---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash HOT OFF THE PRESS SunFLASH Vol 41 #30 May 1992 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an edited version of an internal newsletter that I have been given permission to post to this mailing list. -johnj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation Recent News May, 1992 Published by SMCC Public Relations SMI Highlights --------------------------------------------------------------- - SMI reported revenues for its third fiscal quarter rose more than 12%, to a record level of $952.2 million over the $848.3 million reported for the corresponding period of fiscal 1991. Net income for the third quarter increased nearly 5%, to $61.4 million, or $0.60 per share from the $58.7 million, or $0.56 per share, for the same period a year ago. - SMI introduced SunSelect, a new business dedicated to integrating personal computing resources with open, UNIX-based client-server environments. SunSelect brings six years of Sun experience in PC/UNIX integration to the market and offers three primary product lines: the PC-NFS family, a group of products that allows personal computer platforms to take advantage of UNIX-based multivendor environments; the SunPC line of high-performance personal computer emulation products, which enable SPARC workstation users to run MS-DOS and MS-Windows applications; and NetWare SunLink, a software product that connects Novell NetWare LANs to SPARCservers. SMCC Highlights --------------------------------------------------------------- - Joseph P. Roebuck was appointed vice president of worldwide field operations for SMCC. Roebuck replaced Carol A. Bartz, who resigned to join Autodesk, Inc., of Sausalito, Calif., as president, chief executive officer and chairman. Roebuck has most recently served as vice president of SMCC's U.S. field operations. Roebuck joined Sun in 1983 as vice president of sales, moving into his current position in 1987, and has thirty years of experience in computer industry sales and marketing. - Nihon Sun Microsystems shipped a record 10,000 SPARCstations in Q3, FY92 - 50% more than in the same period the previous year. - The SPARCstation IPC/IPX earned a first-place rating in the Computerworld Buyer's Scorecard survey on desktop RISC workstations. The Sun workstation was given high ratings for its networking capability, operating system functionality, availability of developer tools and overall value for the dollar. - Banco Bamerindus do Brazil, one of the largest banks in Brazil with 1,400 branches, purchased workstations and servers from SMCC to be used in its investment trading operations. The Sun computers will connect three trading room floors in Sao Paulo, Rio and Curitiba, providing real-time access to applications and data running on computers located in various locations. - SMCC reduced prices on its high-end 3-D graphics workstations by nearly 30 percent. The fully configured models of the SPARCstation 2GS and 2GT are now among the least expensive 3-D solids workstations in their class. - SMCC reduced prices within the SPARCserver 600MP Series, its popular family of multiprocessor servers - making these servers the least expensive such systems available today. In addition, add-on memory prices for these servers were reduced by as much as 48 percent. - SMCC unveiled a new, lower-priced model of the SPARCstation IPC, its popular entry-level color workstation, breaking the industry's under-$6,000 price barrier for a fully configured RISC color workstation from a major vendor (U.S. list price). SMCC also reduced prices on its other desktop products by as much as 26 percent and introduced a lower-cost, more flexible version of its SPARCengine IPX board-level product. - SMCC announced plans to make its silicon designs available to selected semiconductor vendors, who will manufacture, sell and support chips based on those designs worldwide. Included are designs for SPARC CPU chips, ASICs and other system support chips. SMCC hopes to earn greater returns on its silicon design investments by making the designs available early to the broadest possible customer base. - SMCC began to ship a microphone with every SPARCstation. Now, at no extra cost, SMCC delivers a complete audio solution for its desktop platforms, which includes the microphone, built-in speaker, and bundled software for easily playing, recording and receiving audio, as well as sending it anywhere on the network. Today, there are more than 30 third-party applications that support audio. - SMCC is sponsoring a CAD Framework Initiative (CFI) pilot project, "EDA Symphony," in cooperation with leading electronic design automation (EDA) vendors Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Harris Corporation EDA Division, Mentor Graphics Corp., Synopsys, Inc. and Viewlogic Systems, Inc. The goal of the pilot project is to integrate independent EDA tools and technologies into a single solution in order to prove the commercial viability of Inter-Tool Communication (ITC) technology as specified by the CFI Release 1.0 Pilot Program. - SMCC Worldwide Customer Support and Gain Technology, Inc., signed a licensing agreement under which SMCC Educational Services will develop and distribute interactive multimedia training software based on Gain's object-oriented hypermedia technology. The new software will combine text, graphics, sound and animation to give users instant on-line information on how to use Sun hardware and software products. The first of several products incorporating Gain's technology will be introduced this summer. - SMCC has teamed with TIVOLI Systems to promote the use of WizDOM software on SMCC's family of workstations and servers. The WizDOM technology is considered to be the most advanced solution for centralized administration of distributed UNIX systems. - SMCC announced that all three of its worldwide manufacturing sites (Westford, Mass.; Milpitas, Calif.; and Linlithgow, Scotland) have been awarded ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9002 Registration by the British Standards Institute. Sun has also received separate ISO 9001 registration for its U.K. customer service operations and its European logistics center. Registration to the ISO 9000 standard is essential for doing business in the European 1992 Common Market, since it has become widely accepted as a requirement of cross-border quality. ISO 9000 has also been adopted in the United States by NIST, FDA, NATO and the U.S. Department of Defense. SunConnect Highlights ---------------------------------------------------------- - The Boeing U. S. Network Services Support Group has standardized on SunNet Manager as the platform for its LAN/Internet network management environment. Boeing will use SunNet Manager nationwide to manage the Boeing Internet/LAN environment which currently includes a wide range of networking products from multiple vendors. SunNet Manager will be used to provide network management functions for the integrated network environment, including performance management and capacity planning functions. SunSelect Highlights ------------------------------------------------------- - SunSelect introduced the SunPC product line, a new family of personal computer emulation products that lets SPARC workstation users run personal computer applications. The first products in the new family include SunPC software, a high-performance emulation product that allows workstation users to run thousands of MS-DOS and MS-Windows applications; the SunPC Accelerator SX card for higher MS-DOS and MS-Windows performance; and the SunPC Accelerator DX card for even greater performance for the most demanding floating point and graphics-intensive applications. - SunSelect introduced version 4.0 of its popular PC-NFS software and a new enhanced version of the PC-NFS Programmer's Toolkit, the companion developer's product for writing client-server PC-NFS applications. PC-NFS software integrates personal computers into open, UNIX-based client-server environments, allowing personal computer users to access files and resources on all workstations and servers, minicomputers, mainframes or other systems that support ONC/NFS. SunPro ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - SunPro unveiled an enhanced version of its Sun Ada Development Environment. The new version, 1.1, can enhance the performance of user applications by up to 30 percent, based on measured improvements in industry-standard PIWG (Performance Issues Working Group) benchmarks. The product is now compatible with the VADScross family of cross-development products from Verdix Corp., giving developers a common toolset with the same user interface for host and target systems development. It also contains an interface to SCCS, the popular UNIX utility for source file version control. - SunPro announced its support of the SuperSPARC microprocessor, available from Texas Instruments. SunPro's line of SPARCompiler products and SPARCworks developer tools allow software developers to tap the power of SuperSPARC instantly by supporting binary compatibility across existing and new generations of the SPARC architecture. SunSoft Highlights ---------------------------------------------------------- - SunSoft entered into a joint development and technology sharing agreement with TIVOLI Systems, Inc. to create the industry's first system management foundation built on the Object Management Group (OMG) standard for distributed computing. By leveraging the OMG standard and TIVOLI's WizDOM technology, SunSoft and TIVOLI will provide a consistent and powerful foundation for managing heterogeneous networked systems, significantly lowering the cost of system administration. The jointly developed technology will be bundled with future versions of Solaris and is a key component of SunSoft's vision of Project DOE (Distributed Objects Everywhere). - SunSoft introduced the Solaris 2.0 Master Developer Series, a collection of third-party tools available on Solaris 2.0 that enhances software development, accelerating time to market for next-generation applications. The Master Series includes a variety of high-performance compilers that provide assembly, debugging and code analysis capabilities for a wide range of languages; object-oriented database management tools that allow developers to scale performance for distributed applications; and Graphical User Environment (GUE) software, which enables developers to visually design and test user interfaces. In addition, the Master Series includes software licensing and distribution technologies. - SunSoft established three European operations offices that will market and distribute Solaris and Interactive UNIX System 3.0 to European customers. The new SunSoft offices are located in the U.K., France and Germany. - SunSoft unveiled Spectrum, a comprehensive set of services for distributors and resellers of its Interactive UNIX product line. Spectrum consists of a three components: training and education, sales and lead-generation activities, and marketing and merchandising support. The Spectrum program will be rolled out worldwide to SunSoft's distribution network of more than 50 distributors and 3,000 resellers. Sun Microsystems Laboratories Highlights ---------------------------------------- - One of the world's leading experts in programming environments, Dr. L. Peter Deutsch, joined Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc. Besides being widely known for his contributions to software development technology, Dr. Deutsch has long conducted pioneering work in the field of object-oriented programming. He has been named a Sun Fellow - one of just four within all of Sun Microsystems - and is helping plan future software development technologies and software architectures at SMLI. STATE OF THE BUSINESS ---------------------------------------------------------- - SMCC remained the workstation/server market leader in 1991, with 39.6% of worldwide workstation/server shipments, according to IDC reports. (HP: 16.8%; DEC: 13.8%; IBM: 5.6%; NeXT: 5.4%) - Sun's Q3 FY92 revenues were a record $952.2 million, a 12% increase over the $848.3 million reported in the same period a year ago. - Net income for the quarter was $61.4 million, or $0.60 per share, up from $58.7 million, or $0.56 per share, reported in the corresponding period a year ago. - SMCC shipped a record 52,000 units in Q3. Cumulative installed base is more than 600,000 units. - Revenues per employee for the last 12 months hit a record level of $283,000, which is the highest revenue per employee of any computer company utilizing a direct sales business model. - Sun's FY91 revenues were $3.22 billion, up 31% from the $2.47 billion reported in FY90. - Net income for FY91 increased more than 70% to $190.3 million, or $1.85 per share, from $111.2 million, or $1.21 per share, of FY90. - Sun is ranked #146 on the 1991 Fortune 500 list, moving up from 181. - Sun is ranked as America's second largest exporter as a percentage of sales (45%), according to the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 1991. SPARC Facts ----------------------------------------------------------------- The success of the SPARC platform is due to a single binary interface based on open technologies that are industry standards -- SPARC/Solaris. This ensures application software compatibility - "shrink-wrapped" software that runs unchanged on a wide variety of SPARC systems. - SPARC is the highest-volume platform in the RISC/UNIX market - the de facto standard RISC architecture: - More than 540,000 systems have been shipped by all SPARC vendors to date - IDC published workstation/server market report indicates that SPARC systems had 63.1% of the RISC workstation market in 1991, with MIPS systems having 16.3% and IBM Power 8%. - SPARCware developers can take advantage of the leading RISC/UNIX platform and the #3 (in volume) ABI in the industry (following Intel/Microsoft and Macintosh). This translates to more market opportunity for developers and more innovative solutions for end users. - More than 4,000 SPARC hardware and software solutions - More than 650,000 chips have been shipped to date - SPARC International, through the SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD), will certify hardware and software binary compatibility after performing a series of tests. Only systems and software that are verified through SI will be allowed to use the SPARC trademark. This means vendors and end users are assured of hardware and software compatibility. - SPARC International has verified 23 SPARC systems as compliant with SCD 1.1 - SPARC International now has more than 250 members - More than 40 vendors are currently shipping SPARC compatibles or board products, or reselling SMCC/SPARC systems. Eighty-six SPARC chip implementations are available on the market today. Recent SPARC Highlights: SuperSPARC Texas Instruments recently unveiled its superscalar microprocessor - SuperSPARC - the industry's most highly integrated RISC processor. Co-developed with SMCC, the 3.1 million-transistor processor delivers up to 150 MIPS at 50 MHz and features the largest on-chip caches on any RISC chip. Since SuperSPARC is the first single-chip SPARC processor with built-in multiprocessing capabilities, it can allow systems to easily be expanded from one to many processors in the same system by using plug-compatible modules to increase performance. TI expects SuperSPARC to be used in a range of computers, from high-volume, power-user desktop systems to high-end, massively parallel computers. System-ready SuperSPARC MBus and SuperSPARC dual-mode modules will be produced by TI with clock speeds of 33, 40, 45 and 50 MHz. TI is in volume production of SuperSPARC now for 33 and 40 MHz configurations, with 45 and 50 MHz versions to follow later this year. The dual-mode module will include the SuperSPARC MultiCache Controller, an optional bus/cache controller, and 1 megabyte of expansion cache. This module offers very high performance when used with an extension bus called XBus developed for large-scale multiprocessing by Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). SuperSPARC is the first in a series of products from Texas Instruments that will utilize designs from SMCC. Future SPARC microprocessor products under development will use the most advanced semiconductor technologies, including a 64-bit architecture. The resulting products will be available to system manufacturers worldwide and will reflect the evolving architecture as defined by SPARC International, Inc. Other SPARC Highlights: - SMCC is now making its silicon designs available to selected semiconductor vendors, who will manufacture, sell and support chips based on those designs worldwide. These designs include SPARC CPU chips, ASICs and other system support chips. SMCC intends to facilitate early design adoption and volume sales as soon as silicon is production ready, independent of SMCC's product availability. SMCC will receive royalties from its semiconductor partners, who will use their existing distribution channels to market the chips. - SPARC International unveiled its SPARCBuilders program that includes a portfolio of designs, hardware and software interfaces, tools and implementations that can be used to design and build SPARC systems and applications. Included in the SPARCBuilders program are SBus, MBus and the SPARC architecture. - The SPARC architecture is now offered through a $99 SPARC license from SPARC International, which gives licensees the right to design, manufacture and distribute CPUs conforming to the SPARC architecture. - SPARC International began shipping the SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD) 2.0 to SPARC software developers. SCD 2.0 specifies all the stable interfaces between SPARC operating environments and applications on which platform providers, software developers and end users can depend. SCD 2.0 is defined by the S.I. Compliance & Compatibility (C&C) Committee, unanimously approved by S.I.'s board. - SPARC International released its Developer's ToolChest, a comprehensive set of interface specifications and tools distributed on CD-ROM for systematic migration to the SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD) 2.0. A partial listing of ToolChest contents includes: SPARC Architecture Version 8 manual, System V Application Binary Interface manual, SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD 2.0) for SVR4, System V Interface Definition (SVID) Release 3 (Volumes 1-5), migration guides from nine computing environments to UNIX SVR4 and the SPARC Migration Tool. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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.