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The processor formerly known as Niagara has today been named the UltraSPARC T1, boasting less than half the power consumption - 70W - of the average 150W hoovered up by most chips.

It's also pretty powerful. Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz described in his blog that 'Niagara systems take the concept of dual-core processors ... and goes to an absolute extreme - building eight cores, each capable of running four jobs simultaneously (four threads), onto a single chip. Doing the math, we'll be delivering a 32-way chip, running 9.6GHz, which sips power. On performance-per-watt metrics, we believe we'll be a factor of five better than what IBM just announced.'

Sun also claims enhanced security, with the chip able to run

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on-the-fly encryption for secure applications at only a 5 per cent performance hit, compared with 33 per cent for Intel's low-end Xeon chip and IBM's POWER5+ which runs at only half performance.

As well as using less power, Sun says the performance of the T1 means companies can consolidate their datacentre servers by using T1, lowering energy costs and freeing up physical space. Plus for every extra Watt generating excess heat and energy bills, companies have to dig into their pockets again to pay for the running of cooling systems to keep temperature down.

'It's time the technology industry took a stand - tripling your datacenter performance shouldn't mean tripling your power bill and needing more coal-fired power plants,' said Schwartz, 'It's becoming more obvious by the day that extreme efficiency is good for the environment, and good for business - there are proofpoints everywhere, from hybrid auto companies that can't keep up with demand to fuel efficient aircraft dominating the marketplace. Customers want this same Eco-responsibility in their datacenters.'

The T1 will be available across its mid and high-end server lines before the end of the year. More information is available at the Sun Microsystems website.