Players in the high-end server market are gearing up for CPU manufacturing on a 65nm process, with Sun Microsystems leading the way this year. while Intel will follow with its 65nm server processor (Tukwila) in 2008 and IBM also looks to migrate its Power 6 server processors to 65nm.

Sun was recently in Taiwan for the local launch of its new server line, which features the UltraSPARC T1 and SPARC64-VI server processors. According to Gary Beck, vice president, integrated products group, Sun Microsystems, Sun plans to push the UltraSPARC T1-based server into the web services market, while the SPARC64-VI-based server, whose processor was jointly developed with Fujitsu, will target the database market.

Although the company is still producing on a 90nm process, Sun is gearing up for 65nm and related products should be in the market this year.

Intel, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard (HP), also plans to migrate to 65nm production for its new Itanium 2 server processors. Intel will first launch the 90nm server processor (Montvale) at the end of this year, and then release the 65nm server processor (Tukwila) in the second half of 2008.IBM's 65nm Power 6 server processor is expected to reach clock speeds of 5GHz and should have a data throughput of 300Gbps (Gigabyte per second), doubles the speed of the 90nm Power 5 processor, according to sources in the server market. Although the Power 6 processor has higher clock speeds then the Power 5 processor, its power consumption will be the same, the sources added.