CHANNEL NEWS

In a splash of publicity, Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., unveiled its Sun Fire 15K Starcat server, which the company proclaimed as the world's largest single-cabinet Unix server system.

Marketed as an alternative to mainframe computers, this server comes with up to 106 64-bit processors (with hot-swap capability), 576 gigabytes of memory and an interconnect throughput speed of 172 gigabytes per second.

Not to be outdone, IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., released what it called "the world's most powerful server," which it's marketing as an alternative to Sun's Starcat. The IBM eServer p690, formerly code-named Regatta, features IBM's advanced POWER4 microprocessors, each containing two one-gigahertz-plus chips, and a cache-to-processor throughput of nearly 125 gigabytes per second.

Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, announced a trade-in program whereby customers could get an additional 10 percent against trade-in offers for selected IBM and Sun servers when purchasing from HP's own Superdome line of servers. That program runs through Jan. 25, 2002.

On the supercomputer front, Cray Inc., Seattle, announced it will be producing the SX-6 series of supercomputers in limited capacities by the end of 2001. Priced at under $1 million each, the Cray SX-6 Series, scalable to eight teraflops, will be available to all civilian federal agencies and approved federal contractors under the SEWP III contracts awarded to Cray and network integrator Government Micro Resources Inc., Manassas, Va.License management service provider Corporate Software Inc., Norwood, Mass., was awarded a two-year blanket purchasing agreement by the Defense Department to provide software products from Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif. Adobe software enables digital signatures, editing capabilities and secure portable document format, or PDF, documents.

Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, has provided hydrographic data processing software to
the Naval Oceanographic Office. SAIC developed this software under a two-year development program to provide data processing and analysis tools to help users process, edit and analyze large volumes of hydrographic data for sea-floor mapping.Affiliated Computer Services Inc., Dallas, has chosen seat management solution provider Provance Technologies Inc., Gatineau, Quebec, to help manage ACS' statewide desktop seat management contract with Virginia. The agreement will cover up to 200,000 desktops across state agencies, local governments and educational institutions.

Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, will use Lindon, Utah-based Altiris Inc.'s remote, automated server deployment software for its own ProLiant server line, giving the servers remote server deployment capabilities, valuable in dense server environments. Object Design, a division of eXcelon Corp., Burlington, Mass, is offering a 50 percent discount on the list price of its products to federal government agencies in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The company's application data management, application development and middleware tools can be used by organizations to cross-reference different data sources.