Sun introduces 8-core Processor!!

[JGuru]

Sun MicroSystems, trying to recover lost ground from the market leaders IBM, Dell,
& HP , has announced eco-friendly Servers based on UltraSparc T1 Processor, which
uses 8 cores!! The T1000 & T2000 can outrun rivals Intel & IBM, the company said.
Every core of the UltraSparc T1 processor runs at 1.2 GHz, 8 cores added together
comes to staggering 9.6 Ghz!!!
Read more about it here

[Sykora]

Intel said they'd release their quad core processor by the end of this year and their octo core processor by 2008. Looks like Sun has them beat.

Seriously though, this type of advancement is overkill. It is highly unlikely that there will be applications that take advantage of the multiple cores in the near future. Hardly any use the dual core effectively anyway. In my experience, only Warcraft 3 does this fairly well. The only people buying this will be the geeks, the labs, the military and the tech magazines.

[JGuru]

@Sykora, You made a good point. The applications must be written to take advantage
of dual core or quad core. But unfortunately most applications including PhotoShop
don't have advantage of mutiple cores!! No, in the near future almost all PCs will
ship with mutiple cores or CPUs , so the application developers will have to program
to advantage of mutliple cores or CPU.
Sun's Solaris O.S is a pre-emptive multi-tasking O.S. That means processes with
higher priority will execute first. Also it can take full adavntage of mutiple CPUs or cores.
Sun's UltraSparc T1 Processor is aimed at the Enterprise Server market.

[william]

But will we able to use windows on that or not .Also 9.6Ghz is whooping speed whrere a user can use only in the 3dfx softwares.and also i agree with sykora today three not much applications that can take the advantage of multiple cores.

[Sykora]

Seeing as it's a sun processor, I don't think you'll be able to run Windows, but similar Intel processors are coming out, and the same issue will come up then.

well, r u sure, it's 1.2 GHz each core, cos even at 65nm manufacturing process it will take serious water cooling to cool a 9.6 GHz CPU

besides, this is not meant for Desktop so no worry about app compatibility, right now desktops use dual core, & it will be like this for quite some time, Single core to dual core conversion in an application is tough, but dual core to quad core is not that much tough

Photoshop can use multiple cores, since version 5 i think, & all the 3D applications, server apps like oracle or SQL server are already SMP enabled, there is a big market already there

[plasmafire]

that is a boon to application servers, DBs, ERP servers etc..

[JGuru]

@Gxsaurav,
See this Sun's link itself!! Sun's UltraSparc T1 Processor sets the
record for being the fastest & coolest Processor. Click here

in that case, sun has done a commandable job, seems like this coolness might not have been possible using X86, to bad we cannot use this CPU in workstation scenarios in a casual way, like we use X86

[damnthenet]

Fantstic! The multi core race has begun

[mediator]

Who cares about the new processors....mah P4 still excels for me!! Been running for over 3 yrs now and satisfies mah family too and VISTA is too costly to be installed.....But lets wait n watch!
Neways yea....nice to see the multicore race....brings some excitement!

[JGuru]

@Mediator, we are talking about the Enterprise market here, not your home PC!!!!
Sun's processor is a boon for the Enterprise. Yes, they have done a commendable
job, @gxsaurav.

[mehulved]

Are these the same ones as those released under a Open Source license by Sun Microsystems? If I remember right, Sun had opened up the arthitecture of T1000 and T2000 processors some time back. Are these the same?

[JGuru]

Yes they are @Tech_your_future. For more on OpenSPARC, click here.
Even Ubuntu 6.06 will run on Sun Fire T1000 & T2000 Servers with UltraSparc T1
processor!! See here for more details.

[sabret00the]

Impressive seems like Quad Core Xeon's got some rival at last isnt it?

[mediator]

@Jguru.....I knooooww! BUt I was referiing to @Sykora's 1st statement. Newer apps dont need such hifi processors....and processors like mah old P4 still rock!!

[goobimama]

Isn't Photoshop multi threaded? Pretty sure it makes full use of dual cores...

[harshagarwal]

i have seen this 8 core proccy at work, it was code named 'Naigara'.

we have been to sun microsystems, bangalore for study tour.

they actully compared the intel offerings at that time and thier on test 'naigara' and showed us the results, its seemed atleast 4 times faster than the intels the then offerings.

also sun is able to run windows using some virtualization technique on their solaris system.

just hope that this 8 core proccy cud be fitted in our desktops.

[JGuru]

@Goobimama, PhotoShop 7 doesn't take advantage of dual core. But PhotoShop CS
does take advantage of multi-threading. To what extent it does, I'm not very sure.

[kumarmohit]

Imagine this forum running on this processor...

[sabret00the]

@kumarmohit: there's not much contribution of the proc in running multiple internet explorer windows on ur desktop....Its memory which contributes to that.......memory intensive.......applies to most applications running on ur computer

[xenkatesh]

i wondering how those multimedia applications will run smoothy on this processor... Encoding/ Decoding of movies with that processor... Awesome..