Sun Microsystems has unveiled three new servers that the company claims will " disrupt" the existing market.

"We are introducing better designs in areas where the competition is active today, and introducing disruptive designs in areas where our competition is not active," said Lisa Sieker, vice president of systems marketing at Sun.

The new Sun Fire X4600 server is the industry's first 8-socket x64 server from a major server vendor, with each socket offering two physical processors. The X4600 expands on the line of Galaxy servers that Sun introduced last October.

The systems are scheduled for availability in volume later this month and are already deployed at selected test sites.

The server targets IT shops looking to consolidate servers through the use of virtualisation technology.

It features a 4U chassis and customers can choose to purchase a system with only four sockets, allowing them to fill the remaining sockets later.

Sun's new Sun Fire 8000 blade server system also targets consolidations, although the system relative to the X4600 is positioned more at the low end.

The server maker had previously announced that it would re-enter the blade server market.

Blade servers are generally seen as the next-generation technology for data centres because their modular architecture makes them cheaper to manage and maintain while taking up less space.

Sun claimed that the new system is the first blade server that does not require buyers to compromise between size and performance.

Previous generation blade systems often used less powerful processors to limit the power consumption and allow for sufficient cooling.

The Sun blades are significantly larger than traditional blades. The chassis is much bigger than HP's C-class blade system unveiled last month. 

Sun admitted that it has had internal discussions about calling the system a blade, but decided to go with the moniker because of its association with modular server systems.

• The Silicon Valley Sleuth blog has videos of Sun's chief architect Andy Bechtolsheim demonstrating the Sun Fire 8000, Sun Fire X4600 and Sun Fire X4500.