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Sun to launch high-end server ‘Starkitty’

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN FRANCISCO: Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. is set to

announce a new server next week that will tap the market just below its

highest-end multimillion dollar machines, sources close to the company said on

Tuesday.

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Code-named "Starkitty", the new machine is based on the "Starcat"

Sun Fire 15K, Sun's top of the line server which holds up to 106 processors. It

is expected to debut on April 9.Sun spokeswoman Kasey Holman declined as a

matter of policy to comment on unannounced products.

Sun and archrival International Business Machines Corp. have been fighting

with technology and prices to capture share in the moribund market for servers

running the Unix operating system, which is used in sophisticated corporate

networks and to run the Internet.

The sources said that the Starkitty would fill the niche between the 15K,

which costs $1.8 million in a 24-processor configuration, and the midrange Sun

Fire 6800, a machine that holds up to 24 processors and costs about $550,000 and

up for a 12-processor configuration, according to Sun's Web site.

Competition has heated up between Sun, IBM and the third major Unix vendor,

Hewlett-Packard Co. as recession-wary corporations have frozen technology

budgets, and analysts have given mixed signals about Sun's recent performance.

Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich said on Monday that Sun's revenue for

its third quarter ended March 31 would be flat to slightly up over the prior

quarter, in line with the company's predictions, leading the stock to rally. But

Goldman Sachs analyst Laura Conigliaro sent Sun shares down on Tuesday, when she

cut trimmed her third quarter revenue forecast and forecast a 10 cent per share

loss, a penny wider than her previous estimate.

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