Sun Microsystems plans to announce Tuesday its long-awaited four-processor "Cherrystone" server, a key product in the company's effort to stave off Intel-based competition. The Sun Fire V480, with up to four 900MHz UltraSparc III processors, is a little brother to the V880, an eight-processor system that has proved extremely successful for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company. The V480 is a replacement to the UltraSparc II-based 450, which ranges in price from $18,695 to $52,195. Prices for the V480 should be announced Tuesday.

In addition, Sun will bring its faster 900MHz UltraSparc III processors to the V880, which previously used the earlier 750MHz processors, Sun said in a media advisory Monday. The 900MHz V880s already are for sale on Sun's Web site. Sun faces competitive pressure from IBM and Hewlett-Packard in midrange and high-end Unix servers, but it dominates in lower-end machines. In that segment of the market, though, Sun has competition from Intel servers running Windows and Linux; the V480 is aimed at keeping those rivals at bay.