I am not sure what Sun is doing, but in their place I would have inexpensive T1 or T2 desktops in the hands of as many clever hackers as possible.
Making stuff run great on many-core CPUs could still give them a strategic asset. They should have done this a couple years ago, when they launched the T1, but maybe, if they hurry, they will be able to enjoy the advantage before Larrabee brings the boring x86 world to the gazillion-thread CPU market.
Except every non-x86 Sun workstation I've ever seen has cost an arm and a leg. Which is not the way to go to get one into the posession of every hacker out there.
Apple had little problem in doing that with PowerPC computers. The Mac Mini started its life as a cheap PowerPC G4 computer. It never was built to Sun workstation standards, but it's sufficient proof one can build a good enough SPARC-based workstation.
The current push towards OpenSolaris has generated a workable desktop environment that just screams for a relatively inexpensive (I will take Dell business desktop prices) SPARC system. And if they makes T1's (or 2's) in high enough volume, I bet they can sell them cheap enough.
Making stuff run great on many-core CPUs could still give them a strategic asset. They should have done this a couple years ago, when they launched the T1, but maybe, if they hurry, they will be able to enjoy the advantage before Larrabee brings the boring x86 world to the gazillion-thread CPU market.