---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash FANUC Expects $330 Million In Initial Business From New SPARCStation/Cadkey Solution SunFLASH Vol 41 #28 May 1992 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --May 19, 1992-- Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. (SMCC) and Cadkey Inc. today announced that FANUC LTD. of Japan, the world's largest supplier of manufacturing automation tools, will sell SMCC's SPARCstation(TM) workstations with CADKEY(R) computer-aided design (CAD) software in an advanced system called FANUC CAD DIE(R). FANUC anticipates more than $330 million (U.S.) in sales over the next three years from the new system. Sales of Sun(TM) systems to be used in the FANUC product -- to be sold by one of SMCC's Japanese distributors -- should account for more than $63 million for the same period. Revenues for Cadkey and its exclusive Japanese distributor, Kubota Corp., is expected to be in excess of $33 million. The FANUC product will be available in July of 1992. FANUC's new product is aimed at the computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) needs of manufacturing companies, particularly those that supply the aerospace and automotive industries. This is the first time FANUC has chosen hardware and software technologies other than its own. "Sun SPARCstations were picked as the hardware platform for FANUC CAD DIE because of their power, open architecture, Solaris(R) operating environment and the quality of SMCC's worldwide support," said Dr. Yasuhiko Ohgushi of Kubota. "In addition, FANUC uses SPARCstations internally, so the company has first-hand experience with these systems." Especially suited for surface machining of molds, FANUC's customized system integrates CADKEY(R) Version 5, CADKEY(R) SURFACES(TM) and CADKEY(R) Dynamic Extensions(TM) (CDE) with FANUC's own CAM software. The system is the result of a four-year cooperative development effort by FANUC, Cadkey and Kubota, with strong technical support from SMCC. "By harnessing the power of the SPARC(R) platform and the robustness of the FANUC and Cadkey technologies, FANUC CAD DIE will significantly reduce the time needed for design and manufacturing on the shop floor, thus speeding time to market," said Larry Hambly, SMCC vice president of marketing. According to analyst Schroder Securities (Japan) Ltd., FANUC supplies 50 percent of the world's machine tool controllers. The company has a 70 percent market share in Japan. "This Sun/CADKEY solution will give users a major productivity boost," said Livingston Davies, president of Cadkey. "Besides allowing a group of engineers to work on a product simultaneously, it lets one engineer work on various aspects of a project -- say, CAD, surfacing and cutting tool paths -- without getting off his chair. And all users have 100 percent file compatibility." Cadkey, Inc., develops, manufactures, markets and supports DOS and UNIX(R)-based productivity-enhancing computer-aided design, manufacturing and analysis products worldwide. CADKEY is one of the most widely used and acclaimed mechanical engineering programs in the world, with over 90,000 installations and is available in a dozen foreign languages. PR contacts: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Cathleen Beall Garfield (415) 336-6536 Cadkey, Inc. Mary Beth Staron (203) 298-6424 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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, paris.cs.miami.edu, uunet.uu.net, 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. 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.