When Sun announced that it had built a new line of industry standard 64-bit servers from the ground up, the news marked a significant turning point for Sun, as well as a new industry benchmark for server performance1.

The new x64 servers not only support virtually any operating system that runs on the ubiquitous x86 architecture, but also they do so while offering more performance, less power consumption, and more responsive management. Sun assembled a veritable galaxy of Sun's brightest stars to get an inside-the-box view of the new x64 family of servers.

IC: In general, what is Sun's goal for the new x64 servers? And, specifically, what markets are the x64 servers intended to address?

David Lawler, Director of Product Definition and Strategy: The entry-level Sun Fire X2100 server, with a starting list price of $745 (US), will address enterprise solutions that provide redundancy at application layer. Sun Fire X4100 and Sun Fire X4200 servers provide highly redundant systems that provide Sun RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) at the hardware layer. All Sun Fire x64 servers are intended for enterprise customers. Of course, other customers are welcome to buy them, too.