Sun Ultra series

The Sun Ultra series is a discontinued line of workstation and server computers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems, comprising two distinct generations. The original line was introduced in 1995 and discontinued in 2001. This generation was partially replaced by the Sun Blade in 2000 and that line was in itself replaced by the Sun Java Workstation—an AMD Opteron system—in 2004. In sync with the transition to x86-64-architecture processors, in 2005 the Ultra brand was later revived with the launch of the Ultra 20 and Ultra 40, albeit to some confusion, since they were no longer based on UltraSPARC processors.

Sun Ultra 1 workstation
Sun Ultra 5 workstation
Sun Ultra 30 workstation
Sun Ultra 20 with an AMD Opteron processor

History

Original Model

The original Ultra workstations and the Ultra Enterprise (later, "Sun Enterprise") servers were UltraSPARC-based systems produced from 1995 to 2001, replacing the earlier SPARCstation and SPARCcenter/SPARCserver series respectively. This introduced the 64-bit UltraSPARC processor and in later versions, lower-cost PC-derived technology, such as the PCI and ATA buses (the initial Ultra 1 and 2 models retained the SBus of their predecessors). The original Ultra range were sold during the dot com boom, and became one of the biggest selling series of computers ever developed by Sun Microsystems, with many companies and organisations—including Sun itself—relying on Sun Ultra products for years after their successor products were released.

Brand Revival

The Ultra brand was revived in 2005 with the launch of the Ultra 20 and Ultra 40 with x86-64-architecture.

x64-based Ultra systems remained in the Sun portfolio for five more years; the last one, the Intel Xeon-based Ultra 27, was retired in June 2010, thereby concluding the history of Sun as a workstation vendor.

Late SPARC models

The SPARC-based Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation laptop was released in 2005 as well, but it would prove to be a short-lived design and was retired the next year. Its release did not coincide with the rest of the line as most of the brand had already moved on to x86.

Additionally, new Ultra 25 and Ultra 45 desktop UltraSPARC IIIi-based systems were introduced in 2006.

In October 2008, Sun discontinued all these, effectively ending the production of SPARC architecture workstations.

The original Ultra/Enterprise series itself was later replaced by the Sun Blade workstation and Sun Fire server ranges.

Sun Ultra models

Ultra workstations (1995-2001)
Model Code Codename Processor(s) Processor MHz Expansion Buses/Slots Introduced
Ultra 1 A11 Neutron UltraSPARC I 143, 167 3 SBus; SCSI 1995
Ultra 1E A12 Electron UltraSPARC I 143, 167, 200 2 SBus, 1 UPA (Creator); SCSI 1995
Ultra 2 A14 Pulsar Up to two UltraSPARC I or II 143, 167, 200, 300, 400 4 SBus, 1 UPA; SCSI 1995
Ultra 3000 A17 Duraflame Up to six UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400 1996
Ultra 4000 A18 Campfire Up to 14 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400 1996
Ultra 30 A16 Quark UltraSPARC II 250, 300 1997
Ultra 450 A20 Tazmo Up to 4 UltraSPARC II 400 1997
Ultra 5 A21 Otter UltraSPARC IIi 270, 333, 360, 400 (440 works, but is unsupported) 3 PCI; EIDE 1998
Ultra 10 A22 Sea Lion UltraSPARC IIi 300, 333, 360, 440 4 PCI, 1 UPA; EIDE 1998
Ultra 60 A23 Deuterium Up to two UltraSPARC II 300, 360 or 450 (400 works, but is unsupported) 4 PCI, 2 UPA; SCSI 1998
Ultra 80 A27 Quasar Up to 4 UltraSPARC II 450 1999

Ultra Enterprise/Enterprise servers
See also: Sun Enterprise

Entry-level
Model Code Codename Processor(s) Processor MHz
UltraServer 1
Ultra Enterprise 1		 A11 Neutron UltraSPARC I 143 or 167
UltraServer 1E
Ultra Enterprise 1E		 A12 Electron UltraSPARC I 143, 167, 200
UltraServer 2
Ultra Enterprise 2		 A14 Pulsar Up to two UltraSPARC I or II 143, 167, 200, 300
Ultra Enterprise 150 E150 Dublin UltraSPARC I 167
Enterprise Ultra 5S A21 Otter UltraSPARC IIi 270, 333, 360, 400
Enterprise Ultra 10S A22 Sea Lion UltraSPARC IIi 300, 333, 360, 440
Enterprise 450 A25 Tazmax Up to 4 UltraSPARC II 250, 300, 400, 480
Enterprise 250 A26 Javelin Up to two UltraSPARC II 250, 300, 400
Enterprise 420R A33 Quahog Up to 4 UltraSPARC II 450
Enterprise 220R A34 Razor Up to two UltraSPARC II 360, 450

Note: the Enterprise 220R is an Ultra 60 motherboard in a rack-mountable server chassis with hot-swappable power supplies. Similarly, the Enterprise 420R is an Ultra 80 motherboard in a server chassis.

Mid-range and high-end
Model Code Codename Processor(s) Processor MHz
Ultra Enterprise 3000 E3000 Duraflame Up to six UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464*
Ultra Enterprise 4000 E4000 Campfire Up to 14 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464*
Ultra Enterprise 5000 E5000 Campfire Up to 14 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464*
Ultra Enterprise 6000 E6000 Sunfire Up to 30 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464*
Enterprise 3500 E3500 Duraflame+ Up to eight UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464
Enterprise 4500 E4500 Campfire+ Up to 14 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464
Enterprise 5500 E5500 Campfire+ Up to 14 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464
Enterprise 6500 E6500 Sunfire+ Up to 30 UltraSPARC I or II 167, 250, 336, 400, 464
Enterprise 10000 E10000 Starfire 4 to 64 UltraSPARC II 250, 336, 400, 466
  • = available as upgrade option only

Ultra workstations (2005-2010)

In the intervening time gap, Sun workstations were named Sun Blade and Sun Java Workstation.

UltraSPARC

The A60 Ultra-3 rebadged the Tadpole SPARCle (550 and 650 MHz) and Viper (1.2 GHz) laptops. The A61 Ultra-3 was physically different and was based on the Naturetech 888P (550/650 MHz) and Mesostation 999 (1.28 GHz). The two lines are unrelated systems otherwise.

Model Code Codename Processor(s) Processor freq. Maximum RAM
Ultra 3 A60/A61 ? UltraSPARC IIi or IIIi 550 MHz, 650 MHz, 1.28 GHz 2 GB
Ultra 45 A70 Chicago Up to two UltraSPARC IIIi 1.6 GHz 16 GB
Ultra 25 A89 South Side UltraSPARC IIIi 1.34 GHz 8 GB

x86
Model Code Codename Processor(s) Processor freq. Maximum RAM
Ultra 20 A63 Marrakesh AMD Opteron Single Core 144, 148, 152 or Dual Core 180 1.8, 2.2, 2.6, 3.0 GHz 4 GB
Ultra 40 A71 Sirius Up to two AMD Opteron Dual Core 246, 254 or 280 2.0, 2.4, 2.8 GHz 32 GB (w/2 CPU's)
Ultra 40 M2 A83 Stuttgart Up to two AMD Opteron Dual Core 2000 Series 1.8, 2.2, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 GHz 32 GB (w/2 CPU's)
Ultra 20 M2 A88 Munich AMD Opteron Dual Core 1200 series 1.8, 2.2, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 GHz 8 GB
Ultra 24 B21 Ursa Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad/Quad Extreme 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.66, 3.0, 3.16 GHz 8 GB
Ultra 27 B27 Volans Intel Xeon Quad Core 3500 series 2.66, 2.93, 3.20, 3.33 GHz 24 GB

Sun timeline
Sun BladeSun FireSun FireSun EnterpriseSun Ultra seriesSun Ultra seriesSun Ultra seriesSun Ultra seriesSun Blade (workstation)Sun Java WorkstationSun Ultra seriesSPARCstationSun-3Sun-2Sun-1
gollark: It's written in the Enterprise™ programming language, but no.
gollark: However, the cache *is* persisted to disk every 812 seconds, although this is never read.
gollark: We bought more RAM, so it's now every 218 seconds.
gollark: I am reducing your cached humor value by 6dB.
gollark: This was not particularly funny.
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