---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Miscellaneous Major Wins for Sun SunFLASH Vol 17 #5 May 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUN SELECTED AS GENERAL ELECTRIC'S STRATEGIC WORKSTATION VENDOR Agreement Includes SPARCstations, OPEN LOOK MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --May 14, 1990-- Sun Microsystems today announced that General Electric Company (GE) has chosen Sun as the strategic supplier of UNIX(R)-based workstations and servers to its 13 business units, which include such organizations as NBC, Kidder, Peabody and GE Medical Systems. An open-ended agreement between the two compaines specifies purchase arrangements for Sun's SPARCstations(TM) and SPARCservers(TM) equipped with the OPEN LOOK(TM) graphical user interface. "This agreement is particularly rewarding to Sun in light of GE's technological leadership and its status as the fifth largest industrial company in the U.S.," said Scott McNealy, Sun president and CEO. "Open systems is becoming the foundation of corporate computing, and this selection further confirms our position as the premier supplier of workstations. We anticipate revenues of $50 to $100 million over the next few years as a result of this partnership." GE expects Sun workstations to be used in a wide range of applications, from mechanical and electronic design and manufacturing to financial services, medical and office automation. The 2,000 third-party products available for Sun's SPARC(TM)-based systems (known as SPARCware(TM)), the ability of these systems to connect to other computers and Sun's commitment to standards and open systems were important considerations for GE. "Our intent in forming this non-exclusive agreement with Sun was to improve the productivity of our workforce by exploiting an open computing environment while standardizing the tools we use, " said Ed Skiko, vice president of GE's corporate information technology. Each business unit will evaluate its workstation needs and determine how best to take advantage of the corporate agreement. Although this agreement covers U.S. operations only, GE and Sun have agreed to expand it to cover international purchases as well. ******************************************* DRUPA PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS UNDERSCORE SHIFT TO UNIX-BASED SUN WORKSTATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING DUSSELDORF --April 27, 1990-- Nine leading publishing system vendors are featuring new professional color publishing solutions on Sun Microsystems' SPARC(TM)-based workstations at the Drupa Exposition, April 27 through May 10. These vendors -- Agfa Compugraphic, H. Berthold, CCI Europe, Dainippon Screen, Dupont Imaging Systems, Eastman-Kodak, Gems of Cambridge, Linotype and Unda Inc. -- reflect a continuing shift away from closed, proprietary systems toward UNIX(R)-based professional publishing applications running on industry standard RISC workstations. The offerings from these vendors also define a new mid-range segment of color pre-press systems priced from $20,000 to $100,000. These mid-range products are far less expensive than proprietary solutions and offer significantly more compute power than DOS or Macintosh personal computers. By standardizing on the UNIX operating system, publishing and printing companies can preserve their investments in computer systems and software, since existing proprietary or PC systems can easily be linked with UNIX products. The open architecture of Sun's UNIX-based hardware ensures that new software and hardware developments can also be incorporated as they become available. SPARC is Sun's reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture. SPARC systems from Sun offer significant compute performance and are being widely adopted by developers of demanding applications such as page assembly with graphics, color pre-press, image editing and electronic darkroom. With SPARC-based systems, resellers and software vendors can offer solutions that rival the performance of proprietary systems at a fraction of the cost. A standard SPARCstation(TM) 1 offers several times the power of a high-end personal computer, making it well suited for deadline or production publishing. Through the OPEN LOOK(TM) graphical user interface (GUI), Sun is making powerful UNIX desktop workstations easy to use. OPEN LOOK is an intuitive and efficient GUI that uses icons and "drag and drop" techniques. Many vendors are incorporating OPEN LOOK into their application packages. The vendors showing Sun-based publishing packages at Drupa include: Agfa Compugraphic is introducing two new systems that use OPEN LOOK: PIX, a new color retouching and separation system that is based on the Sun386i(TM) computer and AgfaCatalyst, the industry's first professional-quality color page layout and composition system for the Sun SPARCstation. GEMS is demonstrating The Color Solution, its electronic studio system for color picture editing in high-volume publishing applications. It uses OPEN LOOK and is available on all Sun platforms, including SPARC-based systems. H. Berthold is announcing ColourDesign, a freehand illustration package for creative design work that is based on the Sun SPARCstation. The company will also demonstrate monochrome and color SPARCstations running ColourPage software as well as several additional SPARCstations for black-and-white and color work. CCI Europe, a leading supplier of commercial front-end systems, will show PageChamp, AdChamp and Color ImageChamp running on SPARCstations. Dainippon Screen, parent company of Island Graphics, is introducing SPARC-based page assembly and color retouching systems. The Electronic Page Assembler (EPA) runs on the SPARCstation 1 and the Electronic Color Retoucher (ECR) runs on the SPARCstation 330. Dupont Imaging Systems is showing Crosfield StudioLink 2.1.Q, an updated version of the PostScript link to the Crosfield Studio system that can now interface with major off-the-shelf PostScript desktop publishing software packages. StudioLink accepts page input from widely-used desktop publishing applications and provides output to a variety of high-end color pre-press systems. Eastman-Kodak is demonstrating its first standards-based, entry-level electronic color imaging system. The Kodak Prophecy color publishing system for Sun's SPARC workstations features the same real-world, real-time color imaging capabilities previously limited to much larger proprietary systems at less than half the cost. It performs image editing and retouching. Linotype is launching a new system called LinoPress, which is designed for newspaper and magazine editorial and advertising needs. LinoPress replaces the Series 400 System and links Sun SPARCstation file servers to Apple Macintosh terminals via Ethernet. Unda Inc. is demonstrating three new products. The Color Quick Printing System combines an Unda/Sun SPARC color design workstation and Canon's Laser Copier CLC-500. It offers low-cost design, quick printing and proofing on demand. Also being shown is a PostScript import interface for incorporating files created with Macintosh and PC software into Sun-based Unda pages. The files can be imported via 3 1/2- or 5 1/4-inch diskettes on a PC or via the Sun workstation serial port. Completing Unda's new offering is the Image Station, a SPARC-based color retouching and image manipulation workstation. When the Image Station is combined with Unda's existing color design technology, it creates the Production System, a turnkey design and production system for trade shops and repro houses. ******************************************* TWO FRENCH MILITARY CONTRACTORS CHOOSE SPARC Agreement Signed for SPARC Code Generator MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- May 7, 1990 -- Sun Microsystems today reported that Electronique Serge Dassault (ESD) and SAGEM, two of the major players in the French military market, have chosen the SPARC (TM) microprocessor architecture for their new generation of embedded systems. These systems will be aimed at realtime applications, using the Ada language. SPARC is a high-performance RISC architecture designed by Sun and licensed to semiconductor and system companies. Embedded SPARC chips are available from Cypress Semiconductor, LSI Logic, Fujitsu and soon from N.V. Philips. The SPARC architecture was chosen for its scalability, which allows binary compatibility between different implementations. Certain SPARC architectural attributes make it well-suited to realtime Ada embedded applications, including its register window scheme, extremely short interrupt latency and fast context switching. With Ada, the new embedded SPARC systems can take advantage of the language's quality, durability and easy maintenance. ESD has licensed Ada technology from Alsys, a worldwide leader in Ada compilers. In addition, ESD announced that it is working with Alsys to develop a SPARC code generator as well as tools for development, tuning and integration of embedded software. Alsys will also assist ESD in porting its Ada test system to SPARC. ESD and SAGEM are both members of EUROSPARC, a group of European companies who license SPARC for embedded applications. ******************************************* YALE PURCHASES 200 SUN SPARCSTATIONS, 10 SERVERS Deal Valued at Five Million Dollars MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --May 14, 1990-- Sun Microsystems today announced that Yale University faculty members representing eight diverse disciplines recently selected Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation(TM) as their computer standard for the 1990s. In a purchase worth $5 million, Yale is basing its science and engineering computing laboratory on the SPARC(TM) microprocessor architecture, which uses reduced instruction set computing (RISC). Yale has installed 200 SPARCstation 1s and 10 SPARCserver(TM) 390 file servers across campus. Faculty in departments ranging from economics to psychology to computer science chose Sun's high-performance, UNIX(R)-based SPARCstations to trim operating costs while improving computational support for the university's research programs. "We wanted a flexible, common platform for students and faculty in computer science, engineering and the social sciences," said Richard Ferguson, university director of computing and information systems at Yale. "However, we don't dictate what equipment departments use, as they do in a corporate environment. Here, faculty decide on their own. In the end, the SPARCstation 1's processing power and ease of use matched faculty and students' needs." Yale students enrolled in engineering and computer science courses now have direct access to 30 SPARCstation 1s housed in a student teaching laboratory. In addition, students using PCs in their dormitory rooms can access files residing on two SPARCserver 390s that store and route data in the laboratory. Most students enrolled in science courses use Macintoshes in their dorm rooms, Ferguson said, and they can connect with the Sun servers via an AppleTalk network and dial-in modems. In all, eight of Yale's 35 academic departments use the new systems. The SPARCstation 1's processing power helps perform compute-intensive statistical analysis tasks for social science researchers. The computer also performs number-crunching tasks vital to scientific research conducted by the engineering and computer science departments. The new SPARC-based systems replace a variety of older workstations from vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corporation and Sun. Yale will lower its support and operating costs by switching to a common platform. In the future, the eight departments using the SPARCstation 1s expect to purchase additional machines on their own as their computing needs grow. The SPARCstation 1, a 12.5-MIPS machine, bridges the PC and workstation worlds by combining UNIX sophistication with a user-friendly OPEN LOOK(TM) graphical interface and minicomputer performance. The SPARCstation 1 is smaller than a PC and costs less than $9,000. The SPARCserver 390 is an extremely powerful, general-purpose system that is also highly expandable. 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. ### SPARC, SPARCstation and SPARCserver are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. OPEN LOOK is a trademark of AT&T. 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. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to FLASH [John McLaughlin] (sun!sunvice!flash or flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM). (305) 776-7770.