Sun Studio 11 a Free Download

Sun Microsystem’s latest development tool catering to
high-performance computing (HPC) environments is now available as a free
download.

Sun Studio 11, available on the company’s Web site, takes advantage of
32-bit and 64-bit applications and multi-core processors. Registration to
the free-to-join Sun Developer Network (SDN) is required for the download.

The developer tool is one of three IDEs
built on top of the core
NetBeans platform and re-branded under the Sun name. The other two, Sun
Java Studio Enterprise and Sun Java Studio Creator, are aimed at Java
developers while Sun Studio is targeted to C, C++ and Fortran developers.

Catering to the HPC crowd, Studio 11 compilers have been optimized to run on
scalable 32-bit and 64-bit applications and in multi-core environments like
the recently announced eight-core UltraSPARC T1 with CoolThreads.

Sun officials say the UltraSparc T1
with CoolThreads, which formerly went under the code name of Niagara,
use less power and floor space than the competition and will pave the way to
server-on-a-
chip systems.

Sun Fire servers with the UltraSparc T1 chips are expected to ship later
this year.

Sun Studio 11 also includes an advanced graphical user interface debugger
and performance analysis tools to correlate the source code with actual
machine execution.

The free download comes a week after the free
download launch of Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8 and Sun Java Studio
Creator 2004Q2, the Java-based platforms developed by Sun.

The free downloads are a strategy to get more applications built on the Sun
platform with for-fee developer support plans on tap to help make up lost
licensing revenues. The company has two support options for Sun Studio 11, a
one-year basic service plan at $864 and three-year plan at $2,376. The
company plans to introduce new support plans next month.

So far the strategy is working. According to Dan Roberts, Sun director of
marketing for developer tools, the response to the free download offer has
been tremendous.

“With only a couple of days of data it’s tough to draw complete and total
statistically-relevant conclusions but right now it’s looking like our rates
are anywhere from two to three times greater in downloads and
registrations,” he said.

Sun Studio 11 runs on Solaris 8, 9 and 10 (Sparc and x86 platforms), SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Roberts said the
company will enable developers to create applications on Windows in the
future.
The tool is available for download here.