Sun's AMD and Xeon blades stay tuned for delivery

Just a few months late

By Ashlee Vance, 6th November 2003

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In the process of unearthing Sun Microsystems' Opteron server plans, El Reg has come across some additional x86 blade server details.

Close Sun watchers will recall that the company earlier this year announced an Athlon XP-M blade. In fact, Sun announced this product twice, giving a mid-2003 delivery date. But here we are in November, and Sun's Web site says the product is "Coming Soon."

It's unclear what could take Sun so long to prepare an Athlon-based blade. Sun attributes the delay to "stay tuned." We asked what that means, and a Sun representative explained it as "stay tuned." Was it a component problem? "Stay tuned."

We're as tuned as possible and suspect Sun wants to roll out both the Athlon blade and a dual-processor Xeon blade at the same time.

A top source points us to the B100x and B200x servers. The B100x is the one processor Athlon XP-M system, while the B200x is a two processor Xeon server. The availability of both servers is "imminent," according to our source.

Sun refused to comment on either product, but you can find mention of the systems on the company's Web site. (At least for the time being.)

Sun is set to announce a new Opteron-based line of servers at Comdex, as part of its "Scale Out" product plans. Don't be surprised to see the new blades pop up at the same time or maybe a couple of weeks later at the Sun Network show in Berlin.

The introduction of a Xeon blade would a nice contribution to Sun's growing line of x86 systems. Sun already sells a pair of Xeon-based servers. The move toward the x86 kit is Sun's attempt to tap into new non-Sparc markets. In particular, Sun thought it should take part in the 32bit computing rush that IBM, HP and Dell have been profiting from for years.

Both of the new x86 blades will fit into the same B1600 chassis as its current Sparc/Solaris systems. ®