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With
the demand for computing power exploding among the distributors of
media rich Internet content, some analysts believe Sun (Nasdaq: SUNW)
is poised for a rebound in demand following five years in the
wilderness.
The
Mountain-View, Calif.-based technology company has enacted a number of
initiatives in the past five years, helping it slowly move back to
profitability after the dot-com bust in 2001.
Could Sun be the dot in Web 2.0?
With
the demand for computing power exploding among the distributors of
media rich Internet content, some analysts believe Sun (Nasdaq: SUNW)
is poised for a rebound in demand following five years in the
wilderness.
The
Mountain-View, Calif.-based technology company has enacted a number of
initiatives in the past five years, helping it slowly move back to
profitability after the dot-com bust in 2001.
The most notable development, one analyst contends, its UltraSPARC
T1 processor, with an architecture fit for tomorrows "Web 2.0"
Internet.
"What distinguishes the T1 from competitive offerings," Needham's
research analyst, Charlie Wolf, contends, "is that each of the chips 8
cores contains four instruction sequences, or threads."
The design allows advanced operating systems to "see 32 processors
in all", he explains, making it perfect to power Internet servers,
where multi-tasking is essential.
More importantly, the chips are the first designed from the ground
up specifically for Internet workloads and for running current and
next-generation web, application and distributed database systems.
Multimedia delivered on top of broadband Internet - such as
Google's YouTube video service - will continue to gain ground, and the
companies that serve this content need to build large, "mega-scale"
infrastructures.
"The T1 appears to align Sun perfectly with the needs of mega-scale
computing companies whose mission is to deliver content, which is
beginning to rapidly migrate from text to video," Wolf says. "These
companies are likely to turn to suppliers who can provide sophisticated
systems at competitive prices rather than companies focused simply on
the assembly of generic boxes."
Sun's processor consumes less energy than competing chips. The chip
consumes just 72 watts of power, much less than Intels Xeon processor,
which consumes from 110 to 165 watts, making it ideal in large-scale
applications.
The company is already investing in the T1's successor, with
management already announcing its "Victoria Falls" chip scheduled to
begin manufacturing in October of 2008. The new chip will be a 16 core,
128 thread processor.
Despite the outlook, however, Needham retained its hold valuation
for the technology firm, contending that Sun is already fairly valued
at its current level.
"To trigger an upgrade, we would have to make more aggressive
assumptions regarding Suns revenue growth and operating margin," Wolf
concluded.
Sun rose 1.43 percent on Tuesday, gaining 9 cents to close at $6.38 in Tuesday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Read the original article: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070220/sun-server-t1.htm
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