Ask the Experts: Java Web Start (April 10-14)

Got a question about Java Web Start, the one-click deployment solution for Java applications on the desktop? Post it during this session and get answers from three key members of the Java Deployment team in J2SE: Andy Herrick, Thomas Ng, and Cheng Dan.

Anandtech has a review of the Sun “Coolthreads” T2000 server up. Look for SunHELP’s review of the T1000 sometime in April or early May.

Today, Sun released the hardware design for the “OpenSPARC T1”, the open-source version of the UltraSPARC T1 processor.

Along with the Verilog source for the processor, Sun has also released a verification suite, simulation models for the processor, and Solaris operating system images for simulation testing.

According to Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s public computing grid will be available later this week at a cost of $1/CPU-hour (payments accepted via PayPal as well). It will be opening with 5000 CPUs at first, and will have web services APIs available.

Jason Hoffman at Joyent has a great writeup about his attempt to purchase massive quantities of servers from Dell, HP, and Sun.

The end result? He has Dell systems installed, due to Sun’s inability to simply sell him systems or even return phone calls. In one case, it was suggested that he order $220K worth of systems through the web site!

This is a good example of how Sun needs to cut the baggage out of their sales process and make it easier for someone to call up, talk directly to a sales person who has the power to work with pricing, and place an order.

Dell does this, why can’t Sun?

Sun’s OpenSPARC Cool Tools community has released GCC for SPARC Systems.

This version of GCC 4.01 is able to use the optimizing Sun Code Generator for SPARC systems. Also released are the Automatic Tuning and Troubleshooting System and the Binary Improvement Tool, which can be used to optimize compilation for maximum performance on SPARC processors.

According to this mailing list post, a test version of Ubuntu Linux is now available for UltraSPARC T1-based (Sun T1K/T2K) systems.

Part Two of Ben Rockwood’s excellent tutorial is online.

Visual Panels is an OpenSolaris project that aims to provide the ability to graphically manage and change settings on a Solaris system.

Tim Bray interviews Mads Toftum of the Apache Softfware Foundation about their use of a V40Z and StorEdge 3511 disk array, both donated by Sun. (via Alan Hargreaves)

Ben Rockwood has posted Part 1 of his excellent “Accelerated Introduction to Solaris 10” tutorial and overview.

SunHELP contributor Ben Rockwood has posted an excellent walkthrough of using iSCSI under OpenSolaris (or S10u1) to utilize storage on a NetApp filer.

Sun today announced Project Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology), which encourages “pervasive” computing by providing a Java-based wireless sensor development kit that will be sold to educational and research institutions and hobbyists.

From the press release: “The Sun Labs Project Sun SPOT technology evaluation kit will include three Sun SPOTs: two stand-alone devices and one base station. All three Sun SPOTs include a processor board with 32-bit ARM9 CPU, 512 KB RAM and 4MB Flash memory, 2.4 GHz radio and USB interface. Each stand-alone Sun SPOT also includes a 3D accelerometer, temperature and light sensors, 8 tri-color light emitting diodes (LEDs), six analog inputs and 8 general purpose I/O ports for controlling relays, stepper motors and servos. The kit also includes a J2ME virtual machine, NetBeans(TM) 5.0 and a USB cable.”

The Sun SPOT technology evaluation kit is expected to be available in May at a price of $499.

More information is available at SunSPOTWorld.

Michael Larabel of Phoronix has a good article up detailing his experiences in using nVidia’s “SLI” multi-GPU support under Solaris x86.

In this open letter to HP CEO Mark Hurd, Sun CEO Scott McNealy proposes merging HP-UX into Solaris 10 in order to give HP’s non-Itanium 64-bit x86 customers a migration/upgrade path from their existing HP-UX systems.