Sun Launches Faster UltraSparc-IV Jaguars After All

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Sun Microsystems did indeed this week launch the kickers to the "Jaguar" UltraSparc-IV processors running at faster clock speeds. There had apparently been some debate inside Sun as to whether these processors would come to market or not, and now the matter is settled. Exactly why there was any debate at all is an interesting thing to consider. More than likely, the on-again, off-again launch of faster Jaguar chips has to do with chip yields at Texas Instruments for both the Jaguars and the future "Panther" UltraSparc-IV+ chips.

Sun is always inscrutible about such matters, and Fadi Azhari, group manager for Sun's Scalable Systems Group, which is responsible for the Sparc-based Sun Fire midrange and enterprise servers, did nothing to clear up the matter. Various Sun sources have said that the Jaguar kickers were coming, and others have said they were not coming. And when Sun did its quarterly announcements on February 1, these faster chips were not in the announcements, even though the rumors said they would be, and everyone thought that was the end of it. When asked why the faster Jaguars, which run at 1.35 GHz instead of the 1.05 GHz and 1.2 GHz of the initial dual-core Jaguar UltraSparc-IV processors announced last February, were not launched a few weeks ago, Azhari said the chips were not made in sufficient volumes to be shipped in Sun Fire boxes and that, unlike other vendors, Sun does not announce something until it actually can be shipped. He also said that the Scalable Systems Group was pleased it would be getting coverage on the launch separate from the Network Computing announcement blitz from a few weeks ago.

Based on the 130-nanometer processes used by TI to make the UltraSparc-IV processors, it was feasible to expect that the Jaguar UltraSparc-IV chips could be pushed to 1.35 GHz or 1.5 GHz. While Sun is launching only the 1.35 GHz processors this week, and Azhari says that this is the last speed bump for the Jaguars before the Panther UltraSparc-IV+ ships later this year, it may be keeping the 1.5 GHz Jaguars in reserve. The reason why it would do this is simple: in case the Panther UltraSparc-IV+ chips slip. While Azhari says that there has been no slippage in the expected deliveries in the Panther chips, the launch date for these improved dual-core Sparc chips has gone from "some time in the first half of 2005" when Sun was talking about the Panthers in early 2004 to "mid-2005" when Sun was talking them in late 2004. That isn't officially slippage, but what seems clear is that Sun didn't want to launch a Jaguar kicker at all, and the fact that the Panthers are not shipping within a month or so means it has to do something, particularly if the next Sparc announcements are not due until May, June, or July. If the Panthers do slip later into 2005, you can bet that Sun will get those 1.5 GHz Jaguars into the field. By the way, there has been no indication that the Panther is not on track for that mid-2005 launch.

Sun is probably hoping to push the Panther chips up to 1.8 GHz or even 2 GHz, but the initial clock speeds on the Panthers could be as low as 1.6 GHz. The Panther chips will be built using a 90-nanometer copper/low-k chip process from TI that also adds strained silicon to shrink transistor sizes even further than that copper/low-k process would allow. The Panther chip will have an on-chip L2 cache with a 2 MB capacity, which should also help boost system performance considerably compared to the 16 MB external L2 caches used in the Jaguar chips. Sun is also adding an external, 32 MB L3 cache to Panther systems, and will expand chip buffers, provide better branch prediction, and improve prefetch algorithms to further boost performance. When all of these advancements are taken into account, Sun is telling customers to expect that Panther-based Sun Fire servers will be able to do about twice as much work as a servers using the same number of 1.2 GHz Jaguar chips. It is unclear if that comparison is between a 1.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz, or 2 GHz Panther chip. We'll find out in a few months.

In the meantime, the Sun Fire line is getting the faster Jaguars, and it is aiming these processors squarely at the installed base of Sun Fire customers who have UltraSparc-III servers. Azhari says that the 1.35 GHz Jaguars offer more than twice the throughput of the 1.2 GHz UltraSparc-III processors and offer 37 percent better bang for the buck at the system level compared to these single-core Sparc chips. Of course, moving to the UltraSparc-IV will require the movement to new server frames, so there is an additional cost in that regard.

Sun is initially putting the faster Jaguars in the four-socket Sun Fire 490 and eight-socket Sun Fire 890 servers, according to Azhari, and indeed, the chips are now the default processors for these machines on Sun's store. These machines have the new Solaris 10 operating system and the Java Enterprise System middleware stack on them as well. He said that over the next few weeks, the faster Jaguars would roll up the Sun Fire line, but the Sun store already has the 1.35 GHz chips in the larger midrange gear: the Sun Fire 2900 (12-way), Sun Fire 4900 (12 socket), and the Sun Fire 6900 (24 socket) servers. These have Solaris 10 pre-installed, but JES is not included. The larger Sun Fire 20K (36 socket) and Sun Fire 25K (72 socket) servers will probably not get the faster chips for some time, but they may be the machines that get the Panther kickers first.

Here is the pricing on the new Sun Fire servers using the 1.35 GHz Jaguar processors:

• Sun Fire 490 small configuration: two Jaguars, 8 GB main memory, two 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $30,995.
• Sun Fire 490 medium configuration: four Jaguars, 16 GB main memory, two 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $58,995.
• Sun Fire 490 large configuration: four Jaguars, 32 GB main memory, two 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $75,995.
• Sun Fire 890 small configuration: two Jaguars, 8 GB main memory, six 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $39,995.
• Sun Fire 890 medium configuration: four Jaguars, 16 GB main memory, six 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $75,995.
• Sun Fire 890 large configuration: eight Jaguars, 32 GB main memory, six 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $123,995.
• Sun Fire 890 extra large configuration: eight Jaguars, 64 GB main memory, six 146 GB disks, Java Enterprise System and Solaris 10 pre-installed; $155,995.
• Sun Fire 2900 medium configuration: eight Jaguars, 32 GB main memory, two 73 GB disks, Solaris 10 pre-installed; $189,995.
• Sun Fire 2900 large configuration: 12 Jaguars, 96 GB main memory, two 73 GB disks, Solaris 10 pre-installed; $332,995.
• Sun Fire 4900 medium configuration: 8 Jaguars, 32 GB main memory, no disks, Solaris 10 pre-installed; $384,490.
• Sun Fire 4900 large configuration: 12 Jaguars, 48 GB main memory, no disks, Solaris 10 pre-installed; $554,490.
• Sun Fire 6900 medium configuration: 16 Jaguars, 64 GB main memory, no disks, Solaris 10 pre-installed; $759,490.
• Sun Fire 6900 large configuration: 24 Jaguars, 96 GB main memory, no disks, Solaris 10 pre-installed; $1,099,490.