HPCwire: Sun Unveils High Performance Video Streaming System

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April 27, 2007

Sun Unveils High Performance Video Streaming System

NEW YORK, April 26 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today introduced the Sun Streaming System -- the industry's first massively scalable and cost-effective video delivery platform for cable and telecommunications operators, which helps operators increase subscriber revenue by offering new video-based services and personalized, unique video streams to each consumer. Unveiled at the 6th annual Tribeca Film Festival in Lower Manhattan, a world-class venue for the international film community to demonstrate the power of film, the system leverages the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) to deliver the highest video streaming capacity in the industry by enabling cost-effective personalized video delivery over existing optical network infrastructure -- consequently reshaping the economics and quality of video delivery services.

Designed by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, Sun's cutting-edge system design enables the Sun Streaming System to support up to 160,000 simultaneous, unique video streams at the rate of 2Mbps and a price of less than $50 per stream for complete video headend -- which is approximately 10 times the streaming capacity of competitive platforms. Thirty-two integrated 10 Gigabit Ethernet optical networking ports combine multiplexing, switching and routing all in one high-density video streaming package.

"Video on demand and IPTV are expected to become widely available by 2010," said Andy Bechtolsheim, Chief Architect and Senior Vice President, Sun Systems Group. "The Sun Streaming System's revolutionary design allows operators to capitalize on that market opportunity and deliver unique content and relevant advertising to each subscriber, increasing revenue for operators and advertisers. As the first industry solution to offer 160,000 video streams per switch, it is also the industry's most scalable and cost-effective solution. We are extremely excited to see where the industry will go with this new architecture."

The Sun Streaming System is an integrated platform that is composed of a distributed software suite running on Sun Fire x64 systems, storage and switching technologies. Key components of the Sun Streaming System are the new Sun Streaming Software, the new Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch, the Sun Fire X4500 data server and the Sun Fire X4100 systems, which together provide the highest streaming throughput in the video services industry at the lowest cost:

Sun Streaming Software: Based on open industry standards, the Sun Streaming Software is a single point of control to operate and manage the entire video streaming system. The software enables operators to reduce time to market for deploying new services by supporting more than 20 video streaming features, such as: MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats; bit-rate support from 1Mbps to 20 Mbps; standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) streaming; encrypted and clear content streaming; at least six trick-play settings; Network Personal Video Recorder (nPVR) capabilities; and splicing and personalized playlists for permission-based target advertising. Open software standards, such as CORBA, XML, HTTP and RTSP, allow operators to easily integrate third-party components for an end-to-end video headend solution.
Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch: A scalable memory cache-based content switching and streaming engine, the Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch provides the highest available streaming density at 320 Gbps and up to 2 terabytes (TB) of memory to enable scalable video streaming with a low cost per stream.
Sun Fire X4500 server: By integrating state of the art server and storage technologies, the Sun Fire X4500 server powered by Second- Generation AMD Opteron processors delivers the performance of a four-way x64 server and the highest storage density available, with 24 TB of storage in seven inches of rack space for up to 9,400 hours of 2Mbps video content storage.

Customers, Partners and ISVs Show Support for Sun Streaming System's Market-Changing Economics

Sun is aligning with several resellers, partners and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), including EDS and Nortel, to bring the Sun Streaming System's market-changing economics to customers in the video services industry.

"Nortel is focused on IPTV as a critical enabler of our video strategy, which aims to help our carrier customers increase revenues by adding video- rich applications to their services mix. As we work to transform networks to accommodate the increasing requirements of video, we are partnering with the best of the industry's best to provide the most comprehensive, best-performing IPTV solution to our customers," said Sameer Sheth, general manager, Video Solutions, Nortel. "The Sun Streaming System, which combines high performance in a cost-effective platform, will facilitate the introduction of competitive new video applications and is a strong addition to Nortel's IPTV solution ecosystem."

"The Sun Streaming System is a best-of-breed solution that allows customers to consolidate their infrastructure and save on management costs," said Sue Chevins, Global Leader, Communications, Media & Entertainment Industry at EDS. "This breakthrough platform is a key part of EDS' Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) strategy. It allows us to leverage the innovation of an Agility Alliance partner to augment our core Managed Services competencies as Sun's preferred Systems Integration partner in the IPTV marketplace."

Early access and beta customers such as Acetrax of Europe have already been testing the Sun Streaming System. In addition, a number of ISV and Independent Hardware Vendor (IHV) solutions have been integrated and tested with the system, bringing together an end-to-end deployment architecture for video delivery services. These partners include Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), AMD, Amino, Digisoft.tv, Harmonic, IMAKE Software, Juniper Networks, Minerva Networks, TANDBERG Television, Tellabs, Verimatrix and Widevine. For quotes and more details on customer and ISV support of the Sun Streaming System, please visit http://www.sun.com/servers/networking/streamingsystem/perspectives.xml.

Sun also announced today its Sun Solution Center at the Menlo Park campus for the Sun Streaming System/IPTV solution. The center allows potential customers, OEMs and ISVs to test the Sun Streaming System's capabilities, architect and validate an end-to-end solution. It is currently involved in partner enablement and pilot projects. For more information on how to engage with the Sun Solution Center, please visit: http://www.sun.com/ssc.

In addition, Sun announced today a range of services to help optimize Sun Streaming System performance and ROI, including on-site installation and testing; factory integration and end-to-end support; and access to Sun experts to ensure a smooth and productive experience. Sun is rolling out a software subscription that includes fundamental software services such as telephone and online technical support, software updates and upgrades, and self-help tools and notifications. For more information on services for the Sun Streaming System, please visit http://www.sun.com/servers/networking/streamingsystem/support.xml.

The Sun Streaming System is available now. For more information, please visit http://www.sun.com/streamingsystem.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

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Source: Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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