Sun definitely dislikes Intel’s IA64 Itanium processors because they compete against Sun’s own CPUs, but it appears that Sun still has not make it clear whether to “love” or to “hate” AMD’s Opteron CPUs.

Less than a week ago I read over Dow Jones Business News that Sun Microsystems’ spokesman had said it [the company] was considering using Advanced Micro Devices’ new Opteron chip in a server it expects to deliver to the market shortly. We also heard and read from other sources the same story about microprocessors AMD and Sun’s intention to use them. But also last week Neil Knox, Sun’s executive vice president of Volume Systems Products said in an interview to this web-site that the company was not even looking at AMD Opteron CPU. If the company had not considered a processor, then the company would have never said that it did. And if a company had actually considered a CPU, then it would have said it. But if two persons from one company say totally different things, I doubt that both can be right at the same time. At least now we see that there is no clear opinion inside the company about AMD’s Opteron microprocessors and possible supporting products from Sun.

PS. Sun does not like the Itanium because it is targeted at the same market as Sun’s own microprocessors and this is pretty clear. Intel is Sun’s enemy in the short-term with its IA64 [and will remain being the enemy for long], but the Opteron may be an enemy in the long-term future since sooner or later AMD will target its chips at Sun’s desired marketplace.