At last, Sun to launch UltraSparc III

After nearly a year of anticipation, Sun Microsystems is finally on the verge of presenting its 64-bit UltraSparc III microprocessor. Sun has dominated the high-end server market despite having fallen behind competitors in a number of performance areas. Intel will be challenging Sun in this arena with its 64-bit Itanium MPU as will Hewlett-Packard, currently launching its Superdome, and IBM, with its Blue Hammer.

At the same time, an embedded version of Sun's 64-bit Ultrasparc II, the IIe, should be in production by November. It is aimed at rack-mounted servers, line cards, telecommunications switches, network routers, storage-area networks and RAID controllers.

For more on the UltraSparc III, read techweb.com. For information about the IIe, click eet.com. To read about the Blue Hammer, click techtv.com.