Sun released a product description on Friday for four new servers based on Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron server  chips. But the company quickly took the document off its Web page on Friday afternoon, according to IDG, which reported on the contents of the Sun product presentation.
The document reportedly outlined four new servers, two low-priced machines and two on the high end. Industry experts say Sun has shown decent growth in the x86 server category, which includes computers equipped with Intel chips as well as AMD's Opteron.
But the company still draws most of its revenue from its servers with Sparc processors that run its Unix-based Solaris software.
On Sale
The information in the Sun product sheet, which Sun would not confirm or deny after the fact, revealed a new generation of servers using 64-bit chips in the x86 market.
When and if the new machines will be sold is unclear. Sun is currently having a sale -- 15 to 18 percent off -- on its Opteron-based servers. It is possible the sale is a precursor to a new product release.
The machines outlined in the inadvertent PDF include a single-unit Opteron-based device armed with two hard drives, a dual processor and 16 GB of RAM; and a 2U machine, which essentially doubles up on the features of the 1U server.
On the high end, the Sun document reportedly described a 4U four-way Opteron-based computer as well as a 4U eight-way machine.
Price Is Right
Sun is no white-box manufacturer, so features of its newest x86 devices are of special interest to the tech crowd. Still, Sun has not yet carved out a significant business by selling servers with Intel and AMD chips.
"We're only talking about three and a half percent of its revenue in the fourth quarter," said Gartner analyst Mike McLaughlin.
McLaughlin acknowledges that Sun has shown a commitment to the x86, which has been felt as strong growth within the company. "With Solaris becoming an open-source software I could see Sun growing its x86 server sales," he offered.
But there are stiff challenges. The midpriced section of the server market is hollowing out as servers costing less than US$5,000 and those costing more than $500,000 take the lion's share of revenues.
Translated, that means Sun is up against IBM on the high end and Dell on the low end, not to mention Hewlett-Packard on both.
Dell is enjoying a server market -- the $10,000 and under market -- which grew 60 percent in the fourth quarter while other categories were flat according to Gartner. Sun can get some of that pie, but the firm will have to appeal to more price-conscious customers.
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