# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Community Discussions > The Fridge Discussions >  Heavy Metal for Niagara

## TheFridge

<p>Fabio Massimo Di Nitto, leader of the <a href="https://launchpad.net/people/ubuntu-server">Ubuntu Server Team</a> and community SPARC port, has announced that Ubuntu is now available for testing on Sun’s <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-March/000092.html">new Niagara machines</a>. Fabio thanked kernel hacker David S. Miller for his work on Linux support for Niagara, and a number of Ubuntu developers for their expert help and assistance with integration. A <a href="http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/dapper/main/installer-sparc/current/images/sparc64/netboot/2.6/">netboot image</a> is available, with a complete CD installer coming soon. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these beauties, please test the netboot installer, and send your feedback to the <a href="http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server">Server Team</a>!</p>
<p><em>What is Niagara?</em> A massively multi-core, multi-threaded CPU design. While x86 compatible CPUs are only just starting to have dual cores, Niagara CPUs can have up to eight cores, with four threads per core - that’s 32 simultaneous running threads. It’s a very different kind of beast, so porting it to Linux was a bit of an adventure. Check out Dave’s blog for some <a href="http://vger.kernel.org/~davem/cgi-bin/blog.cgi">great war stories</a>.</p>


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