The Sun Ultra is a discontinued line of workstation and server computers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems , comprising two distinct generations. The original line was introduced in 1995 and discontinued in 2001. This generation was partially replaced by the Sun Blade in 2000 and that line was in itself replaced by the Sun Java Workstation —an AMD Opteron system—in 2004. In sync with the transition to x86-64 -architecture processors, in 2005 the Ultra brand was later revived with the launch of the Ultra 20 and Ultra 40, albeit to some confusion, since they were no longer based on UltraSPARC processors.
22-536: The original Ultra workstations and the Ultra Enterprise (later, "Sun Enterprise") servers were UltraSPARC -based systems produced from 1995 to 2001, replacing the earlier SPARCstation and SPARCcenter/SPARCserver series respectively. This introduced the 64-bit UltraSPARC processor and in later versions, lower-cost PC-derived technology, such as the PCI and ATA buses (the initial Ultra 1 and 2 models retained
44-587: Is a deskside server configurable with up to six processors and 10 internal disks, while the 4000 is a rack-mount system with up to 14 processors. The 5000 is essentially a 4000 in a rack cabinet and the 6000 is a cabinet-housed data center server with up to 30 processors. In 1999, the Enterprise 3500 , 4500 , 5500 and 6500 models were announced. These are upgraded X000 systems, with a faster Gigaplane bus (up to 100 MHz, depending on processor clock speed, compared to 83 MHz). The 3500 also differs from
66-729: Is a two-processor version launched in 1998. These were later joined by the Enterprise 220R and Enterprise 420R rack-mount servers in 1999. The 220R and 420R models are respectively based on the motherboards of the Ultra 60 and Ultra 80 workstations. The 250 was replaced by the Sun Fire V250, the 450 by the Sun Fire V880. The 220R was superseded by the Sun Fire 280R and the 420R by the Sun Fire V480. In 1996, Sun replaced
88-498: Is to replace 4 SBUS boards with dual PCI boards. The Starfire is the first server from any vendor to exceed 2000 on the TPC-D 300 GB benchmark. Starfire systems were used by a number of high-profile customers during the "dot-com" boom, notably eBay , and typically sold for well over $ 1 million for a fully configured system. The Starfire contains one or two controller modules which are connected via Ethernet to an external computer,
110-534: The SBus of their predecessors). The original Ultra range were sold during the dot-com boom , and became one of the biggest selling series of computers ever developed by Sun Microsystems, with many companies and organisations—including Sun itself—relying on Sun Ultra products for years after their successor products were released. The Ultra brand was revived in 2005 with the launch of the Ultra 20 and Ultra 40 with x86-64 -architecture. x64-based Ultra systems remained in
132-490: The System Service Processor (SSP). The controller modules interface with the system "centerplane" via JTAG and control the partitioning of available CPUs, memory and I/O devices into one or more domains, each of which is in effect a distinct computer. The system cannot be partitioned or booted without its original SSP which contains encrypted keys issued by the manufacturer. An E10K has been preserved at
154-523: The Tadpole SPARCle (550 and 650 MHz) and Viper (1.2 GHz) laptops. The A61 Ultra 3 was physically different and was based on the Naturetech 888P (550/650 MHz) and Mesostation 999 (1.28 GHz). The two lines are unrelated systems otherwise. Ultra Enterprise Sun Enterprise is a range of UNIX server computers produced by Sun Microsystems from 1996 to 2001. The line was launched as
176-623: The Ultra Enterprise 150 , which comprises an Ultra 1 motherboard in a tower-style enclosure with 12 internal disk bays. In 1998, Sun launched server configurations of the UltraSPARC-IIi-based Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 workstations, called the Enterprise Ultra 5S and Enterprise Ultra 10S respectively. The Sun Enterprise 450 is a rack-mountable entry-level multiprocessor server launched in 1997, capable of up to four UltraSPARC II processors. The Sun Enterprise 250
198-466: The 3000 by having an additional Gigaplane slot resulting in an increased maximum of eight processors. The Enterprise X500 series were replaced by the Sun Fire 3800/4800/6800 line. The Enterprise 10000 , E10k or Starfire (a development code name also used for marketing purposes) is a high-end multiprocessor data center server capable of being configured with up to 64 UltraSPARC II processors. This
220-704: The Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The Starfire was superseded by the Sun Fire 12K/ 15K models. Sun Fire Sun Fire is a series of server computers introduced in 2001 by Sun Microsystems (since 2010, part of Oracle Corporation ). The Sun Fire branding coincided with the introduction of the UltraSPARC III processor, superseding the UltraSPARC II -based Sun Enterprise series. In 2003, Sun broadened
242-612: The SPARCserver 1000E and SPARCcenter 2000E models with the Ultra Enterprise 3000 , 4000 , 5000 and 6000 servers. These are multiprocessor servers based on a common hardware architecture incorporating the Gigaplane packet-switched processor/memory bus and UltraSPARC-I or II processors. High availability and fault-tolerance features are included in the X000 systems which are intended for mission-critical applications. The 3000 model
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#1732782498523264-539: The Sun Ultra Enterprise series; the Ultra prefix was dropped around 1998. These systems are based on the 64-bit UltraSPARC microprocessor architecture and related to the contemporary Ultra series of computer workstations . Like the Ultra series, they run Solaris . Various models, from single-processor entry-level servers to large high-end multiprocessor servers were produced. The Enterprise brand
286-601: The Sun Fire B1600 chassis and associated blade servers, was branded under the Sun Fire server brand. Later Sun blade systems were sold under the Sun Blade brand. In 2007, Sun, Fujitsu and Fujitsu Siemens introduced the common SPARC Enterprise brand for server products. The first SPARC Enterprise models were the Fujitsu-developed successors to the midrange and high-end Sun Fire E-series. In addition,
308-879: The Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers were rebranded as the SPARC Enterprise T1000 and T2000 and sold under the Fujitsu brands, although Sun continued to offer these with their original names. Later T-series servers have also been badged SPARC Enterprise rather than Sun Fire. Since late 2010, Oracle Corporation no longer uses Sun Fire brand for their current T series SPARC servers , and since mid-2012 for new X series x86-64 machines based on Intel Xeon CPUs. x86-64 server models which had been developed by Sun Microsystems before its acquisition, and were still in production, have all been rebranded as Sun Server X-series. Some servers were produced in two versions,
330-628: The Sun Fire brand for new server models. UltraSPARC-based Sun Fire models are licensed to run the Solaris operating system versions 8, 9, and 10. Although not officially supported, some Linux versions are also available from third parties, as well as OpenBSD and NetBSD . Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron based Sun Fire servers support Solaris 9 and 10, OpenBSD , Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 3 - 6, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and 11, Windows 2000 , Windows Server 2003 , 2008 , and 2008 R2 . Later Sun Fire model numbers have prefixes indicating
352-747: The Sun Fire brand, introducing Sun Fire servers using the Intel Xeon processor. In 2004, these early Intel Xeon models were superseded by models powered by AMD Opteron processors. Also in 2004, Sun introduced Sun Fire servers powered by the UltraSPARC IV dual-core processor. In 2007, Sun again introduced Intel Xeon Sun Fire servers, while continuing to offer the AMD Opteron versions as well. SPARC -based Sun Fire systems were produced until 2010, while x86-64 based machines were marketed until mid-2012. In mid-2012, Oracle Corporation ceased to use
374-783: The Sun portfolio for five more years; the last one, the Intel Xeon-based Ultra 27, was retired in June 2010, thereby concluding the history of Sun as a workstation vendor. The SPARC-based Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation laptop was released in 2005 as well, but it would prove to be a short-lived design and was retired the next year. Its release did not coincide with the rest of the line as most of the brand had already moved on to x86. Additionally, new Ultra 25 and Ultra 45 desktop UltraSPARC IIIi-based systems were introduced in 2006. In October 2008, Sun discontinued all these, effectively ending
396-589: The X000 and X500 series servers, the Starfire incorporates many high-availability features, including the ability to be partitioned into multiple "domains", each of which can be booted individually to run its own instance of Solaris. It is also possible to remove resources from a running domain with short notice and reassign freed resources to other domains. Domain granularity is one CPU board (single system may have 1-16 of them). A single CPU board can carry up to 4 processors, 4GB of RAM and 4 SBUS IO boards. A rare option
418-591: The production of SPARC architecture workstations. The original Ultra/Enterprise series itself was later replaced by the Sun Blade workstation and Sun Fire server ranges. Note: the Enterprise 220R is an Ultra 60 motherboard in a rack-mountable server chassis with hot-swappable power supplies. Similarly, the Enterprise 420R is an Ultra 80 motherboard in a server chassis. In the intervening time gap, Sun workstations were named Sun Blade and Sun Java Workstation . The A60 Ultra 3 mobile workstation rebadged
440-638: The type of system, thus: When Sun offered Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron Sun Fire servers under the V-Series sub brand, Sun used an x suffix to denote Intel Xeon processor based systems and a z suffix for AMD Opteron processor based systems, but this convention was later dropped. The z suffix was also used previously to differentiate the V880z Visualization Server variant of the V880 server. Sun's first-generation blade server platform,
462-509: Was largely designed by Cray Research 's Business Systems Division as a successor to the Cray Superserver 6400 , itself related to Sun's earlier Sun-4d architecture servers. After Cray was acquired by Silicon Graphics in 1996, this division was sold on to Sun, who then launched the Starfire as the Ultra Enterprise 10000 in 1997. The Starfire is based around the fault-tolerant Gigaplane-XB processor/memory interconnect. Like
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#1732782498523484-475: Was phased out in favor of the Sun Fire model line from 2001 onwards. The first UltraSPARC-I-based servers produced by Sun, launched in 1995, are the UltraServer 1 and UltraServer 2 . These are server configurations of the Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 workstations respectively. These were later renamed Ultra Enterprise 1 and Ultra Enterprise 2 for consistency with other server models. Later these were joined by
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