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SPARC Product Directory

reporting the SPARC® market since 1992

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1  terabyte solid state disk storage with 12x 4Gbps FC ports -  StorageSPIRE - from Solid Data Systems
StorageSPIRE
1 terabyte solid state disk
from Solid Data Systems
.
Sun authorized resellers & SPARC VARs in the USA
Quorum offers real-time resource control for any application across any system.
Quorum - High Availability & Workload
Management appliance from Themis
Manage upto 50 servers in real-time, any
application, any server - 1 simple interface.
the Fastest SSDs
the Top 10 SSD Companies
Predicting Future Flash SSD Performance
Are MLC SSDs Ever Safe in Enterprise Apps?
RAM SSDs versus Flash SSDs - which is Best?
Sanitization Methods for Cleaning Up Hard Disk Drives
SPARC history:- this SPARC VAR page in 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.

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Nirvanix Rains on Amazon

SAN DIEGO - April 22, 2008 - Nirvanix today announced a 30-day free trial promotion for users who want to test its online storage service.

Nirvanix also announced the availability of its 'Amazon S3 Migration Tool' which enables the easy migration of files from an Amazon Simple Storage Service account while preserving folder structures.

"For a company with just 50 terabytes of archived data, for instance, this fee holiday can mean a setup savings of well over $9,000 to move to the world's fastest, most reliable cloud storage platform in the world" said Jonathan Buckley, Chief Marketing Officer with Nirvanix. ...Nirvanix profile, online backup and storage


SPARC T2 Gets Carrier Grade Linux

SAN JOSE, CA - April 16, 2008 - Wind River Systems, Inc. today announced it will port its Carrier Grade Linux and Workbench development suite to Sun's UltraSPARC T2 processor.

This will be the first carrier grade Linux for Sun's CMT processors. Sun's Netra Carrier Grade rack servers and ATCA blades will be the first CMT systems to run Wind River Carrier Grade Linux. ...Wind River profile, Operating Systems for SPARC servers


the Top 10 SSD OEMs in Q1 2008

Editor:- April 2, 2008 - STORAGEsearch.com today published the 4th edition of - "the Top 10 Solid State Disk OEMs."

Covering the quarter ending March 31, 2008 - the article also looks at market milestones and comments on changes since the earlier quarters.

Inevitably - over 60 SSD oems couldn't make it into the top 10 SSD list (and that includes enterprise rackmount SSD wannabe EMC which lay just outside at #11.)

If you're choosing SSD suppliers or strategic partners - this is the must-see predictive list of the top companies that matter - based on hundreds of thousands of readers searching for SSD content on the site rated most highly by SSD companies themselves. ...read the article


Fujitsu Targets Fast Growing 2.5" HDD Segment

Sunnyvale, CA - March 24, 2008 - Fujitsu today announced its 2nd generation 7,200 RPM SATA hard disk drive - the MHZ2 BJ with upto 320GB in a 2.5" form factor will start shipping in Q2 08.

R/W power consumption is typically 2.3W and in standby mode power drops to 0.13W.

"Worldwide shipments of 2.5" 7,200R PM SATA HDDs increased more than 90% in 2007 while average overall 2.5-inch HDD capacities grew more than 60%," said John Monroe, a research VP at Gartner. "As average HDD capacities continue to increase, the need for greater performance to take full advantage of rich media applications in mobile computing environments will create new dimensions of demand and new opportunities for drive makers and PC OEMs. We anticipate a combined annual growth rate for 2.5" 7,200 RPM SATA HDDs in excess of 60% during the next 5 years." ...Fujitsu profile


TSMC SPARC CPUs will Have Even More Cores

SANTA CLARA, Calif - February 19, 2008 - Sun Microsystems Inc. today announced that it had selected Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company as its foundry partner for processors based on a 45-nanometer design as well as future generations.

Sun will continue to design its chips while long-time Sun partner TI will continue to test and build the 45-nanometer processors in TSMC.

"After a lengthy evaluation we selected TSMC for one reason: they're simply the best at turning complex processor designs into silicon," said David Yen, Sun's executive vice president, Microelectronics group. "TSMC is already fully engaged with engineers from both Sun and TI and I expect we'll all benefit from the cross-pollination of ideas among these three companies."

Sun, which currently designs processors based on 90- and 65-nanometer processes, is moving to the smaller 45-nanometer to allow more circuitry to be squeezed onto the same amount of silicon. The result: chip designers are free to add new features such as processing cores or encryption engines that improve overall chip performance.

The 45-nanometer design process also allows Sun to increase the number of threads per processor. storage chips


XML Firewall Supports Solaris on SPARC

Vancouver, Canada - February 11, 2008 - Layer 7 Technologies announced today its XML Firewall and XML Networking Gateway software products support Solaris 10 on SPARC platforms from Sun Microsystems.

The SecureSpan XML Firewall provides advanced identity and message level SOA security for cross-domain, B2B and portal applications, while the SecureSpan XML Networking Gateway adds support for complex SOA message routing, mediation, virtualization and Service Level Agreements. In addition to gateway software Layer 7 also offers a family of turnkey, hardware-accelerated XML appliances for the data center. ...Layer 7 Technologies, Storage Security


It's Groundhog Day for 8Gbps Fibre Channel HBAs

COSTA MESA, Calif - February 6, 2008 - Emulex Corp today announced availability of its 8Gb/s Fibre Channel host bus adapters.

Designed to maintain backward compatibility with existing 4Gb/s and 2Gb/s products, Emulex PCI Express 2.0-based 8Gb/s HBAs enable a seamless transition to next-generation SANs. ...Emulex profile

Editor's comments:-
my first reaction to this was - hadn't I already run a similar story about QLogic sampling 8Gbps HBAs last August? Turns out I had. That's why Emulex's white paper Fact vs. Fiction - What QLogic doesn't want you to know (pdf) is also getting a link here.


How Many Apps on Solaris? etc

Editor:- January 24, 2008 - an article published today on ITJungle.com discusses how many ISVs actually support Solaris.

An interesting part of the article is speculation about how some other OS's which were important in SPARC's infancy have fared since. According a Sun survey cited in the article most ISVs still love Solaris.

That's in stark contrast to IHVs. Most IHVs which strongly supported the SPARC platform in the 1990s exited the market many years ago. Although there are genuine opportunities for leveraging Sun's newer processors many IHVs are safer with Intel architecture processors because of the availability of alternative sources.

That's the coffee which helped create the buzz about SPARC in the early 1990s - when many chipmakers made SPARC chips which could be used in workstations. It could happen again. When someone is prepared to go public on this I'll let you know on these pages.
US SPARC VARs with profiles
4Sunparts.com

A3NET Servers

Abacus Solutions

Advanced Systems Group

Ajava Systems

Alphanumeric Systems

AMES Sciences

Anteon

AnySystem.com

ASCDI

AVCOM Technologies

Beatty and Company Computing

Bell Microproducts

Cambex

Canvas Systems

Clerity

Computech Systems

Computer Clearing House

Computer Connection of CNY

Computer Giants

Continental Resources

Cray

Cyberbuzz

Datalink

Data Storage Depot

Decru

Delta Marketing Group

DoveBid

Dynamic Solutions International

EDS

eGlobe Solutions

Electro Rent

Epic Systems

FusionStorm

Government Acquisitions

Government Micro Resources

GTSI

IBDS

Ingram Micro

Innovative Systems Design

ITParade.com

James River Technical

Keystone Memory

Laurus Technologies

MCA Computer

Memoryx

Millennium Information Technologies

Minicomputer Exchange

Mosaic Technology

MTI Technology

NCR

NewTec Reps

NextCom

Nu Horizons

PDC Solutions

PDSi

Pyramid Technology Services

Quest International

Radiant Resources

Rave Computer

Recurrent Technologies

SiliconIron

SirsiDynix

Solarcom

Solar Systems & Peripherals

Strategic Technologies

SunnyTech

Sun Valley Technical Repair

Tactix

Tech Data

Technologent

Technology Asset Group

The Root Group

TidalWire

Twin Cities Digital

Unicom Solutions

Unisys

Vibrant Technologies

VTS

West Coast Computer Exchange

World Data Products

World Wide Technology

XS International
find Sun VARs by state
AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT,
FL, GA, HI, IA, IL,
IN, KY, MA, MD, MI,
MN , MO, NC, NH, NJ,
NM, NV, NY, OH, OR,
PA, RI, SC, TN, TX,
VA, VT, WA, WI
Dynamic Solutions International supplies solutions for the financial and banking markets
DSI is the premier supplier of solid state
disk solutions to the financial services industry.

Vibrant Technologies has been selling Sun servers since 1998
Vibrant Technologies buys and sells new and used
IT hardware, shipping servers, storage and networking
equipment all around the world to over 3,500 customers.
A supplier of used Sun SPARC servers and upgrades
since 1998.

Sun Ray compatible notebooks from Accutech
Sun Ray compatible notebooks
from Accutech Ultrasystems

Used Sun Servers from from Vibrant Technologies
Used Sun Servers
from Vibrant Technologies
.
Squeak! - the Solid State Disks Buyers Guide
This is the 5th annual edition of this very popular report.

The earlier edition of this article was the most popular storage article viewed by STORAGEsearch.com's readers in the previous year.
the solid state disks buyers guide
The SSD Buyers Guide lists all SSD products commercially available in the market by form factor, interface type and memory technology. It also includes a summary of key milestones in the SSD market in the past year. ...read the article, solid state disks
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About These Sun SPARC Reseller Resources

Editor:- in the early 1990s ACSL, publisher of the SPARC Product Directory compiled an independently researched database of VARs who sold SPARC compatible systems and Sun SBus compatible cards. Our worldwide SPARC database reached a peak of approximately 1,500 companies.

This database was used by most of the OEMs in the market (including Sun) to accelerate the growth of the SPARC market and expand the international channels for these products. We discontinued supplying that list in 1996 when we switched from print to a web format.

Most Sun VARs were slow in switching to the web, and I estimated that less than 50% had made this transition when I wrote my February 2000 article - Why are most Sun resellers invisible on the web?

At the peak of the dotcom market at the end of 2000, our online SPARC VAR directory (this page) included over 300 companies which actively sold and promoted Sun compatible workstations, servers, notebooks or other hardware. I estimated that was about half the number who would have counted themselves as Sun VARs, but our list included the active half.

In the following 5 years the SPARC systems market declined in revenue by 50%, and 95% of the OEMs which had once made SPARC computers had exited the market. As a result the number of active Sun VARs has declined sharply too.

One of the effects of the web, pioneered by Dell, has been disintermediation - that's the reduction in the supply chain between OEMs and end-users by a reduction in unnecessary channels. In the Sun market VARs have always been more highly regarded than in other segments of the computer market. That's why this page for Sun VARs has, for most of the last 10 years, been one of the highest volume pages on this site.
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Squeak! - Animal Brands and Metaphors in the Storage Market
Squeak! - Animal Brands and Metaphors in the Storage Market
Animal marketing metaphors are popular in service industries, but you'd be surprised how many companies have used animals in their marketing of data storage products and services.

The storage market was worth over $150 billion in 2005, and as it gets bigger - more companies will turn to animal brands to help differentiate their otherwise bland products and lend them artificial (or deserving) characters and virtues.

The idea behind this type of marketing is to suggest positive connotations so it's unlikely that anyone will choose to associate their products with gremlins. But you may be surprised by the population of the storage ark.

This reference articles lists all known companies who have furry marketing brands, and also includes some which are slimy, scaly and scary too. ...read the article, Mice in storage

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SPARC history
SPARC History
Spellabyte and Terrorbyte loved sitting around
the campfire, discussing the good old days of
SPARC computing.
Storage History - Squeaks-a-Bit
History of storage
on STORAGEsearch.com
Megabyte's ancestor, Sir Squeaks-a-Bit,
had come over to England in 1066 with
William the Conquerer's ship in a barrel of
Normandy cheese.
research would have come in useful here
Market research on
STORAGEsearch.com
Market research can help you avoid going
down a dead end track and being gobbled
up by the failed storage company eating
monster.
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SPARC Product Directory US VARS on STORAGEsearch.com PCI cards
SPARC manufacturers SPARC computers Marketing Views
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SPARC(R) is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. SPARC PRODUCT DIRECTORY(SM) is a service mark of SPARC International, Inc used under license by ACSL. Products using the SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.