---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash SUNSOFT LAUNCHES SOLARIS 2.1 SunFLASH Vol 47 #9 November 1992 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features For Business Market The Right Box For Rightsizing MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 4, 1992 -- SunSoft today introduced a new version of the Solaris 2.0 distributed computing environment. Called Solaris 2.1, the software boasts new installation, administration, security and internationalization features, providing commercial users with the industry's most powerful 32-bit software environment for the corporate enterprise. Based on extensive customer input and testing, the Solaris 2.1 computing environment incorporates more than 1,000 product improvements, delivering up to a 40% increase in areas of network performance and up to a 50% increase in user interaction performance over Solaris 2.0. The Solaris 2.1 software includes full symmetric multiprocessing and multi-threading capabilities, dramatically increasing system performance. In addition, the new version offers major enhancements in the graphics area, providing users with 2D-3D capabilities critical to the technical and high-end commercial markets. Today's announcement adds to the momentum for the Solaris computing environment. Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. (SMCC), the leading UNIX system supplier, will make Solaris 2.1 available for all existing SPARC systems, including its multiprocessor workstations and servers, by the end of the year. Solbourne, CompuAdd, Toshiba and Hyundai will use the software in their systems targeted for shipment next year. More than 5,000 32-bit applications -- the largest base in the world-- are available for Solaris today. Already, more than 800 of the top applications are being ported to the Solaris 2.X environment including products from Oracle Corp., Sybase Inc., Lotus Development Corp., Computer Associates International, Electronic Data Systems, Autodesk Inc. and Adobe Systems, Inc. In addition, the Solaris 2.1 environment is binary compatible with Solaris 2.0 allowing applications to run without modification. "Major corporations worldwide are rightsizing their business today, requiring CIOs to select optimal solutions for running their corporations efficiently and cost effectively," said Edward J. Zander, president of SunSoft, Inc. "Solaris 2.1 with its robustness and performance is clearly the `Right Box For Rightsizing' for global businesses in this decade and beyond." "The new capabilities introduced with Solaris 2.1 and ORACLE7 fit hand-in-glove to form a solid foundation for the most demanding high-end commercial and technical applications," said Joe Vassallo, vice president of Oracle's Sun products division. "Both Oracle and Sun are investing heavily to ensure that Solaris 2.1 with ORACLE7 will deliver industry leading OLTP performance and unparalleled heterogeneous networking of applications." SOLARIS 2.1 FEATURES The Solaris 2.1 software environment offers several new features to make system management and security easy and cost-effective across the enterprise. These include: Installation JumpStart - a feature that automatically installs and configures hundreds of systems across the network simultaneously with no user interaction required. Upgrades - the foundation for automatic network upgrades to future Solaris releases. Upgrades can be tailored for highly customized systems using interactive menus. Administration Online: Backup - the industry's first product available for restoring and backing up Solaris 2.X data across the network. A fully automated tool, it enables system administrators to safely back up data while machines are active, allowing users to continue work without interruption. User Manager - a graphical tool enabling users anywhere in the world to add new accounts and build user directories on remote servers. Database Manager - a powerful tool for system managers to review and change information in the central administration database, enabling easy system updates and management across global networks. Print Manager - a graphical interface for users to set up the print servers and easily connect their client systems to a variety of printers anywhere in the enterprise. Host Manager - a desktop tool for connecting and configuring client systems onto the network in the three most popular profiles: stand-alone systems, diskless clients and dataless clients. Software Manager - an icon-based product that allows users to browse, install and manipulate third-party applications regardless of whether they are on a CD-ROM, hard disk, or across the network. Security Solaris SHIELD - a product that brings C2-level security to the Solaris 2.1 environment, a requirement for government contracts and demanding commercial environments. ASET - a tool that allows system administrators to automatically audit and enhance workstation and server security across the network. Graphics XGL Graphics Library - a foundation providing software vendors with the features required to develop 2D-3D geometry-based graphics applications, critical to the technical market. The library consists of a software programming interface, hardware device driver interface, and a run-time environment. Symmetric Multiprocessing/ Multithreading (SMP/MT) The symmetric multiprocessing and multithreading capabilities included in the Solaris 2.1 environment greatly increase the performance of multiprocessor systems such as the new SPARCstation 10. Multithreading also speeds up I/O processing and concurrency, improving the performance of mission-critical commercial and technical applications. Information On-Line Solaris 2.1 comes bundled with the AnswerBook hypertext-based on-line documentation facility that contains information from end user manuals. Users customize their search by calling up a summary for a brief description or entire product pages for more detailed information using interactive menus at their desktop. Localization Solaris 2.1 is fully localized for the worldwide commercial market, providing users with a consistent desktop environment in their native language. The product is localized in German, French, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, Korean and two versions of Chinese: PRC (People's Republic of China) and ROC (Republic of China). Future versions of the Solaris software will incorporate additional features to address the changing needs of the business market. Solaris will include high availability features, enabling users on a corporate network to maintain access to their NFS and DBMS data even in the event of server failures. The Solaris high availability software will be modular, allowing system managers to tailor the software for individual needs. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY The Solaris 2.1 environment for the desktop is priced the same as Solaris 2.0 at a suggested retail price of $795 in single quantity. Volume discounts to system manufacturers are available. The software environment will be generally available for the SPARC platform in 30 days and for the X86 early next year. Current users of Solaris 2.0 can upgrade to the new version at no cost. Solaris SHIELD will be available as an unbundled product priced at $50 in single quantity. Online: Backup, priced at $795 in single quantity, is also available as an unbundled product. Product inquiries should be directed to SunSoft at 1-800-227-9227 in the United States and to local SunSoft offices in Europe and Asia. SunSoft, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, Inc. The company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. SunSoft is a leading supplier of 32-bit system software solutions for SPARC and Intel 80386/486-based computers. The products are licensed by SunSoft and distributed through major computer manufacturers and resellers worldwide. ### (c) 1992 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun, SunSoft, Solaris, AnswerBook, JumpStart, NFS, SHIELD, XGL and SPARCstation are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. All other products or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Press Inquiries Claudia Carasso at Hi-Tech Communications at 415/904-7000. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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. TRACE: To: sunflash@suntri Errors-to: owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com