back to article Sun talks up Solaris 10 for Nehalem

For reasons that Sun Microsystems has yet to explain, late last week the company decided to pull its briefings on Galaxy servers based on Intel's new Xeon 5500 (née Nehalem EP), and focus instead on how Solaris 10 is being tuned for the new chip. Sun did put out a statement about its server launch slated for April 14, and …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I must admit

    I don't think I've *ever* watched a video presentation that resulted in a win. Good way to keep the PHB amused though I guess.

    Video is a painfully slow way to get information, and it's pretty much modal too. Can I watch while I drive to work? No. Can I watch it in the shower? No. Oh. Server pr0n, now there's a niche ;)

  2. Pony Tail
    Linux

    ironic

    Ironic that our last glimmer of technology the T2+ will be killed by Nehalem and we are helping the demise with Solaris support.

    someone please buy us and put us our of our misery....I need a golden parachute

    but then again Linux looks like the right answer....crazy that we sell more windows and linux on our x86 boxes than solaris

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Cor

    It's Matt Bryant's love child.

    The interesting question is that if you turn off cores with Turbo Boot, can you avoid having to pay for Oracle licenses for them...

    Our minimum license cost went right up when we couldn't get dual core CPUs any more.

  4. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    RE: Cor

    "It's Matt Bryant's love child...." Ouch! Hey, I was drunk, but not THAT drunk! I blame the so-called friends that set me up on that blind date, when they said she was "a fab girl" they weren't lying!

    "...The interesting question is that if you turn off cores with Turbo Boot, can you avoid having to pay for Oracle licenses for them..." Seeing as Oracle can detect and use new Itanium cores when added or removed using TiCAP, I'd guess it could detect Nehalem cores being switched on or off. However, the current Oracle licensing is based on the maximum possible number of cores you could use in an OS instance, so if you switch off a core it doesn't make any difference seeing as you've already paid for the core license whether you are using it or not. Oracle would have to come up with a flexible licensing scheme. As it is, we don't use the Oracle Utitlity Billing software, but I think it just bills end users of your database instances rather than adjusts your base licenses for the number of cores you are using. Any Oracle gurus that know better please let me know!

    "....Our minimum license cost went right up when we couldn't get dual core CPUs any more." Well, someone's got to pay for Larry Ellison's MiG fun, do you have any idea how expensive that JP-5 is? On a more practical note, the new E5502 chip is the low-power dual-core version, so there is a way to upgrade without doubling core licensing costs and maybe even save some on the lecky bill.

  5. David Halko
    Happy

    Irony & Cor

    Pony Tail remarks, "Ironic that our last glimmer of technology the T2+ will be killed by Nehalem"

    For Web Server performance, there is nothing else in the T2 class for straight performance.

    http://spec.org/cgi-bin/osgresults?conf=web2005&op=fetch&proj-COMPANY=256&proj-SYSTEM=256&proj-PEAK=256&proj-HTTPSW=256&proj-CORES=256&proj-CHIPS=256&critop-CHIPS=0&crit-CHIPS=1&proj-CORESCHP=256&proj-CPU=256&proj-CACHE1=0&proj-CACHE2=0&proj-CACHE3=0&proj-MEMORY=0&proj-NETNCTRL=0&proj-NETCTRL=0&proj-NNETS=0&proj-NETTYPE=0&proj-NETSPEED=0&proj-TIMEWAIT=0&proj-DSKCTRL=0&proj-DISK=0&proj-SCRIPTS=0&proj-WEBCACHE=0&proj-OS=0&proj-HWAVAIL=0&crit2-HWAVAIL=Jan&proj-OSAVAIL=0&crit2-OSAVAIL=Jan&proj-SWAVAIL=0&crit2-SWAVAIL=Jan&proj-LICENSE=0&proj-TESTER=0&proj-TESTDAT=0&crit2-TESTDAT=Jan&proj-PUBLISH=256&crit2-PUBLISH=Jan&proj-UPDATE=0&crit2-UPDATE=Jan&dups=0&duplist=COMPANY&duplist=SYSTEM&duplist=CORES&duplist=CHIPS&duplist=CORESCHP&duplist=CPU&duplist=CACHE1&duplist=CACHE2&duplist=CACHE3&duplist=NETTYPE&dupkey=PUBLISH&latest=Dec-9999&sort1=PEAK&sdir1=-1&sort2=SYSTEM&sdir2=1&sort3=CORESCHP&sdir3=-1&format=tab

    Since the T2+ scales from 1 to 4 processors and a single-socket octal-core T2+ manages web loads nearly as fast a quad-socket hex-core Intel, it seems very highly unlikely that the new Intel Nehalem processor is close to 4x faster than a quad-socket hex-core Intel system... since that is what would be required to kill the T2+.

    Anonymous remarks, "Our minimum license cost went right up when we couldn't get dual core CPUs any more."

    You just have to get yourself from SUN platforms and run Solaris 10 (capped) Containers.

    http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/partitioning.pdf

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like