Sun Microsystems is due to take the wraps off its new UltraSparc T1 chip Monday. Previously code-named Niagara, the company's
multithreaded, multicore processor had been slated to appear early in 2006. Unlike previous chip launches, Sun isn't planning
to announce specifics on the servers the chip will power; instead the company is unveiling UltraSparc T1 on the day it talks
up eco-friendly chip design at an event in San Francisco.
With the company's typical flair for hyperbole in full swing, Sun is positioning the new chip as "the world's first eco-responsible
processor" due to its low power consumption, according to an early company release. If only the world moved to embrace UltraSparc
T1-based servers, carbon dioxide emissions would be greatly lowered and billions of dollars of savings would be realized in
energy costs, the Sun release stated.
Details on pricing and the new line of Sun Fire servers that will be powered by the new processor will likely appear Dec.
6 at Sun's quarterly product launch in New York, according to Fred Kohout, vice president of marketing for Sun's scalable
systems group. The UltraSparc T1 should ship in volume in the new servers before year-end, he said in a phone interview Thursday.
Sun recently came under fire for delays in ramping up the volume of shipments of its Galaxy servers, which use Advanced Micro
Devices' Opteron processor.
Kohout stressed the "clean-sheet" design of the UltraSparc T1, an effort Sun embarked on four years ago. "We've simplified
the design point and increased the throughput at a very low power consumption," he said.
In an interview earlier this week in London, Sun Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy explained the early appearance
of the new chip as a direct result of creating a brand-new design versus trying to re-engineer an existing processor. He also
said that the UltraSparc T1 would use the same hardware as Galaxy.
"Niagara is the first purpose-built processor for the network services age," Kohout said. "It's the first 'rack on a chip.'"
The new chip incorporates Sun's patented CoolThreads multithreading technology and will be available in four-, six- and eight-core
implementations running at a clock speed of either 1GHz or 1.2GHz, according to Kohout. The eight-core implementation will
be able to process 32 different tasks simultaneously, he said, since each core can handle four software threads. The UltraSparc
T1 consumes about 70 watts of power, much less than Intel's Xeon processors or IBM's Power chips, Kohout added. The Sun processor
has four on-board memory controllers, he said.
"This is going to be a cross-over product," Kohout said, suggesting the new chip may have appeal to non-Sparc users. "Regardless
of the vertical industry, they all have racks and racks of highly inefficient CPUs," he added. "UltraSparc T1 is the next
consolidation engine."
"Power and cooling are key issues right now," Vernon Turner, group vice president and general manager of IDC's Enterprise
Computing group, said, adding that the timing of Niagara's launch may draw interest from non-Sparc customers interested in
lowering their utility bills.
Winning non-Sparc customers would "bring Sun the ability to upsell into Solaris and Java," Turner said. He did question Monday's
launch, which occurs as Sun hosts a discussion on eco-friendly chip design in San Francisco. "It's unusual to have a product
launch that's not about feeds and speeds," Turner said. Sun will be fielding its Chief Technology Officer Greg Papadopoulos
and Marc Tremblay, vice president and chief architect of the company's scalable systems group at the event.
Sun is expected to relaunch itself into the blades market early next year. While he wouldn't be drawn on details, Kohout said
that the UltraSparc T1 would be "a good fit in the blade space."
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