Sun co-founder returns to fold
Published: 18 Feb 2004 11:55 GMT
Nine years after leaving the server maker he co-founded in 1982, Andy Bechtolsheim is returning to Sun Microsystems.
At Sun, Bechtolsheim will pick up where he left off: designing computers. This time, he'll be working to share more technology between servers that use Sun's UltraSparc processors and those using Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processor, he said in an interview after chief executive Scott McNealy welcomed him back during Sun's analyst conference.
Not surprisingly, Sun executives were much more enthusiastic in talking about Bechtolsheim's return than about the 2003 departure of another co-founder, Bill Joy. "Andy is going to be a resource for every designer at Sun," McNealy said.
Bechtolsheim, 48, left Sun in 1995 to start Granite Systems, which built 1-gigabit-per-second networking technology and which Cisco acquired in 1996.
He'll rejoin Sun through its planned acquisition of Kealia, a start-up that builds Opteron servers. Although Bechtolsheim co-founded Kealia in 2001, he didn't formally join it until December, when he left Cisco Systems.
"It's pretty cool to see two pioneers reunite," said Robert Frances Group analyst Ed Broderick, referring to the two executives. McNealy, he said, is buying not just Kealia's intellectual property but also "a confidant."
Although executives remained mum about Kealia's products and how they'll fit in at Sun, Bechtolsheim shared his thoughts about his sudden homecoming with CNET News.com.
Q: Why did you leave Sun?
A: Back then, I saw an opportunity in gigabit Ethernet. I founded a company Cisco ended up buying. Now, I see an opportunity in servers, of all things. I think that what has been missing to ignite the market is the next level of cost performance. As these things come to market, [customers] will upgrade.
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