Sun Fire is a series of
server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
computers introduced in 2001 by
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...
(since 2010, part of
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...
). The Sun Fire branding coincided with the introduction of the
UltraSPARC III processor, superseding the
UltraSPARC II
The UltraSPARC II, code-named "Blackbird", is a microprocessor implementation of the SPARC, SPARC V9 instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Sun Microsystems. Marc Tremblay was the chief architect. Introduced in 1997, it was further deve ...
-based
Sun Enterprise series. In 2003, Sun broadened the Sun Fire brand, introducing Sun Fire servers using the Intel
Xeon
Xeon ( ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same arc ...
processor. In 2004, these early Intel Xeon models were superseded by models powered by AMD
Opteron
Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''SledgeHa ...
processors. Also in 2004, Sun introduced Sun Fire servers powered by the
UltraSPARC IV
The UltraSPARC IV ''Jaguar'' and follow-up UltraSPARC IV+ ''Panther'' are microprocessors designed by Sun Microsystems and manufactured by Texas Instruments. They are the fourth generation of UltraSPARC microprocessors, and implement the 64-bit S ...
dual-core processor. In 2007, Sun again introduced Intel Xeon Sun Fire servers, while continuing to offer the AMD Opteron versions as well.
SPARC
SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed ...
-based Sun Fire systems were produced until 2010, while
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mod ...
based machines were marketed until mid-2012. In mid-2012, Oracle Corporation ceased to use the Sun Fire brand for new server models.
Operating systems
UltraSPARC-based Sun Fire models are licensed to run the
Solaris
Solaris may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film
* ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem
** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg
** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...
operating system versions 8, 9, and 10. Although not officially supported, some
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
versions are also available from third parties, as well as
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by forking NetBSD 1.0. According to the website, the OpenBSD project em ...
and
NetBSD
NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was forked. It continues to be actively developed and is a ...
.
Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron based Sun Fire servers support Solaris 9 and 10,
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by forking NetBSD 1.0. According to the website, the OpenBSD project em ...
,
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version ...
versions 3 - 6,
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise (often abbreviated to SLE) is a Linux-based operating system developed by SUSE. It is available in two editions, suffixed with Server (SLES) for servers and mainframes, and Desktop (SLED) for workstations and desktop compu ...
10 and 11,
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), releas ...
,
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...
,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, and
2008 R2 .
Model nomenclature
![Sun Fire T2000](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Sun_Fire_T2000.jpg)
Later Sun Fire model numbers have prefixes indicating the type of system, thus:
* V: entry level and mid-range rackmount and cabinet servers (UltraSPARC, IA-32 or AMD64)
* E: high-end enterprise class cabinet servers with high-availability features (UltraSPARC)
* B:
blade server
A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, whil ...
s (UltraSPARC or IA-32)
* X: rackmount x86-64 based servers
* T: entry level and mid-range rackmount servers based on
UltraSPARC T-series ''CoolThreads'' processors
When Sun offered Intel
Xeon
Xeon ( ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same arc ...
and AMD
Opteron
Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''SledgeHa ...
Sun Fire servers under the V-Series sub brand, Sun used an x suffix to denote Intel Xeon processor based systems and a z suffix for AMD Opteron processor based systems, but this convention was later dropped. The z suffix was also used previously to differentiate the V880z Visualization Server variant of the V880 server.
Sun's first-generation
blade server
A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, whil ...
platform, the Sun Fire B1600 chassis and associated blade servers, was branded under the Sun Fire server brand. Later Sun blade systems were sold under the
Sun Blade
Sun Blade is a line of blade server computer systems sold by Sun Microsystems from 2006 onwards.
In June 2006, Sun announced the AMD Opteron-based Sun Blade 8000 modular blade server system. The Sun Blade 8000 chassis can hold up to 10 Sun Blade X ...
brand.
In 2007, Sun,
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...
and
Fujitsu Siemens
Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH was a Japanese and Germany, German vendor of information technology. The company was founded in 1999 as a 50/50 joint venture between Fujitsu, Fujitsu Limited of Japan and Siemens of Germany. On April 1, 2009, the c ...
introduced the common
SPARC Enterprise The SPARC Enterprise series is a range of UNIX server computers based on the SPARC V9 architecture. It was co-developed by Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu, announced on June 1st, 2004 and introduced in 2007. They were marketed and sold by Sun Microsyst ...
brand for server products. The first SPARC Enterprise models were the Fujitsu-developed successors to the midrange and high-end Sun Fire E-series. In addition, the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers were rebranded as the SPARC Enterprise T1000 and T2000 and sold under the Fujitsu brands, although Sun continued to offer these with their original names. Later T-series servers have also been badged SPARC Enterprise rather than Sun Fire.
Since late 2010,
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...
no longer uses Sun Fire brand for their current
T series SPARC servers, and since mid-2012 for new X series x86-64 machines based on Intel Xeon CPUs. x86-64 server models which had been developed by Sun Microsystems before its acquisition, and were still in production, have all been rebranded as Sun Server X-series.
Sun Fire model range
Some servers were produced in two versions, the original version and a later
RoHS
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), short for Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, was adopted in February 2003 by the European Unio ...
version. Since a general maintenance and upgrade guideline is that RoHS components and spares may be installed into the original non-RoHS versions of that server, the
end-of-life (EOL) date of a server is deemed the EOL date of the RoHS version of that server in this listing.
UltraSPARC architecture
x86/x64 architecture
Sun Server / Oracle Server
As of 2012, the x86 server range continued under the "Sun Server" or "Oracle Server" names.
See also
*
Fireplane
Fireplane is a computer internal interconnect created by Sun Microsystems.
The Fireplane interconnect architecture is an evolutionary development of Sun's previous Ultra Port Architecture (UPA). It was introduced in October 2000 as the processo ...
References
Sun System Handbook, Version 2.1.8, April 2005
External links
Sun Servers Sun Microsystems
{{Oracle
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...
Oracle hardware
Computer-related introductions in 2001
SPARC microprocessor products