---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUN UNVEILS INDUSTRY'S LOWEST-COST COLOR RISC WORKSTATION SunFLASH Vol 19 #19 July 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPARCstation IPC Aimed at Commercial PC Users NEW YORK --July 25, 1990-- Sun Microsystems today introduced the first fully configured color RISC workstation priced below $10,000: the SPARCstation(TM) IPC. The compact, 15.8-MIPS desktop system is expandable and includes a 207-megabyte hard disk drive and a DOS-compatible, 3.5-inch floppy drive. With its built-in networking, ease of use and industry-leading price/performance, the new system will enable Sun to further penetrate the Fortune 1000 market for both commercial and technical applications. The IPC is the third desktop system in Sun's SPARCstation line. At $9,995 (or $8,995 diskless) -- which is below many high-end color PCs -- it offers the processing power, small footprint and connectivity features needed by corporate workgroups of the '90s. Additionally, its OPEN LOOK(TM) graphical user interface makes it as easy to use as a Macintosh. "The day has arrived: a full-function color workstation is underselling high-end PCs -- and delivering much more on the desktop for those countless corporate users who want an open, low-cost color system," said Wayne Rosing, vice president of Sun's Desktop Systems and Graphics Group. "Our new workstation can't be touched in terms of value," Rosing added. It includes as standard features many of the extras that must be ordered with '486 PCs from Compaq and IBM, which can cost almost twice as much when fully loaded. For example, the IPC has greater performance, better floating point, more storage and memory and a larger, higher-resolution color monitor than today's high-performance PCs. With these systems -- which have a larger footprint than the IPC -- users must also purchase third-party networking hardware and software, UNIX(R), a user interface, desktop productivity tools and a mouse to get a machine that approaches the IPC. IPC Ideal for Cost-Conscious Users The new SPARCstation IPC is the low-cost color entry in Sun's SPARCstation desktop line, the industry's most popular RISC workstation family. Also at the low end is the SPARCstation SLC, introduced in May, a small, diskless, monochrome, 12.5-MIPS computer that, at $4,995, is the least expensive RISC desktop on the market. At the high end of the SPARCstation desktop family is the SPARCstation 1+, a 15.8-MIPS system aimed at the power user who needs up to 64 megabytes of main memory, additional SBus slots, large color monitors and high-performance accelerated graphics. The SPARCstation 1+ with a hard drive, 16-inch color monitor, GX graphics acceleration and 8 megabytes of memory is priced at $16,495. All SPARCstations are binary compatible. The new IPC with its 16-inch color monitor, greater processing power and two SBus slots for expandability has from 8 to 24 megabytes of memory, expandable in 1- or 4-megabyte single in-line memory modules (SIMMs). It delivers 15.8 MIPS, 1.7 MFLOPS and 10 SPECmarks. The system has the same audio input/output capabilities found on all SPARCstation desktop computers and has one Ethernet port for networking and two serial ports for connecting modems, printers, scanners and other peripherals. In addition, the SPARCstation IPC is the first SPARC(R) system that has been certified to conform with SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD) 1.0, as tested and verified by SPARC International. SPARC hardware and software applications from various vendors will also become SCD 1.0-compliant. This will assure end users of broad compatibility among SPARC chips and systems. The current installed base of all SPARC systems is 100,000 computers. Breakthrough in Packaging Continuing Sun's tradition of designing innovative, small CPU packages for its desktop SPARCstations, the IPC incorporates the CPU, floppy drive and hard disk drive in a package the size of a lunchbox (a compact 9.5 x 10.25 x 4 inches). Up to 2.7 gigabytes of external hard disk storage can also be added. This breakthrough in packaging takes up less desk space than any other RISC workstation and most high-end PCs. For example, the total dimensions of the CPU enclosure for such machines as the Macintosh IIfx, '386 and '486 Compaq Deskpros, IBM PS/2 P70 and new PS/1 are all larger than the SPARCstation IPC. This small footprint reflects Sun's research into the space constraints of Fortune 1000 users. In addition, the IPC draws just 65 watts of power. Simplicity, Workgroup Productivity Applications, Powerful Networking Through its OPEN LOOK user interface, the new SPARCstation IPC combines the multi-user, multi-tasking power of UNIX with simple, intuitive operation. Users can take advantage of pull-down menus, special "drag and drop" capabilities and DeskSet(TM) productivity tools such as a file manager and mail tool. All diskfull SPARCstation IPCs will be shipped with OPEN LOOK, DeskSet and the other elements of Sun's OpenWindows(TM) user environment. An important benefit of the SPARCstation IPC is a fast-growing array of personal productivity applications that are among the more than 2,100 SPARCware(TM) products available from third-party vendors. Increasingly offered at PC-level prices, these applications include popular packages such as Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Informix' WingZ, Frame Technology's FrameMaker, Interleaf, Island Graphics' Write/Paint/Draw and the leading DBMS products from Informix, Ingres, Oracle and Sybase. Last week, Ventura Publisher became the latest best-selling software package that will be available for Sun's SPARC systems. Besides popular applications, the IPC offers superior networking through Sun's Open Network Computing(TM) (ONC) technology, widely recognized as a de facto industry standard for distributed computing. The SPARCstation IPC can fully utilize the compute power and resources of corporate networks rather than being limited to stand-alone applications or simple filesharing in homogeneous PC environments. Users have access to mainframes and minicomputers running sophisticated applications. The inherent networking capabilities of the SPARCstation IPC offer tremendous advantages over options available to PC LANs, which often depend on the limited functionality of terminal emulators or gateways to access corporate networks. Markets For the New System Fortune 1000 companies engaged in a wide array of applications can benefit from the SPARCstation IPC. "Until now, the many corporate users who wanted low-cost color had to turn to PCs," said Rosing. "The IPC gives them a solution that's smaller, cheaper, faster, more functional and just as open as the high-end PCs they've been using." For example, there has been strong demand in the financial services sector for low-cost color RISC workstations for complex financial modeling and portfolio management. Banks will use the SPARCstation IPC for many applications, such as branch automation. The insurance industry will frequently choose the new Sun workstation over other systems because of features like multi-tasking and built-in networking. The SPARCstation IPC will also be popular among technical users who want a powerful, low-cost color workstation for applications like computer-aided design. Pricing, Availability The $9,995 (U.S. list) SPARCstation IPC comes complete with a 16-inch, high-resolution color monitor, 207-megabyte hard disk drive, 8 megabytes of memory, OpenWindows Version 2, SunOS 4.1, Ethernet networking, a keyboard and mouse. A diskless version costs $8,995 (U.S. list). The system is currently being shipped in volume. 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. ### SPARCstation, OpenWindows, DeskSet, SPARCware, ONC and SunOS are trademarks of Sun Microsystems. SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, based on technology developed by Sun Microsystems. OPEN LOOK is a trademark of AT&T. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T. 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