Vendor Spotlight:

SUN BROADENS x86 PORTFOLIO WITH NEW SYSTEMS POWERED BY AMD

Sun Microsystems, Inc. significantly expanded its industry-standard, comprehensive product line based on Solaris x86 OS and the AMD Opteron processor, and announced the Sun Fire V20z Server Enterprise Essentials Promotion that can help dramatically reduce customers' total cost of acquisition over three years. With this announcements, Sun is offering customers leadership and flexibility virtually unmatched by IBM, HP or Dell through industry-standard technologies that lead on price/performance, and Sun's complete spectrum of services and solutions. Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based solutions run the platinum standard for enterprise operating systems (OS) -- Solaris, as well as Linux and Microsoft Windows through Windows Hardware Qualification List (WHQL) certification.

"Sun has established clear differentiation in the x86 market by offering Solaris x86 on AMD Opteron processors. This gives them an opportunity to take a strong position in the over $22.5B x86 systems market," said Vernon Turner, group vice president, IDC. "Initial data indicates very strong price/performance relative to other operating systems by taking advantage of the reliability and scalability features of Solaris and AMD's Opteron processor speed".

The strategic announcements for Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based solutions include:

• The Sun Fire V40z server -- Available immediately with the Solaris OS and Java Enterprise System, the Sun Fire V40z outperforms IBM and HP in real world and industry-standard benchmarks. The V40z is expanding the Sun Fire line to include both 2- and 4-way rack-mount AMD Opteron processor- based servers;
• Sun Java Workstation W1100z and Sun Java Workstation W2100z -- Available immediately, these workstations that were previewed last June at Sun's NC04Q2 and JavaOne events held in Shanghai and San Francisco respectively, build on Sun's number one position in the workstation market (based on IDC reports) and continues Sun's heritage of delivering some of the fastest 64-bit workstations on the market, with the ability to boot three operating systems from the same unit;
• Sun Fire V20z Enterprise Essentials Promotions -- Available immediately at prices nearly 40 percent less than Dell over a three year subscription period, this new disruptive pricing model is Sun's next bold move to simplify the way computer systems are purchased and maintained; and
• Sun Fire V20z server configurations and price reductions -- Available immediately, Sun is offering new configurations based on AMD's higher performing AMD Opteron processor Model 250 and the Solaris x86 OS, with price reductions on servers equipped with the AMD Opteron processor Model 248.

"Our strong foundation in industry-standard computing architectures and long- standing experience in 64-bit computing provide customers enhanced application system performance and enterprise expertise that mirrors the quality they've come to expect from Sun -- at a much lower cost," said John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun's Network Systems Group. "With Sun offering unparalleled leadership on operating systems, high-performance hardware and the Sun Java System software, including the Java Enterprise System and the Java Desktop System, I'm confident our newest systems based on the AMD Opteron processor will leave our competitors in the dark."

The Sun Fire V40z Sever Outperforms Comparable Servers from IBM and HP

The immediate availability of the Sun Fire V40z server adds a 4-way server to the existing Sun Fire server line from Sun that previously included the Sun Fire V20z 2-way server, announced at Sun's NC04Q1 event. The Sun Fire V40z server starts at $8,495 U.S. list price and is optimal for industry-standard 32- and 64-bit architectures for high performance computing and enterprise applications, Web services, data management, workgroup collaboration, grid- structured database management and more. As part of Sun's disruptive sales offerings, the Sun Fire V40z server will also be offered as part of a limited one week promotion to customers through a special eBay auction. For details visit http://www.ebay.com/sun.

The Sun Fire V40z server recently proved to be the best performing 4-processor secure Web server and enterprise applications platform on the market, outperforming a comparable server configured with Xeon MP processors by 76 percent, according to a SPECweb99_SSL benchmark. On top of better performance, the Sun Fire V40z is also offered at up to 40 percent lower U.S. list price than the above competitive server.

Sun's Newest Workstations Run Solaris 61 Percent Faster Than Dell on Linux

Extending its leadership in the 64-bit workstation market, Sun is also announcing the availability of the Sun Java Workstation W1100z and Sun Java Workstation W2100z -- based on AMD Opteron processors and leading graphics technology from NVIDIA. Offering better price/performance than any other AMD Opteron processor-based 64-bit workstations on the market, these systems are designed to maximize end-user productivity and start $1,995 U.S. list price and $4,695 U.S. list price, respectively.

The Sun Java Workstation W1100z and Sun Java Workstation W2100z achieved up to 61 percent faster performance running the Solaris x86 OS, compared to the Dell 650 Precision Xeon-based workstation running Red Hat Linux, according to the BLAST benchmark. These new workstations also outperformed all other Xeon and Opteron processor-based systems on floating point operations based on the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark.

The Sun Java Workstation W1100z demonstrated best overall performance running the OCUS (Olaf Corten's Utilities) benchmark V4 for PTC Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0, one of the world's most prominently used mechanical computer aided design applications. More information on the Sun Java Workstation W1100z and Sun Java Workstation W2100z can be found at: http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation.

These new workstations are offered with the latest release of the Java Desktop System running on either the Solaris x86 OS or Linux. More information on the Java Desktop System can be found at: http://www.sun.com/javadesktopsystem.com.

Sun Fire V20z Enterprise Essentials Promotion Priced Nearly 40 Percent Less Than Dell

In response to customer demand for better control over licensing, planning, and deploying network computing applications such as large databases or grid computing, Sun is introducing the Sun Fire V20z Server Enterprise Essentials Promotion package. This includes a three-year subscription for the Solaris x86 OS and Sun Silver Spectrum services support for $492/year, U.S. list price, plus a choice of entry-level or premium hardware configurations (see pricing below). The promotion creates dramatic reductions in the customers' total cost of acquisition -- nearly 40 percent lower over three years than comparably configured systems from Dell running Red Hat Linux. The promotions provide customers with a highly secure, reliable, available and scalable architecture unmatched in the x86 market.

"These promotions from Sun are just the beginning of new innovation and support practices that will be offered to the enterprise. No other vendor offers this kind of business and support model that combines industry-standard hardware, a highly secure and scalable OS and support services," said Fowler.

The Sun Fire V20z Enterprise Essentials Promotion are available for purchase through Sun's iForce(SM) developer and channel partners, and through the Sun Store. Customers can choose from two configurations that are immediately available:

• Entry-Level Configuration: Includes the Sun Fire V20z server with a single AMD Opteron processor Model 244, 2GB of memory, and 73GB hard drive at a $1,495 U.S. list price
• Premium Configuration: Includes the Sun Fire V20z server configured with two AMD Opteron processors Model 250, 2GB memory, and 73GB hard drive at a $4,995 U.S. list price

The Sun Fire V20z Server Enterprise Essentials Promotion runs through December 31, 2004. More information can be found at: http://www.sun.com/v20z/subscription.html.

Sun Offers New Configurations and Reduced Costs for its Sun Fire V20z Server

The Sun Fire V20z server is now offered with the faster, AMD Opteron processor Model 244 with a starting price of $2,795 U.S. list. Sun also introduced support for the highest performing AMD Opteron processor, Model 250. The price of the processors has been reduced by up to 33 percent for the Sun Fire V20z server line. The Sun Fire V20z server achieved world-record results for a variety of enterprise-class applications based on recent industry-standard benchmarks using both AMD Opteron processor Model 248 and Model 250.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com/.