There, Sun will use the Xen virtualization software, due to arrive in a Solaris update scheduled to show up in the first half of 2007, said Larry Wake, group manager for Solaris marketing. Sun also is working on building equivalent technology for its x86 servers, which use Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processor. LDoms will work on today's Niagara-based systems, their "Niagara 2"-based successors due in the second half of 2007, and on their high-end "Rock"-based cousins due in 2008, Parmar said. IBM and HP lagged Sun when it came to first introducing hardware-partitioning technology to their Unix server lines, but both companies beat Sun to market with virtualization technology to slice up a server more finely than four-processor chunks. Earlier this year, Sun had said the logical domain technology was scheduled to appear in 2006. LDoms are arriving a bit later than earlier forecast. The technology works on Sun's servers using UltraSparc T1 "Niagara" processor, whose design permits 32 separate instruction sequences called threads to run at the same time. LDom technology, which lets a single processor run as many a 32 independent operating systems, strikes a balance between these earlier approaches. At the other extreme, when Sun released Solaris 10 in 2005, it introduced technology called containers that makes a single instance of the operating system appear to be separate partitions. Customers using the technology will require the 11/06 update to Solaris 10, due in November, and either new hardware due in January or a firmware update to existing Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, said Pradeep Parmar, product manager of business strategy for Sun's server group.įor Sun, the LDom approach adds a third, intermediate option when it comes to sharing multiple tasks on a single machine.įor years, customers have been able to carve higher-end Sun servers into slices called hardware partitions with as few as four processors per partition. The technology, called logical domains, or LDoms, is the latest move in a race to make servers as flexible and efficient as possible through a general technology called virtualization. Sun Microsystems plans to introduce a new feature in early January to let its UltraSparc T1-based servers run multiple operating systems simultaneously, partly matching abilities of rival machines from IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
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