ([17623] and [16721]).
Sun also continues to expand its presence in the storage market by making their Sun
StorageTek products more available [16746].
Java technology developers can take advantage of a free online course in AJAX,
starting August 4th [16743].
Ron Goldman continues his discussion of the values of open source [16720]. The OASIS
organization has ratified a new standard to improve communications for emergency
response workers [16698].
AMD and partners design systems to keep the Canadian Hockey League's web site in top shape [16616] while Sun and AMD recount how their relationship evolved into the dynamic powerhouse it is today [16617]. If you are looking for examples of how others are harnessing the power of grid technology, see AMD and Altair's success story [16578] in this week's AMD section.
When Sun introduced its new servers on July 11 in San Francisco, CA, Aaron White, x64 Business Development Manager, Sun Microsystems MENA and Basel Ayass, x64 system sales specialist, Sun Microsystems MENA, were in Ski Dubai introducing the servers to their customers. Video of Sun chief architect Andy Bechtolsheim talking about the servers is available online.
The risk management company IVRS needed faster and more efficient access to financial simulations and information. They turned to CDO2 technologies running on Sun Grid. CDO2 tested the Sun Grid by deploying its financial software on the grid in 2005, and with results that help produce calculations in hours instead of days, IVRS will begin using the CDO2 software on the Sun Grid for similar benefits.
As part of Sun's efforts to increase its presence in the storage market, Sun will expand its relationship with Avnet Technology Solutions who will add Sun StorageTek products to its lineup.
The Sun Fire X4600 RoHS compliant AMD Opteron Server, newly introduced by Sun, supports the fastest single-core (3.0 GHz) and dual-core (2.6 GHz) AMD processors in an energy-efficient four- to 16-way x64 server design. The four-socket server is easily upgradable to eight sockets by the addition of processor boards.
The demands and expectations surrounding high performance computing in the current marketplace simply exceed the capabilities of most legacy blade platforms. The Sun Blade 8000 Modular System is an innovative solution that meets and surpasses these demands and expectations without locking users in to a proprietary infrastructure. The story of this remarkable system is told in "The Sun Blade 8000 Modular System white paper."
The Sun Fire X2100 AMD Opteron Model 175 XATO and Factory integration options are being eliminated because the processor itself is being EOL'd. The last order date is October 13, 2006; the last ship date, January 12, 2007; and the End-of-Service Life date February 2, 2012. A change in part numbers has also been announced for the non-RoHS compliant Sun Fire T2000 server standard configurations. The dates in this instance are October 13, 2006; January 12, 2007; and January 12, 2012.
Sun has announced an additional license tier for the AutoChanger Module of Sun StorEdge Enterprise Backup Software 7.3. The additional license tier covers 1-40 slots. Additional upgrade parts have been added to cover upgrades from 1-16 and 1-32 slots. The additional license is being added to cover the license required for a C4 autoloader, which has a maximum capacity of 38 slots.
Sun has increased the slot capacity of the Sun StorageTek L8500 Modular Library System from 6500 slots to 10,000. A fourth expansion frame is available for slot counts up to 8000, and a fifth expansion frame can accommodate up to 10,000 slots. Capacity on demand is offered so that customers can purchase more expansion frames than required to allow for non-disruptive upgrades in the future.
New to the Sun's storage product line is the Sun StorEdge HiCommand Protection Manager 4.4 Software, which enables "disk-to-disk" based rapid backup and recovery operation for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft NT File System(NTFS), enabling the use of the Sun StorEdge 9985 and 9990 storage system replication technologies.
Each week, we determine which articles have been most frequently referenced by logged-in subscribers to provide you with a list of the most popular articles for each of the last three issues. The Web version of this article lists the top 10 articles for each of the last four issues. The top articles for the four most recent issues were:
101.2: World's First Hybrid Data Server Sun Fire X4500 Server Ideal for High-bandwidth Applications [16716]
101.1: Enter the Sun Fire CoolThreads Server Performance Contest [16668]
100.4: Solaris 10 6/06 Released with New Enhancements: Solaris ZFS [16661]
100.3: Ubuntu on UltraSPARC Processor-based Server Available to Download [16596]
The ratification as a standard of the Emergency Data Exchange Language Distribution Element (EDXL-DE) version 1.0 was reported in both an OASIS source and a ComputerWorld story by Todd Weiss. According to OASIS, EDXL-DE facilitates emergency information sharing and data exchange across local, regional, tribal, national and international organizations in the public and private sectors.
Since coming to Sun in 1998, Ron Goldman has made contributions to a number of open-source projects. Currently, he is involved in research into alternative development methodologies and new software architectures. Janice J. Heiss continues her two-part interview with Goldman, part one of which appeared as [16161]. Goldman's new book, written with Richard Gabriel,"Innovation Happens Elsewhere," lends its title to the interviews.
Sun Microsystems has licensed the FreeBSD Foundation to distribute FreeBSD binaries for both the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and the Java Development Kit (JDK). These official binaries are based on Sun's latest partner sources and provide end-users and developers with the assurance that they can use and create Java technology applications on FreeBSD with the same degree of portability, robustness and stability available from other supported operating systems.
For sys admins who need to "add new device driver binaries to an install image for the Solaris 10 Operating System 1/06 (Solaris OS) so that a system with a new device will be able to install and support this device during, and after, the installation process," James C. Liu and Brian Dowdy have a how-to guide on the BigAdmin site to address installing the Solaris OS onto a system that requires a device that does not have a driver binary already in the Solaris installation media.
The Sun Update Connection - Enterprise software service provides systems administrators with updates in a centralized management console. It is designed for enterprise class system administrators, data centers and development workgroups with 25 or more systems to manage.
The jini.org website has moved to java.net. If you still need to move a project, there is a how-to guide available called "Moving Source from jini.org to java.net".
Many sessions from the 2006 JavaOne Conference are now available online. See sessions covering topics such as simplified Java EE 5 programming, Web 2.0, Apache Derby, AJAX and best practices for interoperability between Java technology and .NET server applications and more.
This tech tip covers how to launch a Java technology based application from a browser under a specified version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). While many PCs have JRE on them, they're not all the same version. Chet Haase, Thomas Ng and Dana Nourie explain what the deployment group at Sun has come up with to address this.
There is a free ten-week online course on AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) technology that will start on August 4, 2006. As the web evolves, technologies such as AJAX are expected to play a significant role of making "the Web of today a lot more interactive, responsive, exciting and useful than it used to be," according to Sang Shin of Sun who runs the course.
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