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	ITALIAN BANK TO BUY MORE THAN 1,800 SPARC SYSTEMS
	     FOR HEADQUARTERS AND BRANCH AUTOMATION

SunFLASH Vol 12 #2					 December 1989 
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$17.6 Million Project is Sun's Largest Bank Automation Contract
  
 
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--December 6, 1989-- Sun Microsystems today
reported that it has won its largest bank automation contract to date,
valued at approximately $17.6 million, from Banca Popolare di Bergamo,
one of Italy's oldest banks.  Banca Popolare has agreed to purchase
more than 1,800 SPARC(TM)-based systems from Sun as part of an 18-month
renewable contract.  The bank will use powerful UNIX(R)-based
SPARCstation(TM) 1 workstations and SPARCserver(TM) departmental file
servers to automate its headquarters near Milan and its 130 branches.

The computer purchases were made as part of an on-going, multi-year
project called "Popolare 2001," which will competitively position the
bank in anticipation of Europe's economic and financial market changes
in 1992.  A significant element of the project was a 24-month research
and development effort by the bank to redesign its entire information
system.  This advanced new systems architecture will lead the bank into
the next century.

The Sun computers will be used for all aspects of bank automation,
including areas such as teller and platform automation, cash and
portfolio management and network administration.  All bank tellers will
have SPARCstation 1s for advanced tasks such as document imaging in
order to verify customer signatures.  The bank's legal department will
use the systems for authorization and document imaging.  In addition,
Banca Popolare is developing all of its applications in-house using
more than 100 Sun workstations for computer-aided software engineering
(CASE).

According to Gregorio Lerma, chief information officer of the bank,
"What Banca Popolare needed was a flexible, distributed, multi-vendor
system that would allow the bank to take advantage of new
technologies.  That is why we wanted UNIX.  SPARC will give us
binary-compatible software.  This will simplify the licensing,
development and maintenance of application software and make it easier
for the bank to take advantage of new microprocessor technology as it
becomes available."

Darryl T. Barbe, Sun's vice president and general manager for European
operations said "The European financial community -- including such
major Sun customers as Swiss Bank Corporation, London International
Financial Futures Exchange and CONSOB -- is rapidly adopting true open
systems computer technology.  These forward-thinking firms are
realizing that workgroup computing based on UNIX workstations and
servers, as opposed to PCs, offer superior networking and performance
that will give them the firepower to compete in business markets in the
90s."

Banca Popolare di Bergamo has assets of more than $8 billion.  It has
some 2900 employees and branches throughout Italy.

Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a
leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing
systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX
operating system and productivity software.

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SPARC, SPARCstation and SPARCserver are trademarks of Sun Microsystems,
Inc.  UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.  All other products or
services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or
service marks of their respective companies or organizations.
 
Press Contact:
Cindee Mock (415) 336-3563