ACADEMIA

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Today Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) further extended its lead in the worldwide UNIX® server rankings according to IDC's worldwide quarterly server tracker for 1Q02. Sun continues to distance itself from the competition by gaining 6.8 percent sequentially in UNIX revenues and demonstrating 6.5 percent growth in UNIX units shipped. In the Worldwide UNIX server market, Sun leads with 34 percent market share. Sun's quarter-over-quarter growth was evidenced both in the US and internationally, while the key competitors showed declines. Sun maintains the number one spot in UNIX shipments in the US, Western Europe, APAC, Japan and the rest of the world. One of the contributing factors for the growth in Sun's leadership is the strong acceptance of the Sun Fire(TM) server line in traditional markets including mission-critical transaction and query environments, as well as high performance computing (HPC). Sun increased its Sun Fire server revenue by 40 percent and units by 63 percent sequentially due to the rapid market acceptance of the Sun Fire 15K and Sun Fire V880 server, while the other competitors experienced declines, according to IDC. Sales of the Sun Fire 12K server, a new Sun product launched in April 2002, are not reflected in 1Q02 numbers. "Customers are showing their confidence in Sun by voting with their wallets. The adoption of Sun Fire servers has been tremendous with 40 percent sequential revenue growth compared to IBM pSeries sequential decline of 36 percent in revenue. Sun is the vendor of choice," said Shahin Khan, Chief Competitive Officer, Sun Microsystems. "In the toughest of economic times, that Sun grew by 3.2 percent sequentially in worldwide server revenue while some competitors had double-digit declines, according to the latest IDC server tracker numbers for 1Q02."