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SAN FRANCISCO, SunNetwork 2003 Conference and Pavilion -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) today launched new servers, software and services designed to slash the cost and complexity out of network computing. "We are once again setting the bar on price-performance and industry- leading R&D," said Neil Knox, executive vice president, Volume Systems Products at Sun. "In today's business environment, customers need more than a clever business model from their systems vendor. Our new innovative products deliver on price and performance, offer built-in security and provide integrated solutions that increase productivity, lower costs and reduce time to market." Included in this announcement are three new UltraSPARC(R) and Solaris(TM) OS-based systems that are priced aggressively and designed to provide leading price-performance over competitive offerings from Dell, HP and IBM: -- Sun Fire(TM) V440 Server -- The lowest priced, four-processor, rack- optimized server on the market today, priced at $9,995 (US List), is nearly 50 percent less than a comparable Dell system offering. The Sun Fire V440 server leads by 26 percent in price-performance over the closest competitor, the HP-DL580(1), based on published TPC Benchmark(TM) H results. The Sun Fire V440 is a high-density, general purpose SPARC and Solaris OS-based server that is ideal for horizontally scalable application server deployments. The Sun Fire V440 server utilizes the UltraSPARC IIIi processor as well as the highly secure and reliable Solaris operating system -- the industry-leading UNIX(R) operating system that supports more than 12,000 ISV applications. The Sun Fire V440 server is the latest in four-way offerings that bolsters Sun's No. 1 position in the 4P rack server market, according to recent figures released by IDC for Q2CY03. -- Sun Fire V250 Tower Server -- This ready-to-deploy, enterprise and mid- market system platform comes priced at or below most Wintel servers at $2,995 (US List). Setting two new world records in the two-way space, the Sun Fire V250 server combined with Sybase IQ 12.5 unseats the HP ML3701(2) in TPC-H@100GB performance and price-performance, and improves upon the current TPC-H@300GB(3) price-performance world record held by the Sun Fire V240. Both Sun Fire V250 records are also the first TPC-H submissions ever using internal storage only. The Sun Fire V250 server, featuring the UltraSPARC IIIi processor, provides business-critical secure and reliable solutions for the enterprise work group and mid-market segment. The 2P tower expandability and form factor allow for stand-alone deployment and over 1/2 terabyte of internal storage, offering customers increased investment protection. The Sun Fire V250 server offers free, pre-loaded enterprise software that adds substantial value across target markets. Other key features of the Sun Fire V250 server include: -- SunPCi(TM) III Coprocessor Card: With the card installed, users can run multiple separate operating environments -- Solaris, Linux and Windows -- on a single Sun Fire V250 server. This provides a perfect environment for users who want to develop in one operating environment and deploy on another or who want to take advantage of Solaris OS-based, Linux-based and Windows-based applications. -- PC NetLink: Allows customers to run native Windows NT file and print services on the Solaris operating system. PC NetLink provides transparent connectivity into Windows NT network environments, allowing customers to replace Windows NT servers with the more reliable, scalable Sun solution. -- Samba: Included with Solaris OS, Samba provides open source code for running workgroup file and print applications. The combination of the Sun Fire V250 server with both StarOffice(TM) software and Samba offered free of charge creates a powerful, economical hardware and software package to run office productivity, and file and print applications. -- Sun Blade 1500 Workstation -- Sun brings the UltraSPARC IIIi processor to the desktop with the Sun Blade 1500 to deliver the best workstation price-performance in history -- more than 70 percent better than competing 64-bit UNIX workstations from IBM and HP.(4) Starting at $2,995 (US List), the Sun Blade 1500 workstation is approximately one- fifth the price of the comparable configuration of IBM's 44P-170 workstation and will extend Sun's leading market share in technical markets. In addition, Sun has announced the introduction of SunForum(TM) 3D, which allows users to collaborate using 3D (Open GL) applications faster than ever before. This enables distributed teams to work more closely together using 3D applications and utilizing Sun Ray(TM) thin clients and Sun Blade workstations. Sun also added new solutions and performance enhancements to its low-cost computing line-up: -- Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid -- The Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid is an integrated hardware and software solution that is ideal for technical customers in electronic design automation (EDA), mechanical computer- aided engineering (MCAE), petroleum and life sciences markets. The management software including Sun Control Station 2.0 and Grid Engine Enterprise Edition is pre-loaded on the Cluster Grid Manager management node to help simplify compute grid management, reduce system administration cost, increase system administrator productivity and improve compute resource utilization all by up to 90 percent. A fully- loaded rack, consisting of 32 dual-2.8 GHz or 3.06 GHz Xeon processors, Sun Fire V60x servers and the integrated management software stack starts at $185,000 (US List). -- Sun Control Station 2.0 Lifecycle Management -- The Sun Control Station 2.0 lifecycle management software is ideal for deploying, monitoring and managing hundreds of servers, such as the Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers, through every stage of the IT lifecycle. Sun Control Station 2.0 software allows an administrator to cut costs and improve service deployment times by delivering and updating software and services to large numbers of remotely deployed, general purpose Linux and Solaris servers. Sun Control Station 2.0 is offered at a starting price of $1,995 (US List) for a single server with 10 node licenses. -- Sun Fire V880 Server Outruns IBM -- With a boost from 1.05 GHz to the latest 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC processors, the Sun Fire V880 server is now 14 percent faster at no additional cost. The Sun Fire V880 server, powered by eight UltraSPARC III 1.2 GHz processors, using the Solaris 9 operating system, achieved 12 percent more users than IBM's x440 8-way server, powered by 2.0 GHz Intel Xeon processors, according to a recent Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark.(5) In another important head- to-head battle with IBM, the Lotus NotesBench R6iNotes benchmark result shows that the Sun Fire V880 server at 1.2 GHz is capable of supporting 18 percent more users per processor and at a better price-performance point than the IBM iSeries 890, equipped with 1.3 GHz IBM Power4 processors.(6) The Sun Fire V880 server, with up to eight UltraSPARC III 1.2 GHz processors and internal storage, is available now, starting at $32,995 (US List) with 2 CPUs and 4GB of memory. -- Sun Ray Client -- Sun also announces enhancements to its Sun Ray product line including Sun Ray Building Blocks and a new and improved Sun Ray system. Sun Ray Building Blocks is a maintenance-free desktop offering that combines 15 Sun Ray 1 ultra-thin clients and a Sun Fire V210 or V250 server with smart cards for a complete workgroup solution. In addition, the Sun Ray 1g ultra-thin client is being added to the Sun Ray family of products. As the first ultra-thin client that supports resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 dpi at a full 24-bit color resolution, the Sun Ray 1g is targeted for EDA, publishing, software development, network operations centers and mission-critical defense customers. More information on these products can be found at: www.sun.com/products/ (1)HP-DL 580 G2 4P at 38 US$ per QphH@100GB, 2605 QphH@100GB, Available Date 08/15/03; Sun Fire V440 server at 28 US$ per QphH@100GB, 2428.6 QphH@100GB, Available Date 11/26/03 26% comes from (38-28/38). TPC Benchmark(TM) is a trademark of the TPC -- Transaction Processing Performance Council. (2)TPC-H @100GB:HP-ML 370 G3 at 28 US$ per QphH@100GB, 1386 QphH@100GB, Avail. Date 08/15/03; Sun Fire V250 at 23US$ per QphH@100GB, 1442.8 QphH@100GB, Avail. Date 11/26/03. (3)TPC-H @300GB:Sun Fire V250 at 27 US$ per QphH@300GB, 1283.3 QphH@300GB, Avail. Date 11/26/03; Sun Fire V240 at 49 US$ per QphH@300GB, 1026.5 QphH@300GB, Avail. Date 06/23/03. (4)SPEC(R) and the benchmark name SPECcpu2000(R) are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive benchmark results stated above reflect results published on www.spec.org as of September 16, 2003. The comparison presented above is based on the best performing single processor, 64-bit UNIX-based workstation currently shipping by IBM and HP. For the latest SPECcpu2000(R) benchmark results, visit www.spec.org/cpu2000. (5)Sun Fire V880 Server @ 1.2 GHz results -- 6,328 users in the Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark. Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark: September 16, 2003. (6)Notesbench R6iNotes on Sun Fire V880@1200 MHz results -- 8,400 users in Lotus Domino 6.0 Mail Server: September 26, 2003.