We've almost exhausted the taqueria/stale food metaphors for Jalapeno, Sun's UltraSPARC IIIi processor, but surely one more won't do any harm (you mean more harm - Ed).

The processor was again missing in action when Sun did its top-to-bottom product refresh last week. Since it had only just been found (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/29076.html), it needed some reheating.

But we learn that Sun has told customers to expect the processor in two varieties of workstation. A "performance" version will feature dual 1.2Ghz Jalapenos and four independent PCI buses. An el cheapo version will feature a single 1Ghz IIIi an ATA disk rather than a SCSI disk subsystem, and two independent PCI buses. Both systems will sport 1394b Firewire, USB 2.0, and Gigabit Ethernet.

Don't expect a Jalapeno blade until next year.

These first products are most likely to appear in Q2, now, with V210 and V240 featuring IIIi too. We don't have the prices - but it's only fair that we leave something for Sun to announce itself. ®

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Spring-cleaning Sun debuts blades, N1 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/61/29272.html)