Sun sends SPARC team members packing | The Register

Sun sends SPARC team members packing | The Register: "Not too long ago, Sun executives bragged that they would hire any gifted chip engineers on the market. Such braggadocio seems to have faded with Opteron taking on more importance for Sun's future plans. Sun currently shares SPARC costs with Fujitsu."

Hardware is a slippery slope with razor thin margins. You leverage every thing you can to compete. The Opterons are more than capable of filling in the lower-end Sparc processor market. I'd expect to see even more of a shift this was as the Opterons continue to mature. Imagine a 16-core system...