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The download page has changed, so you can download it now at the usual locations at the sun website

The "What´s new in What's New in the Solaris 10 10/08 Release" document is online at docs.sun.com. Thus you can get an overview what you can expect from the next release of Solaris 10.

I will provide a list of the features for you in this article. For more informations please consult the linked article. As you see, there was a lot of development in the ZFS part of Solaris 10. Another really interesting feature is the update-on-attach for Zones. This solves some problems like the migration of zones from normal SPARC to a CMT SPARC system (sun4u versus sun4v).

Okay, in Solaris 10/08 aka Update 6 you will find:

• Installation Enhancements
• Solaris Installation for ZFS Root Pools
• System Administration Enhancements
• ZFS Command Improvements and Changes
• ZFS installation and boot support
• Rolling back a ZFS dataset without unmounting
• Enhancements to the zfs send command
• ZFS quotas and reservations for file system data only
• new ZFS storage pool properties
• ZFS command history enhancements
• support for upgrading ZFS filesystems
• ZFS delegated administration
• Setting up separate ZFS logging devices
• Creating intermediate ZFS datasets
• ZFS hot-plugging enhancements
• GZIP compression now available for ZFS
• Storing multiple copies of ZFS user data
• Solaris Installation Tool Support of ZFS File Systems
• Solaris interactive text installer to install a UFS or a ZFS root file system.
• Custom JumpStart features to set up a profile to create a ZFS storage pool and designate a bootable ZFS file system.
• Migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system by using the Solaris Live Upgrade feature.
• Set up a mirrored ZFS root pool by selecting two disks during the installation.
• Automatically create swap and dump devices on ZFS volumes in the ZFS root pool.
• SunVTS 7.0 Patch Set 3
• lockstat Provider for DTrace. DTrace lockstat probes that displayed the spin count (spins) now returns spin time in nanoseconds.
• System Resource Enhancements
• New Solaris Zones Features
• Update on Attach.
  If the new host has the same or later versions of the zone-dependent packages and their associated patches, using zoneadm attach with the -u option, updates those packages within the zone to match the new host.[...] This option also enables automatic migration between machine classes, such as from sun4u to sun4v.
• Ability to Set Default Router in Shared-IP Zone
• ZFS Zone Path Permitted
• x86: New GRUB findroot Command
• x64: Support for 256 Processors
• System Performance Enhancements
• SPARC: Solaris SPARC Boot Architecture Redesigned
• x86: Kernel Support for Intel SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, and AMD SSE4A
• Security Enhancementy
  • Separation of Duty Enforcement Through the Solaris Management Console
  • SHA256/SHA512 crypt(3C) Plug-in
  • pam_list Module
• Desktop Enhancements
• SPARC: Adobe Reader 8.1.2
• Flash Player 9.0.124.0
• Networking Enhancements
• Communication Protocol Parser Utilities
• SIP End-to-end Traffic Measurements and Logging
• Device Management Enhancements
• Faulty Device Retirement Feature
• MPxIO Support for Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage Series Arrays
• Driver Enhancements
• x86: NVIDIA ck804/mcp55 SATA Controller Driver
• x86: LSI MegaRAID SAS Controllers Driver
• ixgbe Driver. The ixgbe is a 10 Gigabit PCI Express Ethernet driver that supports Intel 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller.
• SPARC: Support for aac Driver
• Additional Software Enhancements
• Perl Database Interface and Perl PostgreSQL Driver
• PostgreSQL 8.3
• Language Support Enhancements
• IIIMF Hangul Language Engine. The Hangul LE (Language Engine) is a new Korean input method.
• Freeware Enhancements
• C-URL - The C-URL Wrappers Library
• Libidn - Internationalized Domain Library
• LibGD - The Graphics Draw Library
• TIDY HTML Library
You will find Solaris 10/08 for download at the usual locations, but at the moment there is still the 05/08 release.

Jonathan wrote an interesting article about his perspective on the first quarter of the current fiscal year: Understanding Sun's Business - Q1 Results. Really worth a read.

On our first quarter of this fiscal year:

Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 on a GAAP basis was $1.677 billion, or $(2.24) per share on a diluted basis, as compared with a net income of $89 million, or $0.10 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. GAAP net loss per share includes a $1.445 billion non-cash charge for goodwill impairment. It also includes a restructuring charge of approximately $63 million pursuant to the restructuring that commenced in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.

On a non-GAAP basis, net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 was $65 million, or $(0.09) per share on a diluted basis, as compared with a non-GAAP net income of $285 million, or $0.32 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

One of the critics about the M3000 isn´t the system itself. It´s the price for the memory. But as alway, this isn´t about making Sun rich. There are technical reasons for this: Let´s assume you buy an x86 system. Most of the systems are phased out within 3 years or so. Now think about Suns: I know several customers, that still uses E250 or E450 for certain tasks. Without any problems. This systems were current system 8 years ago. But they still work. The reason for this: Extreme quality standards for components.

It´s important to know, that electronics scatter vastly in the fulfillment of their specifications. This is the reason, why there is a frequency number on your processors, on your memory. Because the fulfillment of specification may vary with the frequency or with the temperature or the age. So you test your electronics and print the most expensive frequency in accordance to your specifications on the chip casing (okay, there are some problems with a matured manufacturing, sometimes you don´t produce enough low specification modules, so you have to downgrade better parts). This scatter in quality lies in the nature of mass producing electronic parts.

When Sun wants to sell memory, the standards are really rigid. At first, we don´t take the memory from the spot market and sell it. At first Sun defines exact specs for the memory. If the memory module doesn´t fullfil this specs within a really thin margin ... back to the drawing table for the manufacturer. When the manufacturer fullfil this specs, Sun takes modules from the last few months from all fabs of the manufacturer and check the modules by aging them artificially: A month or two at a temperature above the specs running at the threshold frequency. In a month you can simulate a several years lifetime of the memory module.

When more than really small number of modules fail in this time ... well ... back to the drawing board for the manufacturer. Just when all tests are fulfilled within the really narow test specification, the memory modules are used for the our SPARC servers.

So: Why do you have to spend so much money for the memory. Well ... if you want DIMMS within +/- 10 percent of the specification you can choose from a vast amount of modules. If you want memory modules within 0.5% of your specification, the choice gets really thin. At 0.1% they are hand selected (this are not the current numers ... numbers just choosen to give you an impression). The same for long time stability: If you want a series of memory modules with a lifefime of 3 years, you get choose from a vast amount of memory modules. At 10 years the story looks really different. So we want the cream of the crop of memory modules in at least two dimensions. And when you want to have the best quality, you have to pay for it. So we can´t simply take this el-cheapo DIMMS from the market and put it into a SPARC server. We have to buy the expensive modules from the manufactures, as the manufacturer know as well, that they sell their top quality to us.

To answer the overarching question: Does high-quality memory modules really matter? Yes ... definitly. Perhaps not for your PC at home. But surely for systems running your business for the next years.

Clifford Stoll was the guy, who found some hackers hired by the KGB in his system 20 years ago. In computer security he is known for his book "The Cuckoo's Egg" (albeit it´s more a popular science book), which describes the hunt after the attackers. 2 years ago he held a presentation at TED. His style is a combination of Carl Sagan and Roger Rabbit (as a commentator at the TED site wrote) but it gives you many interesting insights. Really worth a look.

Sun and Fujitsu jointly announced the system codenamed Ikkaku today : Sun SPARC Enterprise M3000.

The M3000 is a single-socket system for the SPARC 64 VII CPU, thus it´s a 4 core system, executing up to 8 threads. Up to 32 GB memory. 4 PCI-Slots. So it´s an entry-level system. Starting at $14.795,00.

But before you compare it with your favourite brand of el-cheapo x86 systems. This system shares many RAS features of his bigger brothers: Instruction Retry on processor level ... ECC for memory ... ECC for the interconnect between system controller and the CPU ... ECC for integer registers ... parity for floatingpoint registers ... fault isolation ... a single defective core doesn´t keep the system from starting up, etc. ... well ... just read the architecture whitepaper on your own.

I had my trip back to Hamburg from Toulouse today. Was a nice flight. Well, except the contact with the ground crew in Toulouse. I had the impertinence to try to board while the boarding of rows 12 to 25 took place. The look from the lady was able to kill mere mortals. She didn´t allowed me to board the plane. Okay ... waiting 30 seconds. She announced the immediate boarding of all rows. Now i was allowed to enter the aircraft. Dammed! French people are really pedantic for a nation with a revolution in its history ...

Also irgendwie muss die Bahn noch ein wenig an ihrem CRM System arbeiten. Ich habe meine Nachfolge-Bahncard im Abo erhalten:

[...] natuerlich mit allen exklusiven Vorteilen, von denen nur unsere besten Kunden profitieren. Denn ab sofort geniessen Sie den bahn.comfort Status"

Hmm ... find ich ja auch toll das ich in die Lounge darf ... aber ab sofort ... ich glaube ich bin schon seit 2003 in diesem Frequently-Delayed-Programm ....

There is a new benchmark from Sun for SAP on the SAP website. SAP certified the benchmarking of the Sun Fire X4600 with quadcores. This benchmark result is especially interesting when you compare it to another 8 socket system - the HP ProLiant DL785. Both systems have the same basic characteristics:

The Sun hardware:

Sun Fire X4600M2, 8 processors / 32 cores / 32 threads, Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processor 8360 SE, 2.5 GHz, 128 KB L1 cache and 512 KB L2 cache per core, 2 MB L3 cache per processor, 128 GB main memory

The HP hardware:

HP ProLiant DL785, 8 processors / 32 cores / 32 threads, Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor 8360 SE, 2.5 GHz, 128 KB L1 cache and 512 KB L2 cache per core, 2 MB L3 cache per processor, 128 GB main memory

The Sun system uses Solaris 10 and MaxDB 7.6, the HP system uses Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition and SQL Server 2008.

The Sun system yields 5,800 SD Users and 29,670 SAPS (SAP Benchmark Certificate: 2008061). The HP system yields 5,230 SD Users and 26,180 SAPS (SAP Benchmark Certificate: 2008026). That´s quite a difference, but not the end of the story: The Sun result is a 6.0 unicode result, the HP is a plain 6.0 result. You may remember: You loose at least 15% (depends on the systems) performance by using unicode. That´s a really impressive benchmark result. It´s the fastest 8 socket x86 SAP benchmark result at the moment.

As both system uses different operating systems and different databases, you can´t say if it´s a bad idea to use SAP on HP or a bad idea to use SAP on Windows/SQL Server

There is really some buzz about xray backscatter scanners here in Germany. Many newspaper titled with "European Commision allows nude scanners". I reported about them in an article back in 2005 when Bruce "He knows Alice and Bobs shared secret" Schneier wrote about them. At that time i thought about them as a maximum invasive security measure. But i think different now: At first .. the software of this scanners has evolved .. they blur the forms of the body or they entirely deletes it from the image leaving just the foreign objects in the image.

But there is an important additional reason: Let´s assume you fly in vacation: Most of the womens take an bathing suit with them, that discloses more than it covers. And the bathing trunks for men aren´t especially covering pieces of clothing (even besides the Borat-type ones). There are some functional needs that led to this design of bathing wear. Just thinks about hydrodynamics. It´s not a problem to go to beach in clothings like this ... why it´s a problem to be scanned with less amount of details.

Okay. The correct question is: What can i get back for disclosing my body in this manner? That´s simple. Today a coin in your pocket, the underwire of a bra or a metal shoelace eyelet can send you a body search. I found it more invasive to be touched and searched by strangers than showing them something they could see on television, in newspapers ar at the beach in a much better quality (image quality and quality of the displayed body ) (BTW: There is and reaaallly old joke. Goes like "I like flying ... without bodychecks at the airport i wouldn´t have any sexual life"). When we can get rid of body checks in lieu of walking through a backscatter scanner, i´m okay with that.

It´s pretty much an hyped discussion at the moment. Hope there will be some logic thinking in this discussion soon...