Sun's top-end servers get UltraSparc IV+

Sun Microsystems has brought its new UltraSparc IV+ to its high-end Unix servers, the 36-processor Sun Fire E20K and 72-processor E25K, the company said Monday. The dual-core processor roughly doubles performance over its predecessor, the UltraSparc IV, an important attribute for Sun as it faces competition from IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Because Sun's top-end systems the same "Uniboard" processor/memory boards as midrange systems that already use the faster processors, the customers could use high-end UltraSparc IV+ servers last week, but now Sun is selling standard configurations as well. The systems are powerful, but don't come cheap. An eight-processor E20K with 32GB of memory costs $565,000, while 72-processor E25K with 288GB of memory costs $3.5 million, for example.