http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/26/sun_x86_play/

The fresh Xeon-based servers from Sun mark the company’s most muscular play to date in the x86 realm. The four-socket 2U X4450, in particular, has Sun pushing the equivalent of a midrange SMP down into the heart of the so-called “commodity” market. This move plays well with Sun’s historic strengths in the SMP (symmetric multi-processing) arena and supports Sun’s “R&D will win” mantra.

Since entering the x86 market, Sun has more or less gone through two generations of hardware. Initially, it relied on systems designed by then Opteron-based server start-up Newisys. Sun tried to learn from its mistakes with this somewhat generic gear by later rolling out a fresh line of Opteron-based systems.

This interesting article from theregister is talking about Sun’s development of their servers in the x86 markets, and it seems quite positive. I agree, the more choice Sun offers in its server range, the better chance that a user will find a system or configuration that meets their business needs. It’s also helped with competition in these markets, continuing innovation has to be a good thing for the market and the end user, as well as bring new opportunities like IBM and Solaris.