Alternative chip architectures are taking some thunder away from Intel's x86 at this week's International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt. The ARM architecture, which dominates mobile-device chips, will appear in Fujitsu's next flagship supercomputer.
Oracle has sketched out a five-year road map for Sun's Sparc-based servers, hoping to reassure customers about the future of the platform and reverse a pattern of declining sales.
Oracle, which spent $US7.4 billion to acquire once-high-flying Sun Microsystems, has been losing prominent Sun technologists since shortly after the deal was forged. The acquisition was supposed to give Oracle control not only over such technologies as Sun's flagship Java implementation and Sun's Sparc hardware, but access to engineers and developers who were nothing short of celebrities in their field. But it has not worked out that way.
Oracle on Wednesday tried to answer the question that has vexed much of the technology industry since it announce its acquisition of Sun Microsystems last April: How will Oracle make the ailing systems and software vendor a profitable part of its business?
Oracle plans to broaden its range of virtualization offerings, thanks to a number of applications obtained in the Sun Microsystems acquisition, said Oracle chief architect Edward Screven.