SCIENCE

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced today the Sun Grid Engine Project, an initiative to offer the source code for Sun(TM) Grid Engine software to users and the developer community. Sun Grid Engine software is an advanced distributed resource management (DRM) tool. It has been available as a free download at www.sun.com/software/gridware since its introduction in September 2000. A leader in the open source community, Sun will add this project's half million lines of code to its total of more than 8 million lines of code already contributed to open source efforts. Sun is coordinating this worldwide project with CollabNet, a leading provider of collaborative software development solutions based on open source concepts, in making the code available for download at http://www.gridengine.sunsource.net. The project is designed to further remove the cost and implementation barriers associated with deploying DRM software in a compute farm. Additionally, both open source users and Sun Grid Engine software customers should benefit from this open source project through enhanced industry support. For example, service and support providers should be able to customize the powerful software for specific customer needs, and software developers should be able to reduce complexity for end users by creating applications that are tightly integrated with Sun Grid Engine software. Over time, the open source effort should facilitate the adoption of open standards for DRM software, facilitating interoperability with applications and easing integration. "As cluster computing scales up towards grid computing, tools like Sun Grid Engine software will become ubiquitous and essential," said Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of technology information firm O'Reilly & Associates. "Computing is moving towards the development of what you might call an Internet operating system. Sun recognizes that key components of that operating system shouldn't be controlled by any one company, and they're putting their money where their mouth is by releasing it as open source." "Sun will continue to deliver products that support our core philosophy that the network is the computer," said Robbie Turner, vice president of Client and Technical Market Products at Sun Microsystems. "Sun is encouraging the grid computing model via free downloads of Sun Grid Engine software -- and now by making its code available to the open source community -- because the productivity gains of the grid computing model will increasingly serve as a decisive factor in a business's ultimate success or failure." CollabNet is providing the Web infrastructure and comprehensive development platform that enables geographically dispersed groups of developers to collaborate on Grid Engine projects. Based on CollabNet's SourceCast environment, this platform includes tools for revision control, issue tracking, mailing list creation and management, and Web-based administration. This open source project follows on the heels of the successful OpenOffice.org initiative -- also supported by CollabNet -- which made available the source code for Sun's StarOffice(TM) software under the same industry-accepted Sun Industry Standards Source License. Full details of Sun's involvement with open source projects can be seen at http://www.sunsource.net. "The Grid Engine Project continues to demonstrate Sun's true leadership within the open source community," said Brian Behlendorf, co-founder and CTO of CollabNet. "CollabNet is delighted to be working with Sun on yet more compelling open source software. Sun's decision to open this previously proprietary software demonstrates its understanding of the technical community's fundamental need and interest in scalable DRM technology." Sun Grid Engine software was introduced in September 2000 as the first product resulting from Sun's acquisition of Gridware, formerly a privately owned commercial vendor of advanced DRM software tools. Since then, the software has been downloaded nearly 8,000 times in more than 90 countries. A comprehensive web-based training course for installing and managing the software is also available at no cost at http://www.sun.com/software/gridware. By distributing Sun Grid Engine software as a free download and with all Sun systems, Sun is reportedly changing the economics of technical computing and breaking down the barriers of employing distributed computing. Sun Grid Engine software is designed to aggregate compute resources, match them to individual job requirements, and deliver network-wide compute power to the desktop. Through this horizontal scaling, Sun's powerful DRM tool manages an organization's compute resources and job distribution, which: -- allows engineers to move beyond the desktop to leverage all the resources available on the network; -- frees the engineer to focus on the project, not computing tasks; -- provides easy access to resource-rich compute environments, allowing for expanded product development, simulations and testing; -- speeds time to market; -- and fundamentally changes the economics of technical computing. For more information visit www.sun.com