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		SUN CONTINUES GROWTH IN OIL INDUSTRY
 
	Recent SPARC Agreements with Landmark Graphics, ITA 
	and Aangstrom Precision Highlight Efforts
 
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --October 30, 1989--  Sun Microsystems announced
today the signing of three significant reseller agreements totaling
more than $18 million with leading vendors in the oil and gas
industry.  Landmark Graphics, Inverse Theory and Applications and
Aangstrom Precision Corporation will each resell Sun's UNIX(R)-based
SPARC(TM) line of workstations bundled with the companies' respective
software products.

Sun has been a player in the oil and gas market for more than four
years, with its workstations used in R&D, exploration and production
applications.  Sun has strategic alliances with 85 percent of the top
independent software vendors (ISVs) for upstream applications (R&D and
exploration), including seismic interpretation and modeling, seismic
processing, reservoir simulation, chemical engineering and mapping.
According to market research firm Dataquest, the oil and gas industry
represents a potential $1.5 billion computer marketplace for 1989, with
approximately $500 million for workstations alone.

Sun's current strength in this marketplace stems from the capabilities
of the SPARC product line (based on the SPARC RISC microprocessor), a
family of systems offering broad price/performance.  Because of SPARC's
scalability, users now have a range of systems, from 7-16 MIPS, that
are all binary compatible, meaning the same software will run on all
systems.  Users used to rely on a variety of systems to cater to their
varied computing needs.  With SPARC, no longer are disparate systems
necessary to fill performance gaps.  There are more than 1,400
SPARCware(TM) applications available today.

 Landmark Graphics

Landmark's leading computer-aided exploration (CAEX) systems will be
available on the SPARCstation(TM) platform.  This is the first time
that Landmark's seismic interpretation systems have run on a RISC-based
platform other than IBM RTs, which will still be supported by
Landmark.  The availability of the software on SPARC-based workstations
provides users with increasingly flexible configurations and the
ability to do faster interpretations.

Landmark's commitment to UNIX and RISC technologies led the company to
the SPARCstation family of workstations.   The company has also found
that SPARCstation's high performance has proved well-suited for 2-D/3-D
interactive seismic interpretation.

Landmark plans to introduce a new geological interpretation system for
the SPARCstation family.  All of these products will be demonstrated at
the SEG show in Dallas October 29-November 2.

 Inverse Theory & Applications, Inc. (ITA)

ITA's innovative INSIGHT/1 interactive seismic processing system is
available on the Sun-4(TM) and SPARCstation platforms.  INSIGHT/1
combines a high-performance Sun workstation with a complete software
system for processing seismic data.  With its fully interactive
graphics capabilities, the INSIGHT/1 workstation allows rapid graphical
analysis at all stages of data processing.

"Sun's SPARCstations are gaining momentum and acceptance throughout the
oil industry," stated Kerry Stinson, vice president at ITA.  "Sun has
continually provided powerful and affordable systems and Sun's open
systems approach means we don't get locked into proprietary hardware."


 Aangstrom Precision

Aangstrom Precision's Vortext spatial data management system will run
on the SPARCstation 330, SPARCstation 370 and Sun-4/260 workstations to
deliver enhanced storage and interactive retrieval of data for the oil
and gas industry.  High-speed graphical search and editing of these
desktop computers give geologists, geophysicists and engineers timely
access to data -- which may be viewed with a spatial and geographic
orientation on the screen.

Aangstrom software takes advantage of the speed and graphics
capabilities of the SPARC systems.  Vortext on a Sun system manages and
displays large volumes of seismic and well-log data, which can be
viewed and manipulated directly from the desktop.  Sun workstations
make the data easier to visualize and interpret, enabling the user to
find the best drilling location faster through utilizing numerous "what
if" scenarios.


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.

###

Sun-4, SPARCstation and SPARC are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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.

Press Contact:
Carol Berryman (415) 336-6409