The End of an Era for Sun UltraSPARC
According to various reports I’m reading on OS and Hardware authorities, it would appear that Sun Microsystems is E.O.L’ing all of the existing UltraSPARC workstations. Seeming to be a common trend in hardware manufacturers, the x86 arch comes out on top again. In this case, all signs are pointing to Intel based offerings such as the Sun Ultra 24 Workstation.
True, this transition has been underway for a long while, mirroring what occurred when Apple ditched PowerPC. The whole process makes a ton of sense for Sun, considering x86 is overwhelming the workstation market. In additions, strict RoHS requirements for large businesses have probably put some pressure on UltraSPARC’s power hungry, heat belching chips. Sun’s efforts with Fujitsu to release their next-gen version of SPARC for servers should attract the attention.
All these news tidbits about the UltraSPARC brings feelings of nostalgia. One of my first “Real” workstations was the pizza box SPARCstation 10. A truly great learning experience that opened the door to OpenBSD. It didn’t take much convincing to remove the aging version of SunOS that came preloaded on the box from the garbage heap.