Sun Surges Into Research, Virtual Worlds

An anonymous reader writes "Sun Microsystems appears to be shifting its focus back to research, after several years of promoting its commodity servers and Java software. Earlier this week, it talked about its new Andy Bechtolsheim-designed video server in the New York Times. Yesterday, it invited reporters in to preview its plans to develop faster switches, new programming languages, and 3-D virtual workplaces. Robert Sproull, director of Sun Labs, made clear that Sun has big ambitions. 'General purpose computers have to be rethought,' he said. Among the projects close to leaving the labs is Project Crossbow, an evolution of the networking stack in Solaris; Project Sedna, a next generation switch for storage-area networks; and MPK20, a virtual workspace built on top of Sun's Darkstar gaming server."

Obvious, -1

[bricriu]

Anyone who comments on how their virtual workspaces could be called "DarkSun" will be shot with a railgun. That is all.

Re:Fortress : replacement for Fortran?

[Timesprout]

Its easy. Sun plan to send samples of FORTRAN code to the police saying it scares them and all FORTRAN coders will be arrested for writing such disturbed text. No more FORTRAN community and a greenfield for SUN's new language. Problem solved.

Oh yeah, research this

[Anonymous Coward]

I still haven't received my Solaris 10 DVD.

3-D Virtual Workplaces?

[FlyingSquidStudios]

"We'll need to do a meeting with Bob in accounting. He's the giant floating eyeball with tentacles."