Sun's Rock doomed from start, analysts say

Sun's development Rock processor was a troubled project that may never have stood a chance, analysts said following reports that the chip had been axed.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Sun had cut development of the 16-core Rock chips, which were designed to go into high-end servers. The multithreaded processor would have doubled the core count from Sun's fastest server processor today, the eight-core UltraSparc T2, and was targeted at enterprise servers to process data-intensive applications like databases.

Rock's development had been a high-priority project within Sun, and the company poured plenty of money into its development. Sun had high expectations for the chip, which blended high multithreading capabilities with quick instruction processing. Rock was originally due for release in 2008, but Sun said last year that it had delayed the release until the second half of 2009.

Ultimately, the continuous delays made Rock's development a costly affair for Sun. Rock also suffered as incrementally better chips from rivals such as IBM, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices hit the market.

Rock may have gotten buried under the weight of its costs and high expectations, said Gordon Haff, principal IT adviser at Illuminata. Sun has refused to comment on Rock's future, but Haff said that the report of its demise "certainly is a very believable rumor."

Rock's development took a hit as budgets got lower and the chip saw many glitches during the development process, said a financial analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to speak with press. The budget for the development shrunk as the company lost server market share to its competitors like IBM and Intel, he said.

Key Sun employees involved in its development also left the company over the past few years, which affected Rock's development, the financial analyst said. The departures included former Executive Vice President of the Microelectronics David Yen, who left for Juniper Networks in 2008, and respected chip designer Marc Tremblay, previously a chief technology officer in Sun's microelectronics business, who bolted for Microsoft this year to work as a distinguished engineer.

Even if Rock had made it to market, it would have been an uninteresting processor as companies like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are offering high-performance chips at more reasonable prices, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

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