Sun Starfire Servers Continue Drive Into Data Center; Sun Expands Manufacturing Capacity to Meet Demand for Its High-End System

Business Wire, Oct 30, 1997

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 1997--Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced that it is expanding the manufacturing capacity at its Beaverton, OR, facility by 50 percent to accommodate customer demand for its data-center-class Ultra(TM) Enterprise (TM) 10000 (also known as Starfire(TM) server. Additional floorspace is being added for the manufacturing test area in which extensive diagnostic testing and pre-staging are completed before each Starfire system is shipped to customers for installation. Since March, when product shipments began, the revolutionary 64-CPU Starfire system has been chosen over other vendors such as IBM and Hewlett Packard at Global 2000 accounts for server consolidation or to deploy new applications on UNIX(R) servers rather than on legacy mainframes, such as large-scale data warehouses or ERP implementations like SAP. Starfire systems have also been widely installed by customers who simply need to upgrade to a more powerful, scalable system to meet dramatically growing business needs.

"We are pleased with the level of demand for Starfire in each successive quarter since we first began shipping," said Clark Masters, vice president and general manager of Sun's Data Center and High Performance Computing Products Group. "The additional manufacturing space will help us to meet some of our backlog and ensure that we keep the Starfire momentum going. While other server vendors target Sun as their number one competitor in the high-end, we believe they cannot match Starfire's sustained performance, RAS capabilities and manageability."

Last year, Sun acquired the Starfire product group from Silicon Graphics, Inc.; the group had been part of SGI's acquisition of Cray Research. "Incorporating some of Cray's best supercomputing technology and combining that with mainframe-caliber RAS features have made the Starfire system a very compelling commercial server," said Jerry Sheridan, a research analyst at Dataquest. "Additionally, the level of scalability offered by the inclusion of the Starfire server in the Ultra Enterprise family of systems provides Sun with new opportunities in the data center."

Starfire customers include both U.S. and international Fortune 500 and Global 2000 firms (see press release titled, Sun's Data-Center -Class Server Racks Up International Wins, also issued today), and Starfire servers have been sold in every major sector of the market including: financial services, insurance,health care, manufacturing, telecommunications, retail, transportation, education and government.

Starfire System Snapshot

The Enterprise 10000 server is a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) server scalable to 64 (250 MHz) UltraSPARC (TM) II processors, 64GB (gigabytes) of memory with 64 I/O channels supporting over 20 TB (terabytes) of on-line storage. It runs the Solaris(TM) operating environment and maintains binary compatibility with the largest base of UNIX (R) applications for proven robustness. The server is a high-end extension to Sun's highly successful Ultra Enterprise family of servers.

Extending into mainframe-class functionality, the Starfire system can be dynamically partitioned while maintaining a full production environment. This feature, known as Dynamic System Domains, makes Starfire a premier platform for server consolidation -- deploying multi-tiered applications on a single server, greatly reducing management complexity and overall cost of ownership. The system features a mainframe-class service processor/console for system monitoring and management. Sun also recently announced clustering capabilities for the Starfire system. The Starfire system in a four-node cluster provides near-100 percent availability and up to 256 CPUs, 256GB of memory and up to 20 terabytes of storage per node. Starfire clustering also includes unique inter- and intra-domain failover capabilities.

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 $8.5 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, Ultra, Enterprise, Starfire, Solaris, and The Network is the Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. "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"

CONTACT: Sun Microsystems

Kelli Trask, 650/786-8545