INDUSTRY

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), strengthens its lead in the UNIX® server market today with the launch of faster, high performance Sun Fire(TM) 3800, 4800, 6800, 12K and 15K servers that integrate the 1.05 GHz UltraSPARC® III Cu processor. The 1.05 GHz UltraSPARC III Cu-based Sun Fire servers not only drive more power to the datacenter and technical computing customers with a 15 percent increase in performance, they feature interchangeable components such as Sun's Uniboard technology, which simplifies operations, enabling mixed-speed CPU support. This allows 900 MHz and 1.05 GHz UltraSPARC III Cu processors to run in the same fault-isolated Dynamic System Domain within the same server. Sun's clear upgrade path provides customers with both Hot CPU and new mixed-speed CPU support, and helps protect customers' investments while lowering their total cost of ownership. "The Sun Fire server's performance has been outstanding, and its reliability has been flawless since installation," said Dr. Christoph Sensen, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Calgary. "The 1.05 GHz USIII Cu processor will only improve upon this performance, helping us realize even greater compute power and capacity. We are very excited that this will allow us to capitalize on our current investments because the Sun Fire servers have the ability to accommodate different processor speeds, and we won't have to replace what we already have -- a huge investment protection advantage. In addition, one of the most exciting aspects of this upgrade is that we will be able to make these improvements without taking our system down for even a minute." New Capabilities Widen the Gap Between Sun and Its Competitors Sun's Uniboard CPU/Memory board, which is common throughout the entire Sun Fire Midframe and high-end server family, is a differentiated offering that enables customers to provision resources where they need. Hot CPU capabilities and support for mixed-speed CPUs enable customers to upgrade to the 1.05 GHz USIII Cu processors without a reboot, which increases availability, enables seamless re-allocation of compute power and eliminates planned downtime for these upgrades -- a common occurrence in IT environments running data-intensive applications. "Enterprises continue to run mission-critical, high performance computing environments that need to be up and running 24x7. At the same time, IT managers running these data centers need to keep their costs down and make the most of their current investments," said Clark Masters, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Systems Products, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "As a technology leader, we deliver new features and functionalities today -- like support for mixed-speed CPUs on a single system, on our proven Solaris(TM) Operating Environment, and SPARC and UNIX servers to help maximize system resources in ways that our customers not only save costs, but also increase their return on investment." The 1.05 GHz USIII Cu processor powering Sun Fire servers strengthens Sun's demonstrated leadership in the UNIX server market. With these faster, high performance copper-based chips, the Sun Fire 15K server nearly doubled the performance of IBM's best results on a recent SPECjbb2000 benchmark, published on April 29, 2002, and delivered the world's fastest TPC data warehouse result on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark, published on June 26, 2002.