Sun Microsystems has laid off about 200 people from its Scalable Systems Group, the company announced Friday.The layoffs represent about 7 percent of that group’s worldwide employees, said Stephanie Von Allmen, a spokeswoman from Sun’s corporate communications department in Santa Clara, Calif.Managers of that division also streamlined the group by closing open requisitions, reallocating resources and increasing organizational efficiency, she said in an e-mail.Sun did not offer any specific reason for the layoff, saying its overall business strategy and technology road map remain the same. That is a smart path, given the modest size of this round of layoffs, analysts say.“I see this as fine-tuning more than changing direction,” said Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminata. “Obviously, they’re struggling financially, but in general this is a small number of people in the scope of things at Sun.” Sun leaders are looking at the company’s costs very closely, as they continue to share Sparc processor development with Fujitsu, cancel the Jupiter processor program and marshal their resources to launch the new line of Rock processors, he said.Indeed, the company’s statement held that Sun would maintain its focus on the Sparc processor, using its OpenSparc initiative to expand the community of hardware and software developers.As the division responsible for high-end systems, the Scalable Systems Group has helped to manage the company’s drive to use an open-source model to expand the market for its Sparc processors by sharing source code with developers.In March, it was David Yen, executive vice president of the Scalable Systems Group, who announced Sun’s plan to unveil specifications for its Hypervisor application programming interface and UltraSparc T1 (formerly code-named “Niagara”) processor design.Together, they allow companies to port Linux, BSD and other operating systems to UltraSparc T1 and give developers the information they need to create related hardware and software tools.-Ben Ames, IDG News Service For related news coverage, read Unisys Sells Stake in Japan Unit, Starts Layoffs and DuPont to Slash 1,500 Jobs, Outlook Raised.Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe