Sun is introducing new rack and blade servers Tuesday running its UltraSPARC T2 processors, pitching them as ideal for virtualization and energy efficiency. Sun also is developing a software suite that it says can virtualize both competitors’ systems and its own.

The SPARC Enterprise T5120 (list price $14,000) and T5220 ($15,000) and Sun Blade T6320 ($10,000) servers use the T2, introduced in August by Sun’s newly created Microelectronics unit. The 65nm-processor features eight cores per socket supporting 64 threads of processing capacity on a single chip.

Sun also sells the x64-based Sun Fire X4450 and X4150 servers running Intel’s quad-core Xeon processors.

To simplify server management, both the SPARC and the Sun Fire servers adopt a “unified system design,” meaning they share a similar layout. “We have the same chassis, the same types of drives, same placement of drives, fans, et cetera, for ease of management and repair,” says Warren Mootrey, senior director of volume SPARC systems products. The unified design should help sell SPARC-based servers to existing x64 customers, he added.

The T2 processors are more energy efficient than earlier processors because eight processing cores run in one socket, Mootrey says. Also, the more computing the processor can do, the better it is at virtualization.