Sun Enterprise is a line of UNIX servers manufactured by Sun Microsystems from 1996 to 2001 . The line was launched as Sun Ultra Enterprise , in 1998, the Ultra prefix was dropped. These systems were based on the UltraSPARC 64-bit microprocessor architecture and were related to the Ultra series of workstations. Like Ultra systems, they used the Solaris operating system. Various Sun Enterprise models have been produced, from entry-level single-processor servers to high - performance multi - processor servers. Enterprise-branded products have been replaced with Sun Fire models since 2001.
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Derivatives from Ultra Workstations
The first Sun servers using UltraSPARC I processors were launched in 1995 and were called UltraServer 1 and UltraServer 2. They were server configurations of Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 workstations, respectively. Later, they were renamed to Ultra Enterprise 1 and Ultra Enterprise 2 for consistency with the names of other models. Then an Ultra Enterprise 150 server was added to them, which included an Ultra 1 motherboard in a tower enclosure with 12 hard drives.
In 1998, Sun released UltraSPARC IIi based server configurations for Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 workstations, called Enterprise Ultra 5S and Enterprise Ultra 10S, respectively.
Entry Level Servers
Sun Enterprise 450 was a popular entry-level multiprocessor server. It was launched in 1997 and had up to four UltraSPARC II processors. Sun Enterprise 250 was released in 1998 and had two processors. In 1999, Enterprise 220R and Enterprise 420R were added to them. Models 220R and 420R were based on Ultra 60 and Ultra 80 workstation motherboards, respectively. Model 250 was later replaced by the Sun Fire V250, and 450 by the Sun Fire V880. Server 220R was replaced with Sun Fire 280R, and 420R with Sun Fire V480.
Ultra Enterprise X000 / Enterprise X500 mid-tier servers
In 1996, Sun replaced the SPARCserver 1000E and SPARCcenter 2000E with Ultra Enterprise 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 models. These were multiprocessor servers based on a single architecture using the Gigaplane bus and the UltraSPARC I or II processors. [one]
Model 3000 was a desktop server and had up to six processors and 10 hard drives, while 4000 had a rack server and had up to 14 processors. The Ultra Enterprise 6000 server had up to 30 processors.
In 1999, Enterprise 3500, 4500, 5500 and 6500 models were introduced. They were X000 enhanced systems with a faster Gigaplane bus (up to 100 MHz, depending on the processor clock frequency, instead of 83 MHz). The 3500 also differed from the 3000 by the presence of eight processors. Enterprise X500 products have been replaced by Sun Fire 3800/4800/6800 servers.
Enterprise 10000
Enterprise 10000 ("Starfire") is a high-performance multiprocessor server with the ability to install up to 64 UltraSPARC II processors. It was primarily developed by Cray Research’s Business Systems Division as a follower of the Cray Superserver 6400 , which was an early Sun-4d server. After purchasing Cray by Silicon Graphics in 1996, this division was sold to Sun, which released Starfish as an Ultra Enterprise 10000 in 1997.
Starfire used a Gigaplane-XB fault-tolerant connection between the processor and the memory. Like the X000 and X500 servers, Starfire combined many of the highly available features, including the ability to be split into several domains, each of which could load its own instance of Solaris. Starfire servers were used by many companies during the dotcom boom, in particular eBay , usually the price of a fully configured server was about $ 1 million.
Starfire has been replaced by the Sun Fire 12K / 15K model .