Sun Microsystems Announces Its Newest Family Of Workstations

Sun Microsystems Announces Its Newest Family Of Workstations

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 10, 1985 -- PRNewswire -- Positioning itself aggressively in the escalating competition for the $5 billion global workstation market, Sun Microsystems today announced its newest family of workstations: Sun-3.

Incorporating the most advanced new technology, including the MC68020 processor, Sun-3 workstations now put on the the desktops of technical professionals two-to-six times the computing speed of most existing systems at prices up to 20 percent less than the competition.

The Sun-3 introduction comes on the heels of a series of strategic announcements by Sun. Last week, Sun and industry-giant AT&T jointly announced a technology-sharing alliance to develop a standard version of UNIX operating system. The agreement calls for the convergence of AT&T's UNIX System V, which is the accepted version of UNIX in the commercial marketplace, and Sun's operating system, which is derived from the Berkeley 4.2BSD version of UNIX and is the system of choice in the technical marketplace.

This is not the first time Sun has formed a strategic partnership with a major corporation. Sun's other corporate partners have included major OEM agreements with Computervision in computer-aided design systems, Gould Computer Systems in industrial automation and with Eastman Kodak in office automation and publishing.

Eastman Kodak also invested $20 million in Sun last November, giving it a nearly 7-percent ownership in the three-and-a-half-year old-company.

Other recent agreements include a $35 million contract to supply Sun workstations to Toshiba Corp. of Japan and a series of key distribution agreements in the Pacific Basin. These include the signing of exclusive distributor deals with Hyundai of South Korea, Sertek International Inc. of Taiwan and Computer Systems Advisers Group to distribute Sun workstations in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Privately held Sun Microsystems announced on August 22 a nearly 200 percent increase in revenues for its third full fiscal year, which ended June 30. Revenues were $115 million for the year, with earnings up 220 percent to $8.5 million.

"The Sun-3 product line strengthens our position as the price/performance leader in the workstation industry," noted Sun Executive Vice President Bernie Lacroute, who heads the company's Workstation division. He also pointed to another competitive advantage offered by Sun's workstations: "We're the only vendor that builds its systems with industry-standard software and hardware throughout, thus protecting a customer's investment as advances in workstation technology necessitate upgrading."

Sun President, Scott McNealy noted that the worldwide market in workstations is expanding rapidly as these machines increasingly come to power scientific and industrial development.

He summed up the significance of the Sun-3 product family this way, "We're positioned right where we want to be now -- both to win the next round in the competition for workstation sales, and to continue delivering new technological advances to the technical professionals out there who need it."

/CONTACT: Jackie Rae or Lorrie Duval of Sun Microsystems,

415-960-1300/