Sun Blade 6000 Modular System introduced by Sun

Sun Microsystems has introduced the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System, which the company claims can redefine the data center lifecycle with up to double the memory and double the I/O capacity of competing bladed and rackmount servers.

The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System offers a choice of blades powered by the UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology, Intel Xeon processors or AMD Opteron processors, allowing customers to deploy the industry’s broadest range of applications ranging from virtualization, database, Web tier and high performance computing (HPC) on a single common modular design.

According to Sun, its new system provides customers the most versatility of any blade platform. It uses the industry’s highest performing microprocessors from Sun, Intel and AMD, and provides support for Solaris, Windows and Linux operating systems.

Features of the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System:

Sun Blade 10 RU chassis: Supports up to 10 blades per chassis with up to four chassis per rack for a full capacity of to up to 320 cores, 2.5 TB of memory and five Tbps usable I/O throughput per rack.

Sun Blade T6300 Server Module: 1-socket blade powered by an UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology

Sun Blade X6250 server module: 2-socket quad-core ready blade powered by Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series, representing Sun’s first Intel Xeon-based product since Sun and Intel announced their alliance last January, and Sun’s first quad-core based product

Sun Blade X6220 Server Module: 2-socket blade powered by second-generation AMD Opteron processors

No-compromise power and cooling technology: Delivers optimized cooling and airflow, resulting in higher systems reliability and power efficiency

Open industry standard I/O: Leverages industry standard PCI-Express I/O architecture and adapters, allowing customers to install or replace an I/O module without interfering with systems operation

Open transparent management: Supports the most standard interfaces to facilitate fast and easy integration into customers’ existing blade or rackmount management infrastructure, whether those management tools are from Sun or other vendors.

“With the three fastest processor platforms, three operating systems, the most memory and I/O bandwidth, Sun is delivering a system that enables customers to upgrade to virtualized blade platforms without the expense or technical compromises presented by all our competitors,” said John Fowler, executive vice president, Sun Systems Group. “We are now offering the broadest support of volume architecture and operating systems in the industry, combined with the energy efficiency. The Sun Blade 6000 can be anyone’s universal deployment platform.”

The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System is available immediately with entry-level pricing starting at $4,995 for the Sun Blade 6000 Chassis; $5,995 per server module for the Sun Blade T6300; $3,695 per server module for the Sun Blade X6250; and $3,995 per server module for the Sun Blade X6220.