Sun Microsystems showcases range of UNIX client server systems at NRF '95.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 1995--Sun Microsystems showcased at the National Retail Federation (NRF NRF National Retail Federation NRF NATO Response Force NRF National Research Foundation (South Africa) NRF Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (urban renewal funding package in the UK) NRF Nouvelle Revue Française ) '95 convention Monday a range of new technologies and announced alliances that will give retailers access to open-systems-based client/server solutions throughout organization -- from the store to the distribution center to corporate headquarters -- and beyond the store's four walls. Sun's exhibit demonstrated how progressive retailers like Burlington Coat Factory Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 360 stores in 42 states (as of 2006). In early 2007, the first location to be opened in Canada will be at the Vaughan Mills mall in Toronto. and organizations such as the National Football League are already moving onto the Internet to seek new opportunities and profits. The company's exhibit also included high-performance networked multimedia kiosks that can serve both shoppers and store personnel, along with "video on demand" technology to let store managers download customized or promotional video programming into stores. Sun's NRF announcements, which are showcased in the company's exhibit, can be grouped according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Sun's three retail focus areas: Corporate Headquarters Sun will provide hardware technology in support of Andersen Consulting's joint marketing efforts with Retek Information Systems of a comprehensive headquarters merchandising and inventory system based on client/server technology. Under the agreement, Andersen Consulting See Accenture. and Retek personnel will use Sun's Voyager transportable workstation to demo RETEK at customer sites. Distribution Center Dallas Systems Corp. of Dallas will port its modular distribution center management system, called The Dallas System, to Sun's Solaris operating environment. Sun itself will be the first customer for the new system, to be deployed later this year in Sun's Fremont, Calif., distribution center. Meanwhile, McHugh Freeman & Associates Inc. of Waukesha, Wis., will port its Distribution Manager, a comprehensive warehouse management system, to the Solaris environment. Store Operations The Allied Group Inc. of Glastonbury, Conn., said it will use Sun workstation technology in its latest generation of TouchTalk networked interactive multimedia kiosks. These provide higher functionality, full-motion broadcast-quality video and better remote maintenance than traditional PC-based kiosks. Emerging Network Applications In addition, Sun's exhibit includes live demonstrations that show how forward-looking retailers are using powerful Sun servers to do business on the Internet's graphics-rich World Wide Web. For example, Burlington Coat Factory of Burlington, N.J., is using its World Wide Web home page to promote merchandise from The Baby Depot, its catalog of baby merchandise. In addition, with its All Sports home page on the Web, New York-based Quest Technologies Inc. is marketing a full line of official National Football League merchandise, plus a service that lists sports "hot sites" on the Web. Also on display at NRF is OpenTV, an operating environment for interactive television that was recently unveiled by an alliance between Sun Microsystems and Thomson Consumer Electronics. While primarily intended for home use on a consumer's set-top TV decoder, this interactive technology can also be used to let retailers control customized video streams into each store. Contents could be directed either to shoppers or store personnel. Sun's NRF exhibit also included such business partners as Equinox equinox (ē`kwĭnŏks), either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. The vernal equinox, also known as "the first point of Aries," is the point at which the sun appears to cross the , Teknekron, Informix, ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., Redlands, CA, www.esri.com) The world's leading developer of geographic information systems (GIS) software, including programs that plot ZIP codes and addresses, demographic information and detailed, color-coded data. and SunSoft. Sun in Retail Greater competition and intensified need for cost savings are hastening the move away from traditional, mainframe-based information technology in the retail world toward networked, distributed systems. As the world's leading vendor of UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). client/server systems, Sun has seen its market share grow quickly in this arena. "Retailing is by nature a distributed business that's well-suited to the enterprise-wide solutions Sun offers," said Bob DeLaney, manager of worldwide retail market development at Sun Microsystems Computer Company. Sun's distributed, scalable client/server architecture lets retailers choose the right size system from the beginning -- whether downsizing (1) Converting mainframe and mini-based systems to client/server LANs. (2) To reduce equipment and associated costs by switching to a less-expensive system. (jargon) downsizing from a mainframe or minicomputer (1) An earlier medium-scale, centralized computer that functioned as a multiuser system for up to several hundred users. The minicomputer industry was launched in 1959 after Digital Equipment Corporation introduced its PDP-1 for $120,000, an unheard-of low price for a computer in , or moving up from PCs. Benefits to retailers include reduced costs, freedom of choice in both hardware and software, improved communications between multivendor systems and a common operating system across the enterprise. Sun's international retail client list includes department stores, food stores, convenience store chains, mass merchandisers, hard and soft goods specialty stores, catalog and home shopping organizations, and hotels and restaurants. Sun's product set for retailers includes a complete line of SPARCstation and SPARCserver workstations and servers, all using Sun's RISC-based high-performance SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill micro-processor; more than 30 vendors now use the SPARC processor, giving retailers a wide range of choices and full scalability. Sun's Solaris operating system, the industry's leading 32-bit UNIX operating system Noun 1. UNIX operating system - trademark for a powerful operating system UNIX, UNIX system operating system, OS - (computer science) software that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide various services , runs on machines from more than 30 manufacturers using SPARC as well as Intel processors. Sun's growing base of retail partners now numbers in the hundreds. Sun Microsystems Computer Company (SMCC SMCC - Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation. ), the world's top supplier of open network computing See ONC. Open Network Computing - (ONC) Sun's network protocols. solutions, is part of Sun Microsystems Inc. Built on Sun's legacy of "The Network is the Computer," SMCC's SPARC/Solaris workstation and server family leads the UNIX market. The company has its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. -0- Note to Editors: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, The Network is the Computer, Solaris, Voyager and Open TV are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems Inc. All SPARC trademarks, including the SCD ScD [L.] Scien´tiae Doc´tor (Doctor of Science). SCD 1 Sickle cell disease, see there 2 Subacute combined degeneration, see there 3 Sudden cardiac death, see there Compliant logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International Inc. SPARCstation and SPARCserver are licensed exclusively to Sun Microsystems Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company Ltd. All other product or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web using a tool such as Netscape or NCSA (1) (National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana-Champaign, IL, www.ncsa.uiuc.edu) A high-performance computing facility located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mosaic. Type http://www.sun.com at the URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. prompt. CONTACT: Burson Marsteller Ted DuPont, 212/614-4562 |
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