Sun have very kindly me a sun Ultra 20M2 to test. I’ve only had it a few days, and already I’m hooked.The spec of the unit they have sent me is:

• 1 AMD Opteron Model 1218 Processor (Dual Core)
• 4GB RAM
• 250GB SATA HD
• NVIDIA Quadra FX 3500 Graphics Card
• 20″ TFT LCD

The LCD monitor is superb, and highly recommended; I’ve been using an identical for years, as the Sun unit is a rebadged 20″ NEC unit (my NEC 2070NX only differs by the inclusion of a USB hub).In use the machine is fast and very responsive. Raw computing power is available if you want it, but the dual core approach means that using the machine, even when compiling something in the background, remains just as responsive.For an example of the raw power, I did a very simple test of building the 5.1 version of the MySQL Reference Manual in PDF format. This is a consuming process, as it converts the XML into FO (through XSLT) and then uses Apache’s FOP took to translate the FO into a PDF.

• Apple Mac Book Pro (2.16GHz Intel Core Duo): 13 minutes, 2.921 seconds
• Apple iMac (1.83GHz Intel Core Duo): 13 minutes, 26.779 seconds
• Sun Ultra 20M2 (2.8 GHz Opteron Model 1218 Dual Core): 8 minutes, 32.033 seconds

Full reviews, breakdowns, performance testing and other more detailed thoughts as time goes on.