Sequent Leads the Market in Shipments of High-End, Commercial UNIX Servers; NUMA-based SMP Systems Expected to Post Strong Sales into the Next Decade

Business Wire, Feb 11, 1997

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 1997--Sequent Computer Systems Inc. is the leading vendor of large, commercial UNIX systems measured in units shipped in the United States, according to the latest results from International Data Corp. (IDC), a Framingham, Mass.-based market research and consulting firm.

In the commercial UNIX systems price range of $500,000 to $1 million, Sequent holds the largest marketshare of any vendor, nearly double that of NCR, its nearest competitor.

Based on data gathered from IDC's report, "U.S. Server Market Census, 1996," published in November 1996, IDC measured U.S. server unit shipments by vendor during 1995. Other vendors in the $500,000 to $1 million space included NCR with 18 percent, Stratus with 14 percent, Siemens Nixdorf with 13 percent, Pyramid with 11 percent and Hewlett-Packard with 8 percent. The study noted that Siemens Nixdorf acquired Pyramid in 1996 and therefore counted the vendors separately for 1995 shipments.

"Our record for delivering large open systems implementations speaks for itself, and IDC's findings confirm that Sequent's offerings and services are the most sought-after in this market space," said Andre Dahan, Sequent's senior vice president of worldwide field operations. "Our customers are already reaping the business benefits of taking low-cost, high-availability client/server computing to the highest levels of the enterprise. NUMA-Q 2000 systems are Data Center Ready, and that's a wake up call for mainframe users."

Sequent also showed strongly in the $250,000 to $499,999 systems priceband, with six percent marketshare of UNIX system units shipped. By comparison, IDC found that HP led in this range with a 26 percent marketshare, followed by Silicon Graphics with 17 percent, NCR with 16 percent, Tandem with 11 percent, Data General with 9 percent and DEC with 7 percent. IBM, Cray, Pyramid and Stratus each held 3 percent or less in the priceband.

Sequent's Symmetry5000 series of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems were introduced in Q294 and, at the time, delivered unparalleled performance and availability for business-critical client/server applications. With the introduction and shipping of NUMA-Q 2000 in Q496, the systems are fast becoming the premier platform for transaction-intensive and data warehousing applications. NUMA-Q 2000 servers have shattered performance of existing high-end client/server systems and deliver beyond-mainframe class computing capabilities with the power of Intel Pentium Pro processors.

About Sequent

Sequent Computer Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNT), Beaverton, Ore., is uniquely capable of delivering robust and scalable Data Center Ready open systems solutions that are guaranteed to perform. Sequent minimizes customers' risk, enabling implementation of complex business applications that support critical needs, based on the breakthrough Sequent NUMA-Q architecture, a comprehensive portfolio of proven migration services and offerings, and an established set of partnerships with the industry's best-in-class. For further information, phone Sequent at 503/626-5700 or 800/257-9044, or visit our World Wide Web site at http://www.sequent.com . -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Sequent and Symmetry are registered trademarks and NUMA-Q is a trademark of Sequent Computer Systems Inc. Intel is a registered trademark and Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corp. All brand and product names appearing in this release are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.

Sequent's initial NUMA-Q 2000 customers include: Boeing, Burlington Coat Factory, Ford Motor Co., Millipore Corp., National Association of Securities Dealers Inc., Polizei HH, Source Informatics, Telkom South Africa, University of Auckland and Unocal 76 Products Co. More information is available on our World Wide Web site at http://www.sequent.com .

CONTACT: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.

Linda Poniktera, 503/578-4857

ramba@sequent.com

800/Skypage, Pin No. 2378274

or

Applied Communications Corp.

Don Gentile, 415/375-8881

dgentile@appliedcom.com