Sun Launches First Blades with Intel

Sun Microsystems is trying to grab more of the blade server market with its launch of the first model from its new alliance with chip maker Intel, reports InfoWorld. Sun said the Sun Blade X6250 (starting list price: $3,695) is a two-socket server with dual-core Intel Xeon processors in each. It's the first Intel-based Sun server since the two companies announced in January a deal to design and market servers using Intel chips and the Solaris operating system. It unveiled three other blades Wednesday as well, saying the selection showed Sun's commitment to the x86 market. Sun lags behind Hewlett-Packard and IBM in sales, but using Intel could make Sun more competitive. With Intel in the portfolio, Sun catches up to the competition in performance and might be able to negotiate better prices, according to TGDaily.