The Sun Ultra 20 Workstation is a reasonably priced system that brings true 64-bit performance to the enterprise. The base system is priced at $895 and includes a full suite of application development tools along with Sun's Solaris 10 operating system.

Even at this relatively low price point, the Ultra 20 is designed to be used for demanding applications -- engineering, graphic rendering, application development, and the like. For Java developers, in particular, the Ultra 20 is a natural: It comes preloaded with a licensed development suite including Suns Java Studio Creator, Java Studio Enterprise 7, Sun Studio 10, and Star Office.

The basics

The base configuration of the Ultra 20 includes a 2.66GHz AMD Opteron processor and 512MB of RAM, but it's the combination of components that makes the system perform. The basic system ships with a single 80Gb SATA hard drive and can accommodate up to two 250GB drives that can be configured as Raid 0 or Raid 1. The onboard graphics adapter is an ATI Rage XL PCI controller, but both 2-D and 3-D NVIDIA accelerators are available as options for graphically demanding applications. I found the basic graphic adapter more than adequate for standard applications and editing.

The Sun Ultra 20 workstation with its 64-bit AMD Opteron processor handles demanding applications at a reasonable price. Click to Enlarge

There are a total of seven expansion slots, including a PCI-Express x16, two PCI-Express x1, and four standard PCI buses, leaving enough room to expand beyond what's delivered with the system. There are also six USB 2.0 and two FireWire ports, with two of each located on the front panel.

The Ultra 20 runs both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems, making it a natural for multiple development and test environments on the same workstation. The system is shipped with Solaris 10 installed, but has been tested with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and both Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows Professional x64.

Not surprisingly, I was able to boot the Ultra 20 to the Solaris 10 login screen right out of the box. Navigation and operation were quick and responsive. I used the application generator application to build a simple file selector application by dragging and dropping components onto a blank window. The application compiled almost instantly.

I also ran Sun's Star Office on the system to test its operation with office applications. The word processor and spread sheet applications responded crisply with no noticeable delays.

What it could be

Overall the workstation is a great performer. My only disappointment was with the hard drive. The system board includes a SATA-II controller that supports data transfer speeds up to 300Mb/sec but the 80GB drive delivered with the system is a SATA-1 running at only about 1/2 what the controller can deliver. Replacing the relatively small drive with a 250MB+ SATA-II drive would make the Ultra-20 a stellar performer with plenty of capacity. For now, you can do your own upgrade for under $200 and still keep the system price reasonable.

Sun Ultra-20 Workstation Sun Microsystems, Inc. www.sun.com Price: $895 Summary: Developers and power users should find the very reasonably priced Ultra 20 a great fit for their demanding applications.