Sun to further promote Linux use on its servers

Boy, if we did not know better, we might just think that Sun is becoming fond of the possibilities with Linux. Then again, in a lot of ways this really comes down to them being so serious about their UltraSparc T1.

Sun Microsystems Inc. is making another move to encourage developers to port other operating systems to its servers, notably Linux, the company announced Tuesday. Under its OpenSparc initiative, Sun released two specifications related to its UltraSparc T1 processor to make running non-Solaris operating systems on servers powered by that chip easier.

Sun hopes the ability to run Linux and other operating systems on UltraSparc T1 will grow the market for its Sparc chip architecture and the servers based on that architecture, according to Fadi Azhari, Sun’s director of outbound marketing. The UltraSparc T1 chip’s multithreading capabilities are well suited for Web-centric applications, he said in an interview Tuesday. Sun’s servers built on the processor can provide “very, very good alternative performance and power consumption” to their Lintel peers, he said, meaning servers based on Intel Corp. chips running Linux. Source: Computer World

[tags]processor,sun,ultrasparc t1,fadi azhari,outbound marketing[/tags]