sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sunflash@suntri sunflash-Send requests and problem reports to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sun Intergraph Agreement To Develop Future SPARCs, Port Windows NT SunFLASH Vol 55 #11 July 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 55.11 Sun Intergraph Agreement Sun Microsystems, Intergraph to Develop High-Performance SPARC Chips; Intergraph to Port Windows NT to SPARC 55.11.A Sun Microsystems, Intergraph to Develop High-Performance SPARC Chips Intergraph's Advanced Processor Division will develop high-end 64-bit SPARC microprocessors jointly with SMCC's SPARC Technology Business 55.11.B Intergraph Announces Port of Windows NT to SPARC Architecture Windows NT already ported to Intergraph's Clipper. Full range of Intergraph technical applications for Windows NT to follow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Sun Microsystems, Intergraph to Develop High-Performance SPARC Chips PALO ALTO, Calif., July 7, 1993 -- Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation (SMCC) and Intergraph Corporation announced today that they have signed a development agreement that will accelerate delivery of future generations of SPARC microprocessors. In addition, Intergraph will port Microsoft Corporation's Windows NT operating system to future SPARC microprocessors. Under terms of the agreement, Intergraph's Advanced Processor Division (APD), located here, will develop high-end 64-bit SPARC microprocessors jointly with SMCC's SPARC Technology Business (STB). Intergraph and SMCC both have the right to use these processors in their system level products, while STB will make these components available to the open market. As part of the agreement, APD will assume responsibility for porting Microsoft's Windows NT to Intergraph systems using future versions of SPARC processors. The APD port will support the "little-endian" byte ordering feature to be included in future SPARC implementations. This means that Windows NT itself and Windows NT applications will transition easily to the SPARC architecture. Solaris will continue to support "big-endian" byte ordering, as defined in current and future versions of the SPARC architecture, which to date runs more than 7500 hardware and software solutions. With the official release of Windows NT, Intergraph will offer its technical applications on Windows NT-based systems incorporating Intel and Clipper microprocessors. As a result of this agreement, Intergraph now expects to offer SPARC-compatible Windows NT systems and applications during 1995. SPARC systems represented more than 52 percent of worldwide reduced instruction set computer (RISC) workstation/server shipments in 1992, according to International Data Corporation, more than all competitive RISC system marketshare combined. "This agreement marks another milestone as the SPARC community broadens. We are pleased to see industry-leading vendors like Intergraph adopt SPARC," said Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc. "We're also pleased that APD's Windows NT porting expertise will add another key software environment to SPARC. This agreement means the three most popular operating systems -- Solaris from SunSoft, NetWare from Novell, and now Windows NT from Microsoft -- will be ported to SPARC, the powerful, high volume RISC standard." Jim Meadlock, Intergraph's CEO, noted: "This represents the next logical step in our relationship with Sun. We already have several of our major UNIX applications running on SPARC, and we resell Sun workstations in selected markets. By devoting APD resources to SPARC, we leverage our expertise in high-end processor development. Porting Windows NT to SPARC will benefit the entire SPARC and Windows NT communities, and expands our own marketing options around the Windows NT standard. Windows NT's source-language compatibility across different machine architectures lets us sell our applications solutions on whatever hardware architectures best address our customers' needs. This announcement reinforces Intergraph's capability to provide interoperability between UNIX and Windows environments. Our Clipper-based products, representing the midrange of our product lines, will continue to be enhanced and supported for both UNIX and Windows NT. The future SPARC-based Windows NT products are planned for high-end workstations and compute-servers." SPARC Technology Business (STB) is an organization within SMCC that makes SMCC- developed SPARC processor and system product designs, operating system-independent computers, and engineering services available to the open market. Future chips from STB and APD will be part of the UltraSPARC family on the SPARC Technology Roadmap recently unveiled by STB. The roadmap details many current and future microprocessor designs, demonstrating SPARC's unsurpassed scalability. SMCC Background Information Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation is the world's leading supplier of open client/server computing solutions. An operating company of Sun Microsystems, SMCC has its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Intergraph Background Information Intergraph Corporation, the world's largest producer of interactive computer graphics systems, offers a broad range of complementary workstations and network servers, as well as complete application-specific systems for computer-aided design, engineering, manufacturing, and publishing, plus numerous earth science applications. Intergraph has its headquarters in Huntsville, Ala.; Intergraph's Advanced Processor Division is located in Palo Alto, Calif. # # # Clipper* is a registered trademark of Intergraph Corporation. NetWare* is a registered trademark of Novell. SPARC* is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. Windows NT* is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Intergraph Announces Port of Windows NT to SPARC Architecture HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 7, 1993 -- Intergraph Corporation announced today that it will port Microsoft's Windows NT operating system to Intergraph systems using the SPARC architecture. The port will support the "little-endian" byte ordering to be included in future SPARC implementations. In a simultaneous announcement, Intergraph and Sun Microsystems announced that they have signed an agreement to jointly develop future generations of SPARC microprocessors. Intergraph demonstrated the Clipper port of Windows NT at Windows World '93 in May, when Windows NT was officially introduced. Microsoft and Intergraph announced last fall that Intergraph would port Windows NT to the Clipper and provide its full range of technical applications for Windows NT on Intel and Clipper architectures. Intergraph now plans to offer these applications in 1995 on SPARC-based Windows NT systems as well. Tom Steele, Intergraph's executive vice president of software systems, observed "We're pleased to be able to put an end to the rumors and speculation: Windows NT will officially be available for the SPARC architecture, and Intergraph is providing it. The Clipper Windows NT porting experience has been extremely positive. The SPARC port will add to Windows NT's already substantial momentum and allow us to deliver our hardware and software solutions to more technical users. This is definitely an important step in our providing solutions for the technical desktop." Intergraph has made a major commitment to Windows NT, which enables the company to provide its wide range of technical applications across a variety of hardware architectures. With identical user interfaces, application programming interfaces (APIs), and data formats, Intergraph's Windows NT-based Clipper, Intel, and future SPARC systems will be fully compatible in stand- alone and networked environments. Microsoft Senior Vice President of Systems Paul Maritz commented on this latest advance of Windows NT: "Windows NT was designed to be a full-featured, scalable, platform-independent operating system. We're pleased to offer this additional choice in response to the tremendous customer interest in Windows NT." Intergraph Background Information Intergraph Corporation (NASDAQ "INGR"), a member of the Fortune 500, is the world's largest producer of interactive computer graphics systems. Intergraph products include a broad range of workstations and servers, as well as complete application-specific systems for computer-aided design, engineering, manufacturing, and publishing, plus numerous earth science applications. # # # Clipper* is a registered trademark of Intergraph Corporation. SPARC* is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. Windows NT* is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other brand, product, and service names are trademarks of their respective owners. ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. 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