This week, Sun introduced the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System that features double the memory and double the I/O capacity of competing blades and rackmount servers. See article [18190] for details.

Also new is the latest version of Sun Studio software, version 12. It features a new way to specify a 32-bit or 64-bit address model, a new thread analyzer, new x86 and SPARC features and C and C++ compiler options. See [18181].

New versions of the Sun Java System Identity Manager (7.1) [18206] and the Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (version 5.1.3) [18158] are available also.

Two of Sun's workstations have garnered positive reviews, one from InfoWorld that evaluates the Sun Ultra 40 M2 workstation with the 3Ware 9650SE SATA RAID Controller (see article [18188]); another review tested the performance of the Sun Ultra 20 M2 workstation [18193].

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A benchmark tested the Sun Fire X4600 server, showing its fast processing speed for financial transactions; see article [18267] for details. A promotion for the Sun Fire X4600 server can get you three servers for the price of two; the promotion ends July 11, so act now [18256].

There's a lot to learn about new Sun products such as the Sun Blade 6000 modular system, so we have listed some documentation for the recently announced blade system [18262].

Sun services aims to make life less stressful for IT staff with the new Sun Connection Inventory Channel. It's free; see article [18211]. A new SunSpectrum Enterprise Service Plan will support not only Sun hardware but the products in your data center from other vendors; learn more in article [18266].

In Software news is the new ODF plug-in from Sun for Microsoft Office 2000, XP, and 2003; see [18208]. Also learn about the new language extensions in Sun Studio 12 C Complier [18215].

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To make it easier for developers to build applications for the Solaris OS, Sun introduced the enhanced version of the Solaris Express Developer Edition 5/07. See News article [18242] for an overview and article [18236] for more technical details. The new release contains Sun Studio 12 software; learn about the software's new features in [18157].

The new Inventory Channel helps manage IT assets by tracking contract information, licensing, and registration status in a data center [18226].

We follow up on last week's announcement of the Sun Blade 6000 modular system with a technical details article [18210]. Save 25 percent on a blade starter kit for Sun Blade 6000 and Sun Blade 8000 configurations; see [18218]. Sun Cluster (aka Solaris Cluster) now supports the Sun Blade 6000 [18209].

In a recent review, Solaris ZFS was rated highly and characterized as poised to be very influential in future file system designs [18234]. If you're just getting started with ZFS, there is a course on its administration [18235].

Sometimes you are your own competition: A new benchmark shows the Sun Fire X4100 M2 server beating out a previous Sun record [18230].

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Since Andy Bechtolsheim's return to Sun in 2004, his contributions just keep getting better. This week at the ISC show, Sun introduced the new Sun Constellation System (see article [18274]) for complex applications such as climate modeling, and we have a link to a video of Bechtolsheim talking about the system.

In other news, Sun has contributed more code to the OpenSolaris project, this time adding source code for the Solaris Cluster [18281].

Time is running out to take advantage of the free Sun Enterprise Installation Services when you buy a Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 or M5000 server; see article [18283]] for details.

Another server benchmark to report this week: Sun Blade X6220 and the Sun Blade X6250 modules reached new records. See article [18288].

There is also a review of the Sun Fire X4600 server as tested by ServerWatch concluded that the server is not only fast and efficient but "beautiful" [18290].

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