Sun Solaris world's fastest operating environment for Java applications; Real-World Java applications on Solaris SPARC platform edition & Solaris Intel platform edition surpass Windows NT

Business Wire, June 26, 1997

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 1997--Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced results of benchmarks conducted by Sun that show Sun Solaris(TM) operating environment, on SPARC(TM) and Intel platforms, delivers the fastest Java(TM) performance in real-world applications which surpasses Microsoft Windows NT performance by more than 700% in these tests.

Sun has integrated Java into the recently announced Web-enhanced release of Solaris, enabling companies to run Java applications at significantly higher speeds than Windows NT. Solaris provides the foundation for the webtone, the 21st century equivalent of today's dialtone, and addresses customer needs in intranet, Internet, enterprise and power desktop computing.

Customers deploying Java applications on Solaris can leverage performance gains while reaping the rewards of Java's 'Write Once, Run Anywhere(TM)' vision, reducing application development cycles. Real-world Java applications are tested in industry Java benchmarks, including Java WebServer, Pendragon Software's CaffeineMark v2.5, raytrace, javac and others, to understand, test and measure true Java performance.

"Sun maximizes Java performance on real-world applications by coupling our knowledge of Java with our experience in high performance tools and compilers, and by delivering Java on the industry's most powerful operating environment," said Larry Weber, vice president and general manager, SunSoft, Inc.

Bottomline: Every Second Counts

Fully complying to industry standards on Java, Java applications deployed on Solaris out-performed a Windows NT system by more than 700% in some benchmarks. -0-

                                   Java
                CaffeineMarks    WebServer     Raytrace     Javac
===================================================================
Sun Solaris/SPARC   249%          146%           750%        791%
Sun Solaris/Intel   159%          117%           389%        791%
Microsoft Windows
  NT 4.0 w/MSFT
  SDK 1.5           100%          100% (1)       100%        100%

(1) Windows NT using JDK 1.1.2 with Symantec JIT

- CaffeineMark: measures the speed of Java execution and simple 2-D
  graphics.

- Java WebServer: measures the number of requests for static
  Web pages that a server can serve per second; important for high
  traffic Web sites and volume network-based transactions like
  airline reservation systems.

- Raytrace: measures how systems perform with compute-intensive
  applications for sophisticated image processing.

- Javac: measures a large Java source file, indicating performance
  on large applications that require fast access to data.
-0-

Real-World Deployment of Java on Solaris

According to Weber, "Java on Solaris can generate millions of simultaneous operations at any given moment - performance and throughput only Solaris can deliver. Today Sun customers, including Vitria Technology, Inc. and Volano LLC, are experiencing the increased performance gains of Java on Solaris."

"As a provider of enterprise caliber publish-subscribe solutions, Vitria Technology delivers business-critical Java applications that are ultra-scalable to meet the requirements of our customers," said Carl Tsukahara, vice president of marketing, Vitria Technology, Inc. (Mountain View, CA.) "The Java integration with Solaris provides a robust combination that provides Vitria's customers with the confidence that their Java servers will be highly scaleable and highly available."

"VolanoChat(TM), our fully multi-threaded Java chat server, is used to provide live Internet chat services for tens of thousands of people everyday and is currently deployed in 14 countries," said Mark Elderkin, president, Volano LLC (San Francisco, CA). "On a system with native threads, our Java chat server can accomodate peak loads with minimal impact on CPU usage. Java on Solaris provides our customers with the stability and remote system management capabilities absolutely required but not readily available on other platforms."

Availability

For more information about Java on Solaris, Web-enhanced Solaris to be released in August, the latest Java Development Kit/Just-In-Time compiler, whitepapers and other valuable resource, visit http://www.sun.com/solaris/new/java .

Test Configuration/Methodology

The Solaris SPARC configuration used was UltraSPARC, 200MHz, 128M byte RAM. Identical configurations were setup to test Solaris Intel and Microsoft NT 4.0: Pentium Pro, 200MHz, 128M byte RAM.

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 $8 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, Ultra, Java, JavaStation, 'Write Once, Run Anywhere' and 'The Network Is The Computer' are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC 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.