Sun Server Scores Industry-Leading Internet Performance; Web Server Performance Bests Competition By Up To 87 Percent

Business Wire, April 29, 1997

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 1997-- Demonstrating its continued ability to offer customers superior Internet performance and scalability, Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced record-breaking results on the SPECweb96 benchmark -- the industry-standard test used to measure the performance of web servers -- posting 3746 SPECweb96 HTTP ops/sec and outpacing all other systems by up to 87 percent.

The 3746 SPECweb96 HTTP ops/sec rating was achieved with Sun's newly-announced Sun(TM) Webserver(TM) software running on the Ultra(TM) Enterprise(TM) 4000 server and the Solaris(TM) 2.6 operating environment. The Ultra Enterprise 4000 server is the base platform for Sun's departmental business server and its Netra(TM) Internet i4000 server. Posting a rate of 3746 SPECweb96 HTTP ops/sec, the Ultra Enterprise 4000 server surpassed the best published results from all other vendors including HP's HP9000 K460 by 77 percent and Digital's Alpha Server 4100 5/466 by 87 percent.

Leveraging the proven enterprise performance of the Solaris operating environment, Sun Webserver software provides a high-performance, continuous webtone that allows businesses to provide increased Internet access and services to customers. Sun WebServer software builds on Sun's experience in providing highly scalable and reliable server software and includes advanced features to deliver high system availability for web applications. The Solaris operating environment is used today by a majority of companies who are running their business using an intranet or the Internet.

The Internet is a powerful business tool. Companies are using the Internet not only to stay competitive, but also to gain a powerful business advantage -- realizing benefits such as reduced costs, increased profits, getting to market quicker and faster, easier access to customers. This has resulted in a need for highly reliable and robust systems to handle increasing workloads.

"With the heightened demand placed on web servers for Internet communications, customers are looking for solutions that offer the power and scalability to grow with their needs," said Bill Raduchel, CIO and vice president of corporate planning and development, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "These performance results not only set an industry record, but also illustrate Sun's commitment to deliver feature-rich solutions that offer the performance to make the Internet a powerful business advantage."

Sun Servers

Since its introduction in April 1996, the highly successful Ultra Enterprise server family has driven more than a doubling of demand for Sun(TM) servers in the past three quarters: Q4FY96, Q1FY97 and Q2FY97 -- versus the same period in the prior year. The Ultra Enterprise 4000 system is one of five SMP servers designed for departmental and data center computing environments that scale from one to 64 processors. The servers have interchangeable components that give customers the flexibility to redistribute capacity across a range of systems for unmatched investment protection.

Netra i is a scalable family of servers suitable for large, high-volume Web publishing applications. The Netra i server can be used to publish information internally to private corporate intranets or on the public Internet to customers, suppliers and prospects. The gateway possibilities provide email addressing worldwide, as well as access to the wealth of information on the Internet.

SPECweb96

SPECweb96 is the industry's first standardized benchmark for measuring performance of World Wide Web servers. The benchmark focuses on server performance, measuring the ability of the server to service HTTP requests. It measures the response time for each request and calculates a metric based on overall throughput, measured as maximum benchmark operations per second. The benchmark was developed by SPEC's Open Systems Group in conjunction with leading Web product vendors and research organizations, including Sun Microsystems.

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 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 WorldWide Web at http://www.sun.com . -0-

Note To Editors: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Ultra Enterprise, Sun WebServer, Netra, The Network Is The Computer and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

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 Mosaic. Type http://www.sun.com at the URL prompt.

CONTACT: Sun Microsystems Computer Company

Cindee Mock, 415/786-8323

cindee.mock@sun.com

or

SunSoft, Inc.

Marie Bahl, 415/786-4450