Sun Shakes Up Midrange Server Market; Delivers Outstanding Performance and Unprecedented Availability Features at Lowest Cost.PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 1998--Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :SUNW SUNW Sun Microsystems, Inc (former stock symbol; now JAVA) SUNW Stanford University Network Workstation (Sun Microsystems, Inc) ) today announced its new midrange enterprise server line up -- the Sun(TM) Enterprise(TM) 3500, 4500, 5500 and 6500 servers -- aimed at a range of applications, including enterprise resource planning See ERP. (application, business) Enterprise Resource Planning - (ERP) Any software system designed to support and automate the business processes of medium and large businesses. (ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) An integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. ), datawarehousing, decision support, internets/intranets, customer management systems, high-performance computing High-speed computing, which typically refers to supercomputers used in scientific research. (HPC (Handheld PC) A palmtop computer that weighs less than one pound and runs specialized versions of popular applications. Microsoft coined the term for its Windows CE operating system, which is an abbreviated version of Windows. See Pocket PC. ) and more. Running the robust, highly scalable Solaris(TM) operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. , these new midrange servers offer outstanding performance plus best-in-class availability features, such as dynamic reconfiguration (DR) and alternate pathing (AP). Sun is the first server vendor to bring these features down to the midrange level. The new server line uses the 336 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. UltraSPARC(TM) processor, and offers up to 43 percent better performance than Sun's midrange servers did only a few months ago, according to SPECint_rate95 results. Further, they are the first midrange servers with DR and AP features for online repair and configuration of system resources and I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output , which minimizes system downtime. With the exception of Sun's high-end Starfire(TM) servers, mainframes, and some proprietary fault-tolerant systems -- which can cost many times more than one of the new Sun Enterprise systems -- no other server vendor offers these advanced availability features. In fact, high-availability features on current-generation Sun(TM) servers have enabled Sun to experience 99.99 percent uptime on its own corporate network since 1996. "Sun's momentum in the midrange server market is becoming unstoppable," said John Shoemaker, vice president and general manager of Sun's Enterprise Systems and Storage Group. "Sun's traditional performance and scalability advantages coupled with the unprecedented availability of the new Sun Enterprise servers will serve to increase that momentum and let Sun address an even broader range of customers and applications than before." Compact, Flexible, Reliable Power The new Sun Enterprise systems scale from one to 30 processors in a single SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessing) A multiprocessing architecture in which multiple CPUs, residing in one cabinet, share the same memory. SMP systems provide scalability. As business increases, additional CPUs can be added to absorb the increased transaction volume. server, offering customers industry-leading scalability and performance. The new servers provide exceptional performance via 336 MHz UltraSPARC II processors and Sun's 84 MHz to 100 MHz interconnect called the Sun Gigaplane(TM) system bus. The Gigaplane technology provides the highest bandwidth and for this class of servers -- more than three times better bandwidth than an HP K series server, and more than two times better bandwidth than an IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) S70 system. The Gigaplane technology also provides customers -- who see their databases and businesses growing exponentially -- the ability to add performance enhancements as faster UltraSPARC processors become available for this family of servers. The Sun Enterprise 3500 system offers up to eight CPUs in a single SMP server. The server offers 33 percent more power than the Sun Enterprise 3000 server it replaces, yet maintains the same footprint. Sun's entry-level server for the midrange offers internal fibre channel disk drives with dual port connections leading to higher I/O performance and availability. No other 8-way system on the market today -- neither NT nor UNIX-based -- can match the level of reliability, availability and serviceability Reliability, Availability and Serviceability is a computer hardware engineering term. It originated from IBM to advertise the robustness of their mainframe computers. The concept is often known by the acronym RAS. offered by the Sun Enterprise 3500 server. The new server family, including the model 3500, features hot-pluggable components (disks, processors, power supplies and cooling); as well as the unique DR and AP features, which let users add, remove or replace system resources while maintaining application availability. For even greater availability of the system and application, Sun offers its Sun(TM) Enterprise(TM) Cluster solution which enables up to four Sun Enterprise servers to be clustered. Version 2.1 of Sun's clustering solution now offers a prepackaged pre·pack·age tr.v. pre·pack·aged, pre·pack·ag·ing, pre·pack·ag·es To wrap or package (a product) before marketing. Adj. 1. SAP agent in addition to Oracle, Informix, Sybase and Netscape agents. The Sun Enterprise 4500 server is the line's most compact package for those with space concerns, with eight system slots providing capacity for up to 14 CPUs in a flexible package. The Sun Enterprise 5500 has the same capacities, but in a datacenter-compatible cabinet. The new server line is anchored at the high end by the Sun Enterprise 6500 server, which offers up to 30 CPUs and 16 system slots. Both the Sun Enterprise 5500 and 6500 systems come in 68-inch cabinets, supporting up to half a terabyte of internal Sun(TM) StorEdge(TM) A5000 dual fibre channel arrays, together with a tape library all in a single footprint. Both save on expensive datacenter real estate. Like the Sun Enterprise 3000 to 6000 server family, the new servers share many common components among each other and among the earlier systems, providing customers with a high level of investment protection. The new Sun Enterprise server family also supports both S-Bus and PCI-bus I/O products. New Servers Enable Continued Success "Sun has established momentum in the server market over the past year, and its latest midrange product announcements will reinforce Sun's key server themes -- performance leadership, RAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Remote Access Service) A Windows NT/2000 Server feature that allows remote users access to the network from their Windows laptops or desktops via modem. See RRAS and network access server. , economies of scale and investment protection," said Robert H. Dorin, senior analyst with the Aberdeen Group, Inc. "In particular, Sun's emergence as a top-tier ERP platform in 1997 will be further enhanced by these initiatives -- and this success will help solidify Sun's position in the UNIX server market." Sun's previous generation of midrange servers (the Sun Enterprise 3000 to 6000 server series) paved the way for Sun's phenomenal success in the ERP market, where Sun has increased system sales 400 percent in fiscal year 1997. ERP applications demand both scalability and availability, and meeting these requirements, Sun's new line of midrange servers -- along with Sun's service and support offerings and continued investments in top ERP software vendors -- will help to enable the company's continued success in this market. Price and Availability The new Sun Enterprise 3500 to 6500 servers are available immediately. The DR and AP features for I/O will be available in June, and the DR feature for CPUs will be available later this year. The price for an entry-level Sun Enterprise 3500 system with two 250-MHz UltraSPARC II CPUs, 256 MB of memory, 9.1 GB of disk and a CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). is U.S.$49,700. About Sun Microsystems, Inc. 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 high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $9 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com. -0- Note to Editors: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Solaris, Sun Enterprise, Starfire, Gigaplane, Sun StorEdge and The Network is the Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. All 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 trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. 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). is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. Netscape is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation (company) Netscape Communications Corporation - (Formlerly "Mosaic Communications Corporation", MCC) A company set up in April 1994 by Dr. James H. Clark and Marc Andreessen <marca@netcom. . Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web using a tool such as Netscape Navigator or Sun's HotJava. 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: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Kelli Trask, 650/786-8545 kelli.trask@sun.com or Burson Marsteller for Sun Angela Hesse, 650/287-4018 angela_hesse@bm.com |
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