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	SUN'S SPARC TO BE USED BY McDONNELL DOUGLAS IN UNIX SYSTEM
			FOR PICK VARs AND DEALERS

SunFLASH Vol 16 #11 					 	April 1990 
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SPARC Brings Power, Openness, Networking to PICK Environment
 
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --April 10, 1990-- In a move to bring the
benefits of RISC/UNIX systems to users of PICK(R)-based applications,
the McDonnell Douglas Field Service Company is developing a server that
uses the SPARC(TM) RISC architecture, designed by Sun Microsystems.
The new system, called the LX/2100, will run PICK-based applications on
top of SunOS(TM), a leading UNIX(R) operating system from Sun, as well
as UNIX applications now available for SPARC.

A prototype of the SPARC-based LX/2100 will be on display at the
McDonnell Douglas booth at the International Spectrum '90 show, being
held in Anaheim on April 11-13.

McDonnell Douglas is taking a major new direction with the introduction
of the LX/2100: it is the company's first open system based on UNIX
industry standards. The LX/2100 incorporates SunOS and UniREALITY(R)
(software that combines an RDBMS and development tools), which runs on
top of SunOS. UniREALITY was developed by UniData and specially
enhanced for REALITY applications. McDonnell Douglas resellers can run
existing REALITY applications with UniREALITY in order to obtain the
benefits of UNIX.

"By bringing REALITY-based and PICK-based applications to the
SPARC/UNIX environment, we'll be giving users the best of both worlds,"
said Bert Novak, president of the McDonnell Douglas Field Service
Company. "They'll get the simplicity and flexibility of REALITY or
PICK-based RDBMS applications running on an open system with excellent
price/performance. Sun's UNIX platform also brings users powerful
networking capabilities, integration with other applications and a
platform poised for upward growth."

One of the advantages of Sun's SPARC architecture is that applications
written for the LX/2100 will automatically operate, without changes, on
any of Sun's other SPARC systems. Thus McDonnell Douglas can
potentially expand its product line with a range of SPARC servers and
workstations, also utilizing the benefits of a client/server
architecture. A wide range of horizontal SPARC applications, such as
Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect, can operate concurrently in adjacent
windows along with PICK applications.

There are approximately 4,000 commercial applications running under the
REALITY or PICK operating system. These applications include vertical
markets such as accounting, distribution, manufacturing, legal and
retail. This popular application environment is attractive to
developers and end users of business software.

McDonnell Douglas will incorporate 12.5-MIPS (million instructions per
second) SPARC CPU boards in its LX/2100 server. The LX/2100 will
include a hard disk and cartridge drives, an Ethernet interface and
internal interfaces for 16 terminals. It will be shipped in the fourth
quarter.

McDonnell Douglas Field Service Company performs all sales and
marketing of McDonnell Douglas computer products in North America
through its VAR channel. It is one of the largest support
organizations in the nation, with 1,000 professionals in 125
locations.

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 and SunOS are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a
registered trademark of AT&T. UniREALITY is a registered trademark of
McDonnell Douglas. PICK is a registered trademark of PICK Systems
Inc. 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:
Nancy Groves (415) 336-6411

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Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems,
Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to John McLaughlin
(sun!sunvice!johnj or johnj@sunvice.East.Sun.COM). (305) 776-7770.