Citation (IEEE): IDC, “Sun Launches CoolThreads Servers, Based on Niagara CMT Microprocessor,” International Data Corporation, Event Flash, Dec. 2005.
What it argues
An industry analyst’s brief on Sun Microsystems’ December 2005 launch of servers built on a new chip-multithreading processor, designed for throughput on many simultaneous tasks at low power. It assesses the competitive impact of the launch and notes that Sun had decided to skip a planned generation of conventional processors to make the bet. That makes it a compact case of a high-stakes product planning and architecture decision.