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Sun to acquire technical-computing software company

The company will announce Monday it has acquired Gridware, a company whose software manages the distribution of large computing jobs across multiple computers, a source familiar with the deal said.

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Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Sun Microsystems will announce Monday it has acquired Gridware, a company whose software manages the distribution of large computing jobs across multiple computers, a source familiar with the deal said.

The acquisition gives 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 will announce Monday it has upgraded its own number-crunching system.

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

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.

Gridware software is used by IBM, Cisco Systems and the U.S. Army.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.