As for Sun's plan to use Intel CPUs after having relied on just AMD for x86 chips, Polzin said the arrangement was not surprising with Intel now leveraging AMD-championed technology in Xeon.

"We knew that one of the key factors that attracted Sun to AMD was the 64-bit extensions to x86," said Polzin.

"AMD64 is great technology. Intel decided to copy it, so what the heck," Polzin said.

Sun as an AMD customer is free to choose whichever suppliers it wants, Polzin said. "Sun is one of our very valued customers" he said. The companies still work very closely together, he said, adding that he sat next to Mike Splain, a Sun senior vice president, at lunch on Monday.

During his presentation on Monday, Polzin cited the evolution of processors, which have grown from being 16-bit to 32-bit and then 64-bit units. Multicore processors also have arrived, he noted. The company plans its quad-processor Opteron offerings for release in midyear. Eight-core chips are on the drawing board as well.