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                                                        The Florida SunFlash

Sun And Cray Research To Cooperate On Development For Future SPARC Systems

SunFLASH Vol 37 #24					        January 1992 
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and EAGAN, Minn., --January 22, 1992-- Sun
Microsystems, Inc., and Cray Research, Inc., announced today that the
firms will cooperate in both software and hardware areas that will
include sharing information and technology. The firms plan to create a
seamless software environment that will allow Sun systems and Cray
Research supercomputers -- including the top-of-the-line CRAY-MP C90
system -- to work together with unprecedented efficiency. Cray Research
will use technology developed at Sun Microsystems to build high-end
SPARC(R) RISC computers that will complement the product lines of both
companies.

Cray Research has also joined SPARC International, an organization of
more than 200 SPARC vendors that supports binary compatibility among
products through the SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD).

This new agreement complements Cray Research's recent acquisition of
assets of SPARC minisupercomputer vendor Floating Point Systems (FPS)
of Beaverton, Oregon.  Following the acquisition, Cray Research formed
a wholly owned subsidiary, Cray Research Superservers Inc. (CRS) to
produce and market SPARC-based products. According to Cray Research, it
intends to produce new high-end SPARC servers that are planned for
delivery late in 1993 and may cost in the $1-3 million range.

"There is a very fast-growing installed base for SPARC systems, with
more than 3,800 third-party hardware and software products," said John
Rollwagen, chairman and CEO of Cray Research. He noted that SCD ensures
that compatible software will be readily available for SPARC systems.
"We're committed to the concept of network supercomputing so that
individual users can easily access the power of the Cray
supercomputer."

According to Sun chairman and CEO Scott McNealy, the support of SPARC
by a company of Cray Research's caliber reinforces the fact that SPARC
is by far the leading scalable RISC architecture.  "Cray has the
ability to build the ultimate accelerator for SPARC applications," he
said.  "And by choosing SPARC, Cray can take advantage of the benefits
of the SPARC community.  SPARC users have access to a wide range of
compatible systems at many price points from laptops to
supercomputers."

Rollwagen added that Cray Research's corporate strategy is to provide
the world's absolute highest-performance computer systems. "We're very
excited about the prospect of applying this agreement to building new
technical bridges between the large SPARC-based community and Cray
Research."

Cray Research, Inc., based in Eagan, Minnesota, creates the most
powerful, highest-quality computational tools for solving the world's
most challenging scientific and industrial problems.


PR contacts:
Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Vicki Ferrando 	(415) 336-7226
Cray Research, Inc.  		Frank Parisi 	(612) 683-7130
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