Sun transcends gigahertz wars with multi-core technology

It is no longer just about the gigahertz, Sun Microsystems said.

As microprocessor speeds measured in gigahertz continue to increase, chip manufacturers are faced with issues of power consumption and heat. While it is not giving up the gigahertz wars, which focus on producing faster processors, Sun Microsystems said it is more keen on delivering systems that are designed to deliver more "throughput" instead of just speed.

Unveiling its next-generation UltraSparc server, Sun said it can now deliver "eight cores in one processor die," which translates to a 64-core system-on-a-chip, said Alvin Lye, regional sales manager of Systems Practice of Sun Microsystems for South Asia, in an interview.

While Sun is not exactly competing with Intel's Xeon, its eight-core processor aims to address problems related to increasing power consumption and heat dissipation in faster chips.

AMD and Intel have also moved to multi-core processors.

Lye said that Sun will continue working with Intel and AMD, but the vendor will also push its chip multi-threading technology.

"We've been weaned on the gigahertz mindset. It is like buying a car based on how fast it can go. While speed is still a feature, it is now becoming more about getting things done," Lye added.

The Sun executive also said that the chip multi-threading technology will push Sun's chip strategy for another "couple of years."

To support the push, Sun has introduced new ways to measure or benchmark the efficiency of servers. A "productive" server, Lye said, should be measured in terms of how much space it takes in a data center, how many watts it eats up and how much power it consumes.

The eight-core processor was launched globally three months earlier.
By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net