New UltraSPARC T2 Blades for IBM's BladeCenter?

Opening the specification for a product can do wonderful things for the product and its customers. Other companies can use the specification to build products and services that support and compliment the original product. The net result is everyone benefits. Customers get more choice and competition, the original company expands the ecosystem of supporting products without having to invest R&D dollars, and the third-party companies receive another outlet for their products and services. Everyone is happy. But opening the specification has its risks as well. An open specification means the vendor no longer has control over which products get developed and the vendor’s "master product plan" may take a few detours. That is exactly what happened with the Themis T2BC blade from Themis Computer in Fremont, California.

Themis responded to a DoD requirement for a blade that would run Solaris applications natively on SPARC. The customer wanted the blades to run in existing IBM BladeCenter T chassis so they could consolidate a number of older SPARC servers onto blades. They were already using IBM’s BladeCenter in the program. Fortunately, BladeCenter was available since IBM has an open specification that encourages anyone to download the spec and build products for the BladeCenter Ecosystem. The "Niagara 2" UltraSPARC T2 processors were also available since Sun Microelectronics was actively seeking OEM partners for the new processor. According to Themis, the UltraSPARC T2 processor was selected over the UltraSPARC T1 because it has a more balanced floating-point performance. Another benefit of the T2 is that it has eight SPARC cores that can run the older Solaris applications in a native SPARC environment. When Sun’s LDOMs and Solaris Containers are used, the architecture becomes a compelling consolidation platform for older Solaris applications that cannot be ported to run natively on Solaris on x86. Many of these applications were running on Solaris 8 and the Solaris Migration Assistant provides an environment in which those Solaris 8 applications can run.

While developing the T2BC, Themis began to wonder if there might be a commercial market for such a blade. Sun recently launched the Sun Blade 6000 and the UltraSPARC T2-based Sun Blade T6320 and those products are the perfect solution for the majority of those who need to run on native SPARC blades. IBM BladeCenter already runs Solaris applications on its Xeon and Opteron blades, but the Themis T2BC meets the needs of those applications that must run on native SPARC. However launching such a product commercially requires commitments from all three vendors. Sun needs to ensure that its Solaris Operating Environment and management tools work properly on the Themis T2BC, and IBM needs to ensure that its Director management software recognizes and manages the blade. Without support from both companies, this product has limited chances of success.

IDEAS had the opportunity to talk with senior executives at Themis, Sun, and IBM. Frankly, we were expecting some serious spin control from Sun and IBM as they attempt to position the T2BC blade into an ever smaller market niche so that they can protect their own product turf. Even though Sun and IBM will not be selling the blade directly, both vendors surprisingly reinforced their decision to partner with Themis. Sun was overwhelmingly positive about the commercialization of the T2BC, and IBM stated that its Global Services group welcomes the opportunity to support the new blades should customers prefer IBM support over support from Themis. Even thought this blade server goes against each vendor’s blade strategy, IBM and Sun are cooperating nicely to help make the Themis T2BC a success. The CEO of Themis summed it up perfectly. "This blade isn't about microprocessor architecture or operating system wars, but rather about enabling Solaris applications to run natively within a BladeCenter Ecosystem.  We see this product expanding markets for both IBM and Sun technology." We could not have said it better. IDEAS feels the Themis T2BC is headed for success, and we give this new level of cooperation and partnership a strong ‘thumbs up.’