Sun snaps up software company Gridware

Sun Microsystems said today it has acquired Gridware, a company whose software manages the distribution of large computing jobs across multiple computers.

As previously reported by CNET News.com, the acquisition gives Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun a software package used for technical computing tasks such as computer-aided design or electronics design.

Sun, seeing the weakness of competitor SGI, has been pushing hard into the market for high-end workstations and even has bid for a contract to build the world's fastest supercomputer. Hewlett-Packard, with new Unix workstations and servers, also is considered a strong player in the market, and IBM announced today it has upgraded its own number-crunching system.

But Sun, flush with cash from its stellar earnings, has formidable resources to devote to the market area.

San Jose, Calif.-based Gridware's software is used to partition and prioritize jobs on different computers. The software will be included in Sun's "technical compute farm" product.

IBM, Cisco Systems and the U.S. Army use Gridware's software, Sun said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.