Sun introduces server line for low-end market

SAN FRANCISCO: Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. introduced

easy-to-use lower-end servers on Wednesday, aiming to capture an emerging market

for plug-and-play machines supporting Internet services.

The Cobalt line, developed by a company Sun acquired and including some

products costing less than $1,000, will pit Sun against personal computer makers

who have concentrated on more commodity-like machines such as Compaq Computer

Corp. and Dell Computer Corp.

"I think you have to look at Cobalt as a destructive technology,"

John McFarlane, executive vice president for Sun's Network Service Provider

group, told a presentation. "We are going to aggressively attack the PC

server market."

The technology hardware market has begun to fragment from huge systems meant

to handle every need to machines that perform one task well and can be linked as

demand rises, the so-called appliance approach to systems.

A booming new market for service providers such as telephone companies and

Web hosting companies is eager to buy such server appliances and could form a

$11.4 billion market by 2004, according to International Data Corp.

Sun's Cobalt line runs the open Linux operating system, a departure from its

emphasis on a proprietary flavor of Unix known as Solaris, but officials said

the operating system was irrelevant to users that did not intend to modify it.

Sun also introduced a low-end Solaris machine in the Netra line, also

starting at less than $1,000. Critics like competitor International Business

Machines Corp. say the move to Linux could undermine Solaris.

But Sun officials said the appliance market would not cannibalize its base of

high end users, even though some of the demand would come from large companies

adding appliance servers for ease of use.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.