http://sun.systemnews.com Hardware http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/127/4/hw/20637 Sun released a new deeper rack model of the Sun Modular Datacenter (Sun MD20-versus S20) provides customers with new choices for deploying a broader spectrum of enterprise-class servers and storage in their modular datacenters. Since its launch in January 2008, the Sun MD has been deployed globally for many applications. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/127/1/hw/20516 "The Solaris Operating System and the New Intel Core Microarchitecture" is the title of a white paper that offers a high-level overview of key features of the new Intel Core Microarchitecture (formerly code-named Nehalem), and the advantages of running the Solaris Operating System (OS) in this environment. The intended audience includes business decision makers, developers and IT professionals. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/126/4/hw/20242 Roger Meike, Sun Labs Director, introduces viewers to the Sun SPOT in a brief video that considers the variety of components in the device (3-D accelerometer, temperature and light sensors) programmed in Java, powered by its own battery and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/126/1/hw/20270 The Sun Datacenter Switch 3x24 (Sun DS 3x24) is designed for smaller and mid-size commercial HPC deployments. This ultra-dense single rack unit Infiniband switching platform binds Sun's blade servers and storage systems into a highly scalable, space-efficient, flexible, high-performance supercomputer. Using the Sun 12x-12x cable it connects directly to the Infiniband Switched Network Express Module complimenting the Sun Blade systems. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/126/1/hw/20321 Among the issues facing designers of supercomputers, choosing the most appropriate interconnect technology -- one that can connect thousands of processors without also introducing severe latency problems -- looms large. Sun's innovative Datacenter Switches, the Sun Datacenter Switch 3456 and the Sun Datacenter Switch 3X24, offer lower acquisition costs, lower latency, very high compute density, greatly reduced cabling and management complexity, reduced real estate needs, and more teraflops per dollar with lower power consumption than with other solutions. The Sun white paper "Sun Datacenter Switch 3456 and 3X24 Architecture" enumerates the virtues of these two solutions. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/125/2/hw/19996 Sun announced the availability of 8Gb/sec Fibre Channel Switches from Brocade including the Entry-level Brocade 300, Mid-Enterprise Brocade 5100 and the Enterprise Brocade 5300 switches. These switches double the throughput over Brocade's current 200E, 5000, and 4900 4Gb/sec switches. The 32-port and 48-port 8Gb/sec blades are now qualified and available for the Brocade 48000 Director. The new family of Brocade 8Gb/sec SAN switches include: Brocade 300 Entry-Level Switch, scaling from 8 up to 24 ports Brocade 5100 Mid-Enterprise Switch, scaling from 24 up to 40 ports Brocade 5300 Enterprise Switch, scaling from 48 up to 80 ports Brocade Products from Sun http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/125/1/hw/19731 If reducing 152 datacenters to 14 and 202,000 square feet of real estate to 76,000 isn't sufficiently impressive, then consider that the design of Sun's datacenter in Santa Clara, Calif. saved US$9 million in future construction costs and delivered an 88% reduction in overall real estate costs. Rafael Ruffolo of IT World Canada reports that Sun will also realize savings of at least US$1.1 million in power costs annually while reducing power load by 60%. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/125/1/hw/20072 Sun announces the Sun Datacenter Switch 3x24 (Sun DS 3x24), an ultra-dense single rack unit InfiniBand switching platform designed to complement the Sun Blade 6048 Modular System by providing connectivity directly to the InfiniBand Switched Network Express Module with a Sun 12x-12x cable. Up to 4 Sun DS 3x24 switches can be used together supporting up to 288 blades. The Sun Blade 6048 Modular System has been designed to accommodate up to 2 Sun DS 3x24 switches with top-of-rack mounting brackets X4730A. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/125/1/hw/20168 To run Sun’s award-winning data centers, a modular design containing many "pods" was implemented to save power and time. The modular design aids the building of any sized datacenter. Inside of each pod, there are 24 racks. Each of these 24 racks has a common cooling system as does every other modular building block. The number of pods is limited by the size of the datacenters. Large and small datacenters can benefit from using the pod approach. A virtual tour of the datacenter is available. http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/123/2/hw/19895 The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers can now be ordered with an X-Option or ATO option specifying a SAS 73 GB hard disk drive for an additional 15K speed for users.