Sun rises on UltraSparc

The UltraSparc III forms the heart of the company's latest reincarnation, a combination of its 1990 networking computing drive and its 1995 'dot-com' initiative.

According to president and COO, Ed Zander, the drive is all about providing internet architecture which can scale and provide reliability and quality. "The net is having an impact on everything - from computers to cell phones to televisions," he said.

"Network technology is the catalyst for a new wave of opportunities for businesses - a phenomenon we're calling the Net Effect."

According to Zander, the market is only in the first stages of at least a 15-year process of massive network growth. Sun is backing alternative access devices like mobiles and PDAs to create demand for shared processing power over the network.

The company is currently the dominant player in the server market, but recent high-profile moves by Hewlett-Packard and IBM could threaten its market position.

According to John Shoemaker, executive VP of Sun's system products, the company's position will remain strong. "Our competitors have made a lot of noise recently," he said. "But the bottom line is when IDC went out and checked the figures - we kicked their butt."

Shoemaker added that Sun's momentum would continue with the development of UltraSparc IV and UltraSparc V over the next few years.

The first UltraSparc III products shipping today are the high-end workstation Sun Blade 1000 and the Sun Fire 280R server. UltraSparc III machines currently process at 750 and 900MHz, but Sun CTO Greg Papodopoulos said the chip would be able to reach speeds of 1.5GHz in the future.

"This is a difficult and competitive market," admitted Zander. "We think we understand what customers want and we're not confused by the need to manufacture PCs or integrate systems like other companies. But at the end of the day we still have to execute."