Sun has for a long time been using AMD’s Opteron processors exclusively with its servers and the reason have simply been that AMD’s processors offered a better performance/watt ratio than Intel’s equivalents. Now that Intel has launched the Core architecture things have changed and now it’s Intel which is the performance/watt leader. And now even Sun has realized this and is therefore planning a number of new server systems based Intel’s quad-core Xeon “Woodcrest” processors. Sun says in its press release that it will use Intel’s Xeon platform, which is suppose to be optimized for its Solaris operating system, but will also be used with Windows and Linux systems.
The first Xeon-based systems are expected to appear during the first half of 2007 and this is just as bad for AMD as it is good for Intel.
“Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Intel Corporation today announced a broad strategic alliance centered on Intel’s endorsement of the Solaris Operating System (OS) and Sun’s commitment to deliver a comprehensive family of enterprise and telecommunications servers and workstations based on Intel Xeon processors.”
