---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash SunFlash February 1991 Table Of Contents SunFLASH Vol 26 #toc February 1991 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash is an electronic news service for Sun Microsystems computer users. It is distributed by more than 80 Sun offices and by about 40 Sun Local Users Groups in more than 20 countries. This is the February table of contents for the Florida SunFlash. If there are any items that you missed and really want to see, please send the required volume.issue numbers to flash@sunvice.East.Sun.com. For more information about SunFlash, send mail to info-sunflash thus: $ mail info-sunflash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM Subject: info info ^D $ John J. McLaughlin, SunFlash Editor, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary Of February's Messages -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Line Count Vol.# Title 84 26.01 Sun Extends Customer Support Capabilities 64 26.02 SPARCstation Receives Japanese Award 73 26.03 Sun Wins Air Force's "AFCAC" Contract 109 26.04 European Financial Firms Choose SPARC 69 26.05 DeskSet 1.1 for SunView 341 26.06 Sun Consulting Specials 598 26.07 Integrated Office Automation Applications 960 26.08 Frequent X Questions & Answers (1 of 3) 818 26.09 Frequent X Questions & Answers (2 of 3) 911 26.10 Frequent X Questions & Answers (3 of 3) 187 26.11 Sun Enters Legal Market 134 26.12 5 New SPARCengine Eurocard Family 89 26.13 Sun Second Quarter Net Income 80 26.14 Sun & Intergraph Sign SPARC Contract 68 26.15 Amdahl Licenses SPARC 63 26.16 SUG 1991 Summer Technical Conference 162 26.17 Sun Announces Formation Of New Companies 65 26.18 Sun & Philips Sign Reseller Agreement 118 26.19 New Server Configs: Best NFS Price/Perf. 492 26.20 Sun's Hottest (newsletter text) 157 26.21 HP, Sun: Object Management Specifications 74 26.22 Sun Chosen For Diplomatic Data Protection 1494 26.23 SBus Developers List Total 7210 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of Messages Sent This Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26.01 Sun Extends Customer Support Capabilities Forms Partnerships with Andersen Consulting, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems and INTERACTIVE Systems MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 4, 1991-- Sun Microsystems today announced it has signed strategic partnership agreements with Andersen Consulting, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems (CBIS) and INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation to provide software consulting services to Sun customers in the United States. Worldwide expansion of this program is currently underway. 26.02 SPARCstation Receives Japanese Award MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 4, 1991-- The best-selling SPARCstation(TM) family of powerful RISC workstations from Sun Microsystems has received the prestigious "Excellent Product Award" from Nikkei, the leading industrial newspaper in Japan. The award was accepted today in Tokyo by Dr. Amo, president of Nihon Sun Microsystems, Sun's Japanese subsidiary. The Sun systems were among 36 winners selected from approximately 14,300 new products and services introduced into the Japanese marketplace in l990. Products from IBM, HP, DEC and Sony were also considered for this award. The SPARCstation was the only non-Japanese product chosen by the judging committee in the computer/telecommunications category. 26.03 Sun Wins Air Force's "AFCAC" Contract AFCAC 308 Contract Estimated At $48 Million MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 5, 1991-- Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, has been awarded a multi-year contract to supply the U.S. Air Force with workstations and related products. Called the Air Force Computer Acquisition Center Project (AFCAC) 308 contract, it is expected to reach a value of $48 million by the end of the next four years. Sun will supply powerful SPARC(R)-based workstations, including the new SPARCstation(TM) 2, and servers to Air Force locations worldwide. For secure computing, Sun will deliver Tempest workstations and its secure operating system. The contract also provides for Sun to supply x-terminals, peripherals, software, maintenance, training and support. 26.04 European Financial Firms Choose SPARC MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 6, 1991-- High-performance SPARCservers(TM) from Sun Microsystems have been chosen by some leading United Kingdom-based financial firms as the platform for commercial database applications. Barclays de Zoete Wedd Investment Management (BZWIM), the U.K.-based investment management arm of the Barclays Bank Group, and the Securities and Investments Board (SIB), the chief regulatory body for the U.K. investment industry, picked Sun SPARC(R) systems. 26.05 DeskSet 1.1 for SunView DeskSet includes a suite of desktop applications including the File Manager, Calendar Manager, Mailtool and more. These window-based applications allow users to accomplish daily tasks more quickly and efficiently. The purpose of this release is to provide customers running SunView and OpenWindows with similar versions of the Calendar Manager. The two versions will now look and behave exactly the same AND users in either environment can communicate with one another over the network. 26.06 Sun Consulting Specials Sun Microsystem's Consulting group has created many software packages for customer requirements that Sun's standard software offerings do not cover. These s/w packages have become know as 'consulting specials'. This article lists 2 new specials and about 40 existing ones. New this month: CONSULT-HPPJ - filters for the HPPaintJet printer. CONSULT-AUTODUMP - new version (2.2) 26.07 Integrated Office Automation Applications This is from an internal (to Sun) email discussion that resulted from someone asking which "Integrated Office Systems" were available for Sun. As you would expect, this list is not complete and the inclusion of a product does not imply an endorsement by Sun. If you know of products that should be included here, but are not, I suggest that you pass that information on to Sun's Catalyst group. (That's where most of this information came from.) -johnj 26.08 Frequent X Questions & Answers (1 of 3) 26.09 Frequent X Questions & Answers (2 of 3) 26.10 Frequent X Questions & Answers (3 of 3) Every month a Very long article with the above title is posted to the Usenet newsgroup comp.windows.x. The document that makes up the article is updated each month but it has grown to almost 3,000 lines! Note that the article is in three parts as some mailers cannot handle documents > 1,000 lines or 50k. 26.11 Sun Enters Legal Market Fifteen New Third-Party Legal Applications Ported to Sun MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 11, 1991-- Based on its recent successes in commercial markets -- accounting for 30 percent of revenues -- Sun Microsystems is aggressively pursuing the legal market, particularly large law firms that need higher-performance computing solutions. Sun is winning sales with its powerful, networked hardware and growing base of third-party software for the legal profession. For example, 15 new third-party software applications for legal market users have just been introduced for Sun's SPARC(R)-based UNIX(R) workstations and servers. Among Sun's newest customers are five of the nation's leading law firms and a prominent California law school. 26.12 5 New SPARCengine Eurocard Family Sun Adds Five New Products To SPARCengine Eurocard Family MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --January 29, 1991-- Sun Microsystems today unveiled new additions to its SPARCengine(TM) 1E Eurocard family that further boost the performance and functionality as well as lower the entry level cost of systems based on these products. The five new hardware and software products offer such capabilities as high-performance graphics, fast input/output, enhanced networking and SBus expandability. Sun's board-level products are widely used in applications such as factory automation, medical instrumentation, telecommunications, and command and control, as well as with systems like database servers. 26.13 Sun Second Quarter Net Income Nearly Doubles on 27% Revenue Gain MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --January 24, 1991-- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (SUNW) today reported record revenues for both the three and six month periods ended December 28, 1990. For the second quarter, Sun reported revenues of $753 million, a 27% increase over the $595 million reported in the same period a year ago. Net income in the quarter was $39.1 million, or $0.39 per share, nearly twice the net income of $20.2 million, or $0.23 per share, reported in the corresponding period a year ago. For the first six months of fiscal 1991, Sun recorded revenues of $1,431 million, up 26% from the same period a year earlier. Net income more than doubled to $65.2 million, or $0.65 per share, from the $25.4 million, or $0.30 per share, reported in the corresponding period a year ago. During both the second quarter and first six months of fiscal 1991, about half of Sun's net revenues were derived from outside the U.S.; the strength of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar contributed to both net revenues and net income. 26.14 Sun & Intergraph Sign SPARC Contract MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 12, 1991-- Sun Microsystems and Intergraph Corporation today announced that Intergraph has agreed to purchase up to $150 million of Sun SPARC(R)-based systems during the next three years. The company will spend $35-45 million this year alone. The systems will be resold with DAZIX electronic design automation (EDA) software to customers throughout the world. DAZIX, an Intergraph company, will continue to sell and support Intergraph's Clipper-based workstations. Intergraph announced earlier this year that it intends to port most of its EDA software to Sun's SPARC systems and sell it through its DAZIX subsidiary. 26.15 Amdahl Licenses SPARC And Joins SPARC International SUNNYVALE, Calif., -- February 12, 1991 -- Amdahl Corporation and Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced today that Amdahl has licensed Sun's SPARC(R) architecture. The agreement will allow Amdahl to develop, manufacture, and sell computer systems based on that architecture, which International Data Corporation recognizes as the leading microprocessor in the RISC and UNIX(R) systems market. Amdahl has also joined SPARC International, an organization of companies and individuals with interests in furthering the growth of the SPARC marketplace. 26.16 SUG 1991 Summer Technical Conference Sun User Group's 1991 Summer Technical Conference Announcing The Sun User Group 1991 Summer Technical Conference SPARC: Hardware and Software Atlanta Hilton & Towers June 17-19, 1991 Tutorials: All day Monday June 17* Sessions: Tuesday & Wednesday June 18 & 19 26.17 Sun Announces Formation Of New Companies MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. February 13, 1991 Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced that it will form two new companies to develop, market and manage its investments in UNIX-based software platforms and value-added, layered hardware and software products. Sun intends to operate the new businesses as wholly owned subsidiaries of Sun Microsystems, Inc., the leading worldwide supplier of client/server computing systems. Edward J. Zander, formerly vice president of marketing, has been named president of SunSoft, Inc., the new systems software company. Eric E. Schmidt, previously vice president of Sun's General Systems Group, has been named president of SunTech Enterprises, Inc., the new value-added products company. These new appointments are effective immediately and transition plans for their teams are being finalized. 26.18 Sun & Philips Sign Reseller Agreement Philips Information Systems to Use Sun's SPARCStations In New System MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 19, 1991-- Sun Microsystems and Philips Information Systems have signed an agreement that will allow Philips to resell Sun's complete line of SPARC(R) stations. A division of the multinational firm N.V. Philips of The Netherlands, Philips Information Systems plans on using the Sun hardware as the computing platform for a new, integrated document management system for commercial users. This turnkey system will automate the handling of such paper intensive tasks as the processing of tax returns by government agencies or policy claims by the insurance industry. Philips will announce the introduction of the new system later this year. 26.19 New Server Configs: Best NFS Price/Perf. New Network Coprocessor And Other Enhancements Improve Overall NFS Performance 400 Percent MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.- February 19, 1991 - Sun Microsystems' high-end SPARCserver(TM) computers can deliver superior NFS(R) performance at the lowest price as a result of new hardware and software enhancements to these servers, the company said today. Sun announced that it is offering special configurations of its SPARCserver 470 and 490 that improve NFS performance - as measured by operations per second and response time - by 250 percent and are priced below comparable systems. Contributing to this performance boost is the NC400 Network CoProcessor, a board and software product designed by Interphase Corp. that is now available exclusively for Sun's high-end SPARCservers as a result of a joint marketing agreement between the two companies. Adding two more NC400s to these server configurations boosts NFS performance 400 percent. 26.20 Sun's Hottest (newsletter text) This is the text of a newsletter, "Sun's Hottest", that is being mailed to Sun customers. It is an excellent summary of the products that have been announced over the last few months. -johnj SPARCstation 2 Cranks Up the Power on Your Desktop SPARCstation IPC GX: Better Than a PC CAD System SPARCstation 2GX: Accelerated Graphics Becomes Standard SPARCstation 2GS: New 3-D Graphics on the Best-selling Desktop SPARCstation 2GT: When Fast Isn't Fast Enough SPARCstation 330VX and MVX and SPARCstation 470VX and MVX: Sun's Open Printing Solution NeWSprint Promotes Open Printing Moving Towards SVR4 for Developers and End Users First Client/Server COBOL Implementation In the Industry SPARCserver 2 Introducing the Sun Ada Development Environment. Crazy About CD-ROM SPARCstation 1 to SPARCstation 2 Upgrades New Flicker Free Monitors 207-MB Disks at 104-MB Prices SunPHIGS 1.3 SunLink CG3270 7.0 OpenWindows Developer's Guide 1.1 for the 386i Searching for ONC (RPC) Apps. 1-800-USA-4SUN New SBus cards: Serial/Parallel & SCSI 26.21 HP, Sun: Object Management Specifications To Industry Organization As Potential Standard Submission to OMG is First Step in Goal to Create Multi-Vendor Software Environment for the `90s REDWOOD CITY, Calif. --February 25, 1991-- Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard Company today submitted a jointly developed object management specification to the Object Management Group (OMG), an international organization of information system vendors and users. Called a distributed Object Management Facility (OMF), it defines an advanced method for using and sharing information on networked computers from different vendors. If endorsed by OMG, it will be a core element in an industry-standard architecture that will be used by software developers to quickly, easily design sophisticated applications for a variety of high-volume hardware and software platforms. The announcement was made by executives from HP and Sun at the Hotel Sofitel here. 26.22 Sun Chosen For Diplomatic Data Protection MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --February 27, 1991-- Great Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is using a server from Sun Microsystems to run an information system that gives users access to vital data, much of which is stored in remote locations overseas. 26.23 SBus Developers List This is a list of publicly announced SBus Developers and their products. It is maintained by Sun's SBus product manager, Jeff Siegel, sieg@sun.com. -johnj The current list of SBus developers has grown to 186 products or services from 89 vendors. 120 of these are currently shipping. 52 new additions have been made since the last time the list was published. Enclosed, please find the most recent update as of February 26, 1991. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information send mail to info-sunflash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu and paris.cs.miami.edu. All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.