Sun introduces UltraSparc T2

Sun Microsystems Inc. will today unveil its eight-core, UltraSparc T2 processor, capable of executing 64-threads all together, giving it an edge over the previous generation chips that mostly handle one to four threads at a time.

Threads are sequences of programming instructions carried out at the same time.

Known by the code name Niagara 2, Sun’s latest chip offers double the performance per watt of the previous generation chips. Its features include 4MB L2 cache, two on-chip 10 Gbyte Ethernet ports, and integrated floating-point units into each core pipeline. Sun claims, that Niagara 2 also conserves electricity.

The company is expecting the Niagara2 to bring huge performance advantages to its server systems and believes its conjunction with its Solaris operating system is unequalled in the industry.

"The combination of Solaris and UltraSparc is a very powerful virtualization platform," said Fadi Azhari, director of marketing for Sun Microelectronics, a division of Sun.

Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz expects Niagara2 to initiate an augment in sales of Sun-designed chips to companies, including makers of networking devices, TV set-top boxes and cars. "It's great to have the fastest microprocessor on earth," he said.

UltraSparc T2 has been competitively priced to start at less than $1,000, at a level to compete with x86 offerings from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

Nevertheless, Azhari does not place T2 as the favored chip over Intel and AMD products, which Sun also sells in its commodity servers. "We're building our business around offering choice to our customers," he said. Sun would recommend the hardware that best suits the customers’ needs.

Introduces in late 2005, Sun’s first Niagara chip has eight cores and can handle four threads but eight cores in Niagara 2 can handle eight threads each.

But the hitch here is that many programs can't easily be broken into threads for use by such chips and so, smart rival IBM is trying to improve each core by increasing its clock speed, a measure of internal pulses that set the tempo for a microprocessor.

IBM claims its new Power6 chip, with a record-setting clock speed of 4.7 gigahertz, is really the world's fastest microprocessor.

The microprocessors battle is indeed going to heat up in the coming months as AMD releases its first quad-core Opteron server chip, codenamed Barcelona and Intel plans to ship a quad-core processor, Penryn later this year.