Photos: Sun fires up Niagara servers

This photo shows the circuitry of Sun's eight-core UltraSparc T1 "Niagara" processor.

Sun Microsystems' Sun Fire T2000 server is the first to use its UltraSparc T1 "Niagara" processor.

The server, which is set to launch Tuesday in New York, begins at $7,795, and a top-end model costs $25,995.

Sun's UltraSparc T1 processor consumes a maximum of 72 watts and can simultaneously execute 32 instruction sequences called threads. Although the chip has eight processing engines, called "cores," Sun is selling versions with six and four cores.

The Sun Fire T1000 server costs between $2,995 and $10,995. It shares several components with the X4100 member of Sun's "Galaxy" line of x86 servers.