Sun Announces Availability
of 400 MHZ SPARCENGINE
ULTRATM
AXMP Board
SAN JOSE, Calif, - February 2, 1999 - Sun Microsystems, Inc.
today announced that its SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp motherboard, now shipping at speeds
of up to 400 MHz with support for up to 4MB second level cache, is enjoying rapid
adoption by leading resellers. Sun's SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp board enables Original
Equipment Manufactures (OEMs) to develop high performance, four-way multiprocessing
embedded systems.
This board-level solution, first announced in July 1998, has been adopted by leading
integrators including Continuous Computing Corp., Integrix, Pinnacle (PDSi) and
Rave Computer Association, Inc. for mission critical, embedded applications such
as telecommunications servers. Integration of the SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp board
demonstrates industry and market-wide support for Sun's SPARCTM processors and the
SolarisTM environment.
"We are pleased companies of this caliber have adopted the SPARCengine Ultra
AXmp technology so quickly," said Marge Breya, vice president of marketing
for Sun Microsystems, Inc., Microelectronics. "The SPARCengine Ultra AXmp board
enables our customers to offer the best of all possible solutions - the power of
multiprocessing, the flexibility of a rackable, low profile in a small form factor
board, high compute density and almost linear scalability - while meeting standards
compliance."
By leveraging the PCI infrastructure, the SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp board enables
OEMs to shorten new product development cycles and decrease overall system costs
with less expensive peripherals, making it the foundation technology of choice for
key integrators.
To compete in today's fast changing market, OEMs need the reliability, predictability
and functionality of the SPARCengine Ultra AXmp board. For example, with the growing
convergence of the Internet, computing and telecommunications markets, OEMs need
the flexibility to host large applications and scale network services quickly. Industrial
and commercial OEM applications also require high-performance embedded processing
for faster analysis, efficiency and productivity delivered in a ruggedized, embedded
format.
Integrators Adopting the SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp Board
Continuous Computing Corp.
Continuous Computing Corp. (CCPU) has integrated the SPARCengine
UltraTM AXmp board into its Field Replaceable Processor or FRu`. Because operating,
maintaining and supporting application servers in a network environment is an ongoing
challenge, the FRu` has been designed to ease the burden of replacing or upgrading
a system. Much like a laptop and a docking station, the FRu` is composed of two
elements: a rackmountable receptacle and an active core. All external I/O cables
connect to the rackmount receptacle while the active core contains the CPU, I/O
cards, storage devices, power supplies and management cards. The two elements mate
using high-density connector fields.
To upgrade or replace a FRu`, system administrators simply disengage the active
core from the receptacle and replace it with a spare core. The replacement can be
performed without removing or reattaching cables, thus eliminating a major source
of system downtime. Overall system availability increases dramatically because the
entire system can be accurately replaced in under a minute.
FRu` is available in standard configurations or can be customized using CCPU's suite
of OEM manufacturing services to craft a solution for a particular application or
environment.
Integrix is using the SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp board for
its rackmount server, the RS450. The newest addition to its UltraSPARC family of
servers, the RS450 delivers high caliber performance with up to four 400 MHz UltraSPARC
CPUs, and a 1.6 GB/sec dual UPA interconnect. Equipped with six 64-bit PCI slots
the RS450 effortlessly handles I/O intensive applications. The RS450 is ideal for
businesses deploying Web service, CGI scripting, database applications, clustering,
high speed data communication and custom applications for target industries.
Capable of supporting over 16.2 TB of external storage, the RS450 delivers the power
and throughput that businesses demand. The system features up to two GB of main
memory and 36 GB of storage on two internal hot swappable 1.6 inch Ultra SCSI hard
disks. Designed for power, storage and reliability, the RS450 will put enterprises
ahead of the game by handling the challenges of today's industries.
PDSi, a Sun Microsystems Authorized Microelectronics System
Integrator, will be integrating the SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp board into a family
of high availability telecommunications servers. Similar to systems the company
has developed around the SPARCengineTM CP 1500, PDSi's system based on the SPARCengine
UltraTM AXmp boards will be designed around redundant processors with failover software
that optimizes processor efficiency. They will also feature redundant, hot swappable
cooling, N + 1 hot swappable power supplies and RAID storage.
"We'll be taking full advantage of the Ultra AXmp Board's Advanced System Monitoring
capabilities," said John Bair, PDSi's CEO and Chief Technology Officer. "Tying
together these capabilities with those in our RAID controller, we can provide continuous
monitoring of processors, cooling and power to detect early indications of component
failure so components can be replaced prior to failure. Customers will be able to
choose between front panel warning indicators, a GUI display or remote dial-out
notification of system monitoring capabilities. These features allow us to provide
a true high-availability solution to our customers."
Rave Computer Associations, Inc. designs, integrates and
customizes system requests, offering the latest in Sun technology for high-end imaging
systems, embedded servers, next generation Internet telephony, telecommunication
servers or embedded storage solutions. Rave's RackMount-AXmp system incorporates
the SPARCengine UltraTM AXmp board, enabling dual and quad processing in a 64-bit
system powered with an UltraSPARC processor. The RM-AXmp provides solutions with
robust features including four-way symmetrical multi-processing, UltraSPARC-II 64-bit
processor, up to two GB of RAM, six PCI slots for expansion, 19 inch rackmounted
form factor and a sturdy design and modular voltage regulator. Rave's RM-AXmp system
supplies the option of being integrated with an Intelligent System Control (ISC)
board, which works in perfect tandem with a remote monitoring device, to continuously
monitor the status of internal chassis temperature, power supplies, and cooling
fans. The ISC operates independently from the systems' motherboard and when an error
is detected, an integral 2400 baud modem dials out immediately to an alphanumeric
pager, informing key personnel. These features combine a powerful solution of a
four-way semetrical multiprocessing with three times the compute density and significantly
more integration flexibility than traditional systems.
Rave Computer Associations, Inc. can be found on the Web at: http://www.rave.net.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The
Network is the ComputerTM," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW),
to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and service
for establishing enterprise-wide Intranets and expanding the power of the Internet.
With more than $10 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150
countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems,
SPARCengine, UltraSPARC, SPARC, Solaris, and "The Network is the Computer"
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United
States and in other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are
trademarks or registered of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other
countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon architecture developed
by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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