Lucent Technologies, Sun Microsystems to expand market for networked information services, products.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1997--

Java(TM) Applications to Run on Inferno(TM) Terminals, Networks;

Lucent to Help Develop Sun's PersonalJava(TM), EmbeddedJava(TM) APIs

Building a new bridge between computing and communications worlds, Lucent Technologies and Sun Microsystems today signed three agreements that ensure that applications written to Sun's Java(TM) platform will run on all communications devices and networks running Lucent's Inferno(TM) network operating system.

As a result of the agreements, software developers can now focus on deploying information applications not only on the Internet, but on all communications and entertainment networks. Service providers -- for example, telecommunications, cable TV companies, Internet service providers, etc. -- can offer different network-resident services for their consumer and business customers, confident that these services can be delivered uniformly over any network.

The three agreements, announced at Sun's JavaOne developers' conference here, were:

-- Lucent Technologies licensed the Java(TM) technologies from Sun, setting the stage for the Inferno network operating system to run Java applications on information appliances and servers across many networks;

-- Sun became a member of Lucent's Inferno Partners Program to help put Java-enabled end-to-end network solutions in the hands of Inferno customers;

-- Lucent Technologies agreed to participate in Sun's industry-wide initiative to help define Sun's new PersonalJava and EmbeddedJava APIs, which were announced today. PersonalJava and EmbeddedJava are designed to be easily portable across an array of high-volume consumer products and embedded microprocessor families, and are targeted to manufacturers of instrumentation, low-end mobile phones and pagers, factory automation, fax machines, printers and network routers and switches.

"Inferno and Java are complementary products," said Mike Skarzynski, vice president and general manager of Lucent's Inferno Network Operating System Group. "Fifty million people worldwide are using the Internet, but there are 700 million public network access lines around the world. There are 55 million cable-TV homes in the U.S. and 25 million people subscribing to cellular service. Our mutual goal is to build the infrastructure that will support information services across all those networks and all kinds of devices."

"Adding the Inferno operating system to the list of Java-enabled environments extends the power of Java into the telecommunications and network appliance market," said Jon Kannegaard, vice president of software products for JavaSoft. "We are delighted to be working with Lucent as they truly understand the network environment, the creativity and momentum of Java application developers, and ways to extend the market for Java applications beyond the desktop."

The Inferno system is a real-time network operating system that provides a software infrastructure for businesses to create distributed network applications. The Inferno Release 1.0 operating system runs useful applications in 1 megabyte of memory, including the Inferno kernel, the Limbo programming language, the Dis(TM) virtual machine, the Styx(TM) communications protocols, security protocols and applications. Evaluation copies of Inferno can be downloaded via the World Wide Web at http://www.lucent.com/inferno.

Javasoft, headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., is a business unit of Sun Microsystems, Inc. The company's mission is to develop, market and support the Java technology and products based on it. Java supports networked applications and enables developers to write applications once that will run on any Java-enabled machine. JavaSoft develops system platforms, tools, and applications to further enhance Java as the programming standard for complex networks such as the Internet and corporate intranets.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ "SUNW") to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

Lucent Technologies (http://www.lucent.com) designs, build and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, consumer and business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs (http://www.bell-labs.com) is the research and development arm for the company.

CONTACT: Dick Muldoon, Lucent Technologies

908-582-5330 (office)

[e-mail]

or

Penny Bruce, Sun Microsystems

408-343-1796 (office)

[e-mail]