sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash HOT OFF THE PRESS (January 1994) SunFLASH Vol 61 #19 January 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61.19 HOT OFF THE PRESS (January 1994) Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation's Public Relations' newsletter. Statistics about Sun and its market and news from the Sun 'planets'. (459 lines) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation --------------------------- HOT OFF THE PRESS --------------------------- Recent News January, 1994 Published by SMCC Public Relations ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents STATE OF THE BUSINESS THE OFFICIAL COUNT DID YOU KNOW... MARKET SHARE STATISTICS SUCCESSFUL SUN INSTALLATIONS RECENT INDUSTRY NEWS SunSoft and NeXT Agreement SUN'S MOMENTUM SUNCONNECT HIGHLIGHTS SUN MICROSYSTEMS COMPUTER CORPORATION HIGHLIGHTS SUNEXPRESS HIGHLIGHTS SUNPICS HIGHLIGHTS SUNSELECT HIGHLIGHTS SUNSOFT HIGHLIGHTS SUNSOLUTIONS HIGHLIGHTS RECENT SPARC NEWS CUSTOMER QUOTABLES - Rightsizing at Work ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: STATE OF THE BUSINESS * Sun's Q2, FY94 revenue was a record $1,131 million, an 8 percent increase over the $1,051 million reported in the same period a year ago. * Net income for the quarter was $43.8 million, or $0.46 per share, up from the $24.1 million, or $0.23 per share, for the same period a year ago. * Revenue per employee for the last 12 months was a record $352,100 - the highest revenue per employee of any computer company utilizing a direct sales business model. * Sun's FY93 revenue was $4.31 billion, up 20 percent from the $3.6 billion reported in FY92. * Net income for FY93 was $156.7 million, or $1.49 per share. * Sun is ranked #139 on the 1993 Fortune 500 list, moving up from #146 last year. * Total number of employees is 12,760 (as of December, 1993). * More than half - 51.9 percent - of Sun's total revenue in Q2, FY94 came from non-U.S. sales (U.S.: 48.1%; Europe: 28%; rest of world: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: THE OFFICIAL COUNT * SMCC shipped 60,600 units in Q2. Cumulative installed base is more than one million units. * More than 7,800 SPARC hardware and software solutions are currently available from more than 3,330 vendors. * More than 1 million SPARC chips have been shipped to date by all SPARC vendors. * More than 34 vendors are currently shipping SPARC-compatible products. * SunSoft has distributed more than 1.5 million Solaris licenses. * ONC networking technology has an installed base of more than 4 million nodes worldwide and is available on major operating systems including DOS, MVS, VMS, OS/2, MacOS, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, A/UX and DEC OSF/1. More than 200 hardware and software vendors have licensed ONC technologies. * SunNet Manager has an installed base of more than 12,000 users. In addition, there are more than 62 SunNet Manager Partner products available for SunNet Manager from 90 vendors. * SunService supports more than 880,000 systems in 125 countries and employs the most UNIX experts in the world, at 550 specialists. SunService also has 250 service partners and supports 100 education centers located in 20 countries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: DID YOU KNOW... * Mainframe shops in the U.S. prefer Sun systems twice as much as IBM. In a recent survey published in Infoperspectives, Sun workstations and servers were preferred by 60.9% of traditional mainframe organizations, compared to 30.3% of those surveyed who selected IBM (DEC: 6.4%; HP: 1.7%). * Users voted the SPARCstation 10 the number one workstation in process manufacturing. Readers of CONTROL magazine, a leading publication covering the process manufacturing industries, named the SPARCstation 10 system the number one workstation in process manufacturing, based on the results of the magazine's second annual Readers' Choice survey of hardware and software products for the process control industry. The Sun workstation won top honors by a wide margin, garnering 33% of the vote. HP and IBM systems tied for second place, each with 13% of the vote. * Sun was included in a list of the "Global 50 Best-run Corporations." Manager Magazin, together with Boston Consulting Group, ranked Sun #9 in the report on the "Global 50 Best-run Corporations." The criteria against which the contenders were ranked included total shareholder return, relative total shareholder return and cashflow return on investment. Sun was the only computer/system manufacturer included on the list (Intel was ranked #2). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: MARKET SHARE STATISTICS * SMCC remained the workstation/server market leader in 1993, with 39.7% of worldwide workstation/server shipments, according to IDC reports. (HP: 20.1%; DEC: 10.8%; IBM: 8.3%; SGI: 6.5%) * SMCC also lead the industry in terms of system revenue in 1993, with 33.4% of worldwide workstation/server revenue, according to IDC reports. (HP: 20.4%; IBM: 10.1%; SGI: 10.1%; DEC: 8.3%) * SPARC-based systems are the highest-volume platform in the RISC workstation/server market, with SPARC having 57.2% of the worldwide installed base, according to IDC reports (MIPS: 17.6%; PA-RISC: 8.3%; IBM Power: 7.7%). * Sun was the worldwide UNIX system leader in 1993, with 16.7% of UNIX system revenue, according to IDC reports (HP: 15.4%; IBM: 10.7%; NCR/AT&T: 5.2%; SGI: 4.9%; Cray Research: 3.2%; DEC: 2.7%). * Sun is the leading hardware supplier for UNIX RDBMS solutions, according to IDC reports. Sun experienced a 47.9% growth in RDBMS from 1991 to 1992, giving Sun a 24.9% share of the market (HP: 19.9%; IBM: 19.6%; DEC/Ultrix: 6.0%; and NCR: 4.6%). * Sun is also the leading RISC hardware supplier for DBMS solutions in the U.S., with 50.4% of all shipments, according to Computer Intelligence Corp. (IBM: 24.8%; DEC: 8.1%; HP: 7.1%). * SMCC servers accounted for the largest share of the "as sold" workstation server market in 1992 with 39.8% of the worldwide shipments, according to IDC reports (IBM: 20.9%; DEC: 13%; SGI: 6.2%; HP: 5.6%). * Sun remains the technical market leader, according to Dataquest reports: - Sun is the leader in the MCAD market, with 33% of 1992 worldwide MCAD unit volume (HP: 23%; IBM: 8%). - Sun leads the industry in the EDA market, with 60% of the worldwide EDA shipments (HP: 25%; IBM: 2%). - In the CASE market, Sun leads with 62% of the worldwide CASE market (IBM: 14%; HP: 5%). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: SUCCESSFUL SUN INSTALLATIONS Artecon, Inc., a system integrator and peripherals manufacturer, uses a network of Sun systems to run its manufacturing, financial and sales applications. The $50 million company manufactures hundreds of value-added peripheral product lines, such as optical jukeboxes, multiplexors and SBus tools. Artecon decided on the Sun solution for its reliability, price/performance ratio and Sun's leadership in the UNIX market. The Artecon network includes 40 SPARCstation LX desktops and a SPARCserver 1000 server running the Oracle RDBMS and Nordic Chart, an integrated business application that is used in various departments. The Nordic software is used by employees on the shop floor for manufacturing management functions such as engineering control, sales order control, master production scheduling, and material requirements planning. In distribution and customer service, the system is used to keep track of orders, inventory and warranties. Finance and sales staff use the network for contact management, price quotes, and sales confirmation. Sun's user-friendly capabilities make applications easy to use for the advanced computer programmer as well as for the computer novice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: RECENT INDUSTRY NEWS Subject: SunSoft and NeXT Agreement SunSoft recently licensed key components from NeXT Computer to speed time-to-market for its Solaris object environment. The integration of the NeXTSTEP object application environment with Solaris yields unparalleled power for enterprise computing. With the inclusion of NeXT's application environment into Solaris, SunSoft will offer rightsizing customers a best-of-breed solution to build mission critical applications faster and that are more reliable, while at the same time, remain compatible with existing Solaris applications. Other agreement details include: * The NEXTSTEP application environment will be integrated with Solaris' Distributed Object Environment as part of the SunSoft's Project DOE effort. * SunSoft and NeXT will work together on the establishment of "OpenStep" as an industry standard for object development. OpenStep is an open application programming interface (API) derived from the operating system-independent subset of NEXTSTEP 3.2. * NeXT will freely license the OpenStep specification and the OpenStep trademark to any implementation that passes a verification test suite. SunSoft and NeXT will work with the appropriate standards organizations to deliver a comprehensive set of application development standards based on the OpenStep specification that the entire industry can use. * NeXT will port the native NEXTSTEP operating system to the SPARC architecture with marketing and technical assistance from Sun's SPARC Technology Business. * SunSoft licensed to NeXT its implementations of networking and distributed object technologies, including CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), The Object Management Group's IDL (Interface Definition Language) and NFS (Network File System). * Sun Microsystems, Inc., will make a minority equity investment in NeXT Computer, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: SUN'S MOMENTUM Subject: SUNCONNECT HIGHLIGHTS * SunConnect introduced the industry's first cooperative network and systems resource management products that enable users to integrate management tools from multiple vendors and manage any resource from any location. The cooperative management product line includes Project ENCOMPASS, an advanced object-oriented management platform, and Cooperative Consoles and Cooperative Reporting, management platform extensions that provide sychronized data repository and Structured Query Language (SQL) reporting capabilities. * SunConnect and NetLabs, Inc., entered into a relationship to create the industry's first open, cooperating network management platforms that share a common information model. The relationship involves two major components: NetLabs and SunConnect will support common interfaces to their respective platforms, and the NetLabs/DIMONS 3G network management platform technology (formerly called NetLabs/OverLord) will be licensed for incorporation into the SunNet Manager platform and future SunConnect management products. Subject: SUN MICROSYSTEMS COMPUTER CORPORATION HIGHLIGHTS * TPC-A and TPC-C Results: Sun #1 - A Sun SPARCserver 1000 system running the INFORMIX-OnLine 5.01 RDBMS offers the best price/performance among all database servers in the industry, based on the Transaction Processing Performance Council benchmark, TPC-C. Among database servers, the SPARCserver 1000 is the fastest available today. The system achieved 1079.43 transactions per minute (tpm) and $1,038 per tpmC. These are the first TPC-C results reported by SMCC. - Sun and Oracle recently released the best-ever results of the Transaction Processing Performance Council Benchmark A (TPC-A) for a UNIX server. The Sun SPARCcenter 2000 data center server running Oracle7 achieved raw performance throughput greater than any other UNIX system running in a non-clustered configuration. The SPARCcenter delivered 734.10 transactions per second and $5,346 per tpsA, using a configuration that included 10 SuperSPARC processors and running the Solaris 2 symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) distributed operating environment and Oracle7 Cooperative Server database. No competing server delivers comparable performance at this price level. * SMCC shipped 20-CPU configurations of its popular SPARCcenter 2000 server, the industry's most powerful, expandable and affordable high-end UNIX server. The SPARCcenter 2000 is a mainframe-caliber system for data center applications that has been shipping in volume since last March, in configurations from two to eight processors. There are now more than 1,000 SPARCcenter 2000 servers installed worldwide. * The continuing rapid expansion of Sun workstations and servers in the retail industry has led to several new partnerships with retail software suppliers. Among the additional software vendors that have chosen the Sun platform are Applied Retail Solutions, Epsilon Data Management, Merchandise Management Systems, Richter Management Services, Inc., Sterling Software and NON-STOP Logistics Corp. These partnerships provide a wide range of open, client-server retail solutions for an industry that is rapidly moving toward distributed computing solutions in corporate headquarters, in-store systems and distribution centers. * NON-STOP Logistics Corporation selected Sun SPARCstations and SPARCservers as the platform for its innovative logistics software for grocery distribution. The system runs on a nationwide network of 40 sort and load cross-docking facilities, similar to those used by overnight package express carriers. Grocery chains can realize immense savings using these computerized distribution centers. Subject: SUNEXPRESS HIGHLIGHTS * In a recent study by Harvey Communication Measurement, the SunExpress advertisements in Open Systems Today received the highest readership scores, with 76% recall and a 47% readership rating. Subject: SUNPICS HIGHLIGHTS * Compaq Computer Corp. recently withdrew from the printer business, which gives SunPics a tremendous sales opportunity for its NeWSprinter 20 - particularly since HP doesn't have a printer in this market capable of printing 11x17 inch documents (ledger, A3). * SunPics unveiled its Sun Printing Technical Support Team. The team's mission is to assist in solving printing-related sales and marketing issues with Sun printers, NeWSprint software, NeWSprint-connected printers, and other Sun printing-related issues worldwide. Subject: SUNSELECT HIGHLIGHTS * Amdahl Corporation, The ASK Group, Oracle Corporation, Scottish Enterprise and Cybersource announced support for current industry efforts to create a Public Windows Interface (PWI) -- an open standard API that will run Microsoft Windows applications. These companies join a growing list of computer system vendors, independent software vendors and end users that support the PWI effort, including American Airlines, Borland International, Corel Corporation, The Foxboro Group, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, ICL, Network Computing Devices, Inc., Norwegian Telecom, Quarterdeck Office Systems, The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., Tadpole Technology, Novell's UNIX Systems Group and WordPerfect Corporation. Subject: SUNSOFT HIGHLIGHTS * SunSoft license key components from NeXT Computer Inc. to speed time-to-market for SunSoft's Solaris object environment. The integration of the NeXTSTEP object application environment with Solaris will yield unparalleled power for enterprise computing. SunSoft also entered into a series of agreements with NeXT to further promote open specifications and the standardization of object technology. * SunSoft signed a development agreement with IONA Technologies of Dublin, Ireland, to deliver distributed object interoperability across SunSoft's Solaris Distributed Object Environment and Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows NT-based systems. The agreement signifies the first interoperability between two OMG CORBA-conformant Object Request Broker (ORB) implementations and gives users a standards-based solution for distributed object application development. Subject: SUNSOLUTIONS HIGHLIGHTS * SunSolutions is offering free evaluation CDs of ShowMe 2.0. The CD includes ShowMe Video, ShowMe Audio, ShowMe SharedApp and ShowMe Whiteboard. The software is licensed for a 30-day evaluation and is immediately usable upon installation (no passwords required). Subject: RECENT SPARC NEWS * SMCC's SPARC Technology Business (STB) licensed the SPARCstation LX board design to Beijing Huasun Computer Company, the largest Chinese manufacturer of computer workstations based on the SPARC architecture. Huasun is a subsidiary of the Sixth Research Institute of the Ministry of Electronics China. The agreement represents the first time a Chinese company has licensed this level of technology from the United States. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: CUSTOMER QUOTABLES - Rightsizing at Work "Sun has proved that its machines are still the workstations of choice for high powered traders. The company notched up major trading room deals with Goldman Sachs & Co., Citibank and Chemical Bank, while continuing to sell large quantities to such prestigious accounts as Salomon Brothers, Inc., JP Morgan & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Take that, HP!" Waters magazine, Winter, 1993 "Moving back to a centralized national database on the Sun servers - with only the easily refreshed data distributed on the laptops - was a change the sales reps welcomed because performance improved. [Maria] Borzych said, `Now if they submit a report at 11:00 am and wait until 11:30 am to pick it up, 95% of the time their reports are ready.'" Client/Server Journal, Cover story on Helene Curtis November, 1993 "`Streamlining work processes and deploying new technology to exploit new processes is the focal point of this entire project,' says Jack Koenig, project specialist in the Customer Operations Department of Wisconsin Electric. `By changing our processes and moving from the Amdahl mainframe to a client/server environment from Sun Microsystems, we anticipate improving customer service and significantly reducing costs. `After conducting an extensive analysis of different technical environments, we chose the UNIX-based Sun computers with Sybase database management system software as the best way to manage our distributed client-server system...Our clerks report two major benefits. One, the application reduces the work load required to handle customer requests. Two, because clerks can give customers a more realistic installation date for the requested service, the new process reduces follow up calls and better meets customer expectations.'" Electric Light & Power, November, 1993 "Manufacturers have to be concerned with the entire flow of information and not just that of the physical parts. That's where networking comes in...the networking capabilities of UNIX-based workstations offer strong advantages in an integrated environment." Michael Kolbe, Technical program manager, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center Integrated Manufacturing, November, 1993 "In the old days, we had a series of minicomputers and a mainframe to crunch all our acquisition data. Those systems were located back at the home office...they accomplish computational feats not possible on the old system. The use of SPARC systems on the survey vessels gives Digicon a lot more processing power at sea, allowing the company to fine-tune its survey collection methods to greatly enhance survey quality and project turnaround times." Peter Sack, geophysical specialist, Digicon Geophysical Open Systems Today, "SunFocus" November 15, 1993 ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au For last month's digest, send email to flashadm@sun.com with a Subject line of 60.00 For Gopher and WAIS access: sunsite.unc.edu. (Login as 'gopher' for a simple gopher client, 'swais' for a simple WAIS client (over 500 databases). All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. 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