Sun Microsystems is creating a board of customers and partners to advise the company as it pushes forward with its low-end systems based on the x86 architecture.Sun Microsystems Inc. is creating a board
consisting of customers and partners to advise the
company as it pushes forward with its low-end
systems based on the x86 architecture.
Sun this week announced the creation of its x86 ISV
Advisory Board, similar to the Linux ISV Advisory
Board, which the Santa Clara, Calif., company
established in January.
The x86 board will help Sun officials as they
continue their aggressive foray into the low-end
space, including greater integration of their software
and hardware offerings, said Neil Knox, executive vice
president of Suns Volume Systems Products group.
"The reason we expanded our product line in the
low-cost model is because of input" from customers and
partners, Knox said. "It was input from our customer
base that we used to build a business plan that we
could bring to Scott [McNealy, Suns chairman and
CEO]."
Sun officials are continuing to keep their low-end
push on the front burner. In February, Sun launched
its Network Computing 2003 initiative that has
included a greater adoption of Linux and the embracing
of the x86 architecture, both in its software
offerings and new hardware products.
Sun is offering its Sun Fire Blade platform on
either UltraSPARC IIi or x86 architecturesincluding
using Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s Athlon chips later
this year. In addition, two low-end serversthe 1U
(1.75-inch) Sun Fire V60x and 2U (3.5-inch) V65x
two-way systemsare powered by Intel Corp.s Xeon
processors. Earlier this month, the company announced
it was upgrading the V60x to 3.06GHz Xeon chips.
In addition, Sun at Linuxworld earlier this month
announced it is working with AMD, of Sunnyvale, Calif.,
to provide native Java support for the chip makers
64-bit Opteron processor in both Linux and Windows
platforms.