Year 2000 Wire/Independent Test Group Certifies Sun's Solaris Operating Environment, Year 2000 Compliant; First Operating Environment Certified Year 2000 Compliant

Business Wire, June 4, 1998

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 1998--Sun Microsystems' today announced that Solaris 2.6(tm) software is the first operating environment certified Year 2000 compliant by an independent, third-party testing organization.

The tests were conducted by The Software Laboratory Limited, a respected UK-based software testing service. The certification was the result of recent tests on both the Solaris 2.6 operating environment and a beta version of the 64-bit Solaris operating environment.

"It is our considered opinion that the Year 2000 compliance of the Solaris 2.6 operating environment as well as the next version now in beta, are exceptionally good," said Ken Veitch, managing director of The Software Laboratory. "The pass rates show that Sun has put a great deal of effort into ensuring compliance of their operating environment, and we certify that the Solaris operating environment is Year 2000 compliant as of April 1998."

"Sun will continue to provide leadership going forward with its Year 2000 compliant products," said Tony Hampel, group marketing manager of Sun's Year 2000 Program office. "Choosing Sun's Year 2000 ready systems and networking products gives customers a solid investment in a modern computing architecture for the next century."

The Software Laboratory (www.software-lab.com) independently ran 1,020 separate tests on the Solaris releases in a controlled environment at Sun's Customer Environment Test Lab in Menlo Park, Calif., with no interference, control or direction from Sun personnel. The firm evaluated an out-of-the-box version of Solaris 2.6 operating environment that was upgraded with three minor modifications that are freely available on Sun's Year 2000 website.

Sun is advising users to periodically check and ensure they have applied all the Year 2000 "required modifications" to their systems. This will maintain the system's Year 2000 compliance status.

Multiple platforms and scenarios

The Software Laboratory used a representative selection of Sun(tm) systems - - including an Ultra(tm) 10, Ultra 30, Ultra 60, Sun(tm) Enterprise(tm) 450 and Sun Enterprise 4000.

Tests evaluated Year 2000 compliance in a variety of areas and circumstances, including: -0-

     --   Date-related utilities and commands;

     --   A "powered-off rollover," in which a machine's date was set
          to 12/31/99. The machine was then turned off and powered on
          the next day to ensure a correct rollover, all Year 2000
          regression tests passed as expected;

     --   A machine whose date was set to Jan 1, 2000;

     --   A machine allowed to roll over to 1/1/00 from 23:50 on
          12/31/99;

     --   The cron Unix(r) task scheduler.

-0- Sun's Year 2000 Program

Sun's Year 2000 Program focuses on products, business operations, and Sun customers and connects customers with the information, solutions and services needed to address Year 2000 issues.

Sun believes that implementing a webtone and Java(tm) computing foundation will enable many customers to grow beyond their existing system capabilities. Deploying Sun's products addresses the concerns of many IT executives and their management who believe that their investment in Year 2000 compliance will come at the expense of improvements to their IT infrastructure.

More information about Sun's ongoing Year 2000 compliance effort can be found at www.sun.com/y2000 or users may call Sun's Year 2000 hotline at 650/786-7385.

About Solaris

Sun provides the leading operating environment for service-driven networks. The Solaris operating environment, and Java technology, unifies the network, the enterprise, and its users -- delivering the reliability, scalability, accessibility, interoperability and investment leverage required by businesses today and into the 21st century.

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 high-quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $9 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, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Ultra, Java, Sun Enterprise and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Unix is registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Ltd.

    CONTACT: Sun Microsystems
              Judy Zimbelman, 650/786-4708
              judy.zimbelman@sun.com