Sun updates Opteron servers

The server giant is using the latest models fo Advanced Micro Devices' chip in its two-processor and four-processor servers.

Stephen Shankland principal writer

Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes 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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Stephen Shankland

Feb. 14, 2005 4:23 p.m. PT

BOSTON--Sun Microsystems, the most vocal proponent of Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron chip, has updated its two-processor and four-processor servers with the latest models, the server giant said here at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. The Sun Fire V20z now is available with the Opteron 252, while the V40z is available with the Opteron 852. Sun Opteron server customers include the China National Petroleum, Dygra Films, EDS, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Schlumberger, Yahoo subsidiary Overture Services and the University of Nottingham.

Hewlett-Packard also sells general-purpose Opteron servers, but Sun became AMD's top customer for the chip late in 2004. Opteron processors compete chiefly with Intel's Xeon family, which lagged by more than a year the 64-bit memory extensions that debuted in Opterons in 2003. Xeons for dual-processor servers have 64-bit capability today, and Xeons for four-processor servers will be updated with the feature in the next 90 days.