Sun expands NEBS server line

Sun this week is announcing a server for telecommunications customers that ships with NEBS-compliant storage arrays.

The Netra 440 is designed for carriers and service providers who need a scalable server for running services such as video messaging, VoIP or Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA).

The server includes Solaris 9 and will be upgradeable to Solaris 10, which is expected later this year.

The Netra 440 starts at $14,000. According to Sun’s claims, the price of the Netra 440 is nearly half that of an equivalent HP Itanium system.

It is a four-processor system, which fits in a 5U high enclosure.

The 440 can be accompanied by new StorEdge storage arrays. The Sun StorEdge 3120 SCSI array accommodates over half a terabyte of data and ranges in price from $5,000 to $11,000. The StorEdge 3511 SATA array is half the cost of Sun’s Fibre Channel arrays. It starts at $27,000 and uses Serial ATA drives. Sun expects the 3511 to be used instead of expensive Fibre Channel storage for data that doesn’t change over time.

The Netra uses DC rather than AC power. It is available in three models – one with 4G bytes of SDRAM and two 73G-byte drives, one with 8G bytes of SDRAM and four 73G-byte drives, and a third with 16G bytes of SDRAM and four 73G-byte drives. All models run at 1.28 GHz and use the UltraSPARC IIIi processor. They each also feature two 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet adapters and six PCI slots.

Optional equipment for the Netra 440 includes a dual-port Ultra-3 SCSI host bus adapter and a PCI-based dual Fibre Channel adapter.

On an unrelated note, a recent newsletter on the convergence of storage with blade servers raised the ire of many readers:

https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/servers/2004/0517server2.html

The story simply said that IBM had trumped HP with the introduction of Fibre Channel switches in its eSeries BladeCenter products. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, readers say. IBM had already been integrating QLogic Fibre Channel switches into its blade servers for a year.

Qlogic’s Fibre Down I/O architecture, the integration of Fibre Channel host bus adapters, management controllers and switches into blade servers, was announced in February 2003.  The Fibre Down technology ships in IBM’s eServer BladeCenter HS40 and HS20 blade servers, as well as with IBM’s new BladeCenter JS20.