---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash HOT OFF THE PRESS SunFLASH Vol 45 #6 September 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 August, 1992 Published by SMCC Public Relations ******************************************************************************* Contents SMI Highlights SMCC Highlights SunConnect Highlights SunExpress Highlights SunPics Highlights SunPro Highlights SunSelect Highlights SunSolutions Highlights STATE OF THE BUSINESS SPARC Facts SUN'S MOMENTUM SMI Highlights --------------------------------------------------------------- * The American Red Cross named Sun Microsystems the "Corporate Philanthropist of the Year", a national award given to the corporation that best exemplifies the spirit of community involvement. * SMI reported record revenues for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 1992. See the "State of the Business" section for more financial information. * In the United States, SMI will be consolidating its Massachusetts offices into a single "campus" located in Chelmsford. The new location will serve as Sun's East Coast headquarters. Relocation to the Chelmsford campus will be complete by the end of 1993. * Sun selected Oracle's manufacturing and financial applications for the automation of its worldwide manufacturing facilities and signed a joint development agreement to advance Oracle Manufacturing and Oracle Financials to new levels of distributed functionality. The Sun/Oracle implementation will be the first distributed solution to address a global corporation's multi-plant, multi-country, and multi-lingual requirements across all Sun distributed manufacturing facilities. SMCC Highlights -------------------------------------------------------------- * SMCC launched an aggressive worldwide trade-up program to move Hewlett-Packard/Apollo users to SMCC's popular SPARCstation systems. The trade-in values being offered to trade-up customers by SMCC are as much as 50 percent greater than those from HP. SMCC also offers generous trade-in terms and a vastly superior system upgrade and expansion solution. * FANUC LTD. of Japan, the world's largest supplier of manufacturing automation tools, will sell SMCC's SPARCstation workstations with CADKEY computer-aided design (CAD) software in an advanced system called FANUC CAD DIE. This agreement marks the first time FANUC has chosen to distribute hardware and software technologies other than its own. * SMCC announced that Solaris 2.0 is available for all Sun workstations currently being shipped. Solaris 2.0 support for the SPARCstation 10, SPARCserver 10 and the SPARCserver 600MP Series is scheduled for later this year. All future SMCC workstation and server products will be based on Solaris 2.0 and future Solaris releases. * Machine Design recognized SMCC with its 1992 CAD/CAM Leader Award. * SMCC opened its Japan Technology Center in Kanagawa Science Park, Tokyo. The engineering center will build on key Japanese technologies in products developed by SMCC for worldwide markets. The center will explore joint development projects in areas such as peripherals, displays, input devices, portable products and consumer electronics integration. The center will also perform software localization and cooperative engineering with local suppliers. * Oracle achieved the highest-ever Transaction Processing Council Benchmark A (TPC-A local) result among database vendors running on a Sun SPARCserver 690MP. This benchmark test, which resulted in 107.28 transactions per second (tps), is the first performance figure reported for Oracle's latest RDBMS release, ORACLE7. * Three of SMCC's customers were honored with the Computerworld Smithsonian Award for their innovative use of information technology. The winners were Federal Express Corporation, The Wilderness Society and Intelligenetics, Inc. * In an effort to make using and supporting Sun workstations even easier, SMCC introduced SunSolve and Sun HelpDesk. SunSolve is a new software product that gives Sun SPARCstation users instant on-line access to service information such as technical bulletins and problem/resolution databases. Sun HelpDesk is a service product that assists Sun resellers who deliver support through the SunPartners service programs in setting up their own help desks, so that they can support their users more efficiently. * The Foxboro Company introduced industrial automation products based on Sun SPARC systems. With the addition of Foxboro, three of the top distributed control system (DCS) vendors in the United States - including Westinghouse and Johnson-Yokogawa - now use SMCC's systems as their sole or primary platform. SMCC has been making rapid gains in the process control market, and anticipates sales of more than $100 million in hardware into this market by 1995. * Mitsubishi Bank of Japan has designed and installed the first trading system in Japan that links online with a bank branch system for real-time exchange of data between all 300 bank branches and the dealing room. The system includes 100 SPARCstation 2s and two SPARCserver 490s, a relational database from Sybase and Japanese OpenWindows. * SMCC and Coral Systems will jointly market Coral's "Intelligent Network" solution for cellular service providers internationally. Under the companies' agreement, two new products, called HLR (Home Location Register) and FraudBuster, will be introduced at the end of 1992. The products will run on the SPARCserver 600MP Series and the Solaris environment. * SMCC signed a reseller agreement with Auto-Grafica, one of the largest integrators and distributors of pre-press systems in the newspaper and graphic arts industries. SMCC is the first UNIX-based hardware vendor chosen and supported by Auto-Grafica. * SMCC has been chosen to supply the computer equipment that is central to the Vasari project. Vasari (Visual Art System for Archiving and retrieval of Images), a three-year project, is funded by the EEC's ESPRIT II program (Office & Business Systems) and is driven in the UK by the National Gallery and Birkbeck College, University of London. The Vasari project aims to show that it is feasible to make high-resolution digital images with accurate color directly from paintings. The digital images can record color more precisely than photographic materials and are not subject to deterioration over time. * SMCC and General Electric Information Services (GEIS) entered an agreement to promote networked, UNIX-based information and document management systems. The new solutions will combine SMCC's SPARC/Solaris systems with GEIS' expertise in system integration and development of customized applications. The solution's advanced database retrieval, messaging and electronic data interchange (EDI) technology will allow users throughout an enterprise to share not only text but complex compound documents containing graphics and images. * SMCC shipped new versions of four SPARCompilers and the SPARCworks development tools, the first development environment for the new Solaris 2.0 distributed computing environment. This suite of compilers and tools gives programmers unparalleled productivity in designing UNIX software on Sun SPARC systems and other SPARC platforms. * SMCC introduced the SBus Expansion Subsystem, a new high-performance desktop SBus expansion product that provides three additional SBus slots for several of SMCC's popular desktop workstations and servers.The new SBus Expansion Subsystem allows increased disk space, accommodating up to two 424-megabyte disk drives. * Ten leading software and system vendors in the retail industry are moving to the Sun platform. SMCC and its new partners will work together to provide a full range of retail solutions, from those for corporate headquarters to in-store systems and distribution centers. These vendors include: American Turnkey, Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing, IMC Systems Group, Inc., Information Marketing Businesses, Inc., Micro Computer Systems, Inc., Progressive Solutions, Inc., Quintillion, Software Artistry, Inc., Symbol Technologies, Inc., and Telesis Computer Corporation. * SMCC will supply a SPARCstation-based client-server system to MTV Europe, the fastest-growing cable and satellite television channel in Europe. The system will be used to run a Sybase database of its subscribers and third parties around Europe. The system is also being used to archive news scripts and will be employed to digitize MTV Europe's substantial press clippings database for optical storage archiving. *SMCC established Sun Mexico as its 20th worldwide subsidiary and its second subsidiary in Latin America. Sun Mexico will provide local sales, service and marketing support to SMCC's distributors, value-added resellers and customers in Mexico. Latin America is one of SMCC's fastest-growing geographies, with Mexico playing a key role. SMCC is the leading workstation/server vendor in Mexico, according to International Data Corporation. * SMCC systems were selected as the software development platform for Switzerland's Electronic Stock Exchange. This project will be developed under the responsibility of the Association Tripartite Bourses (ATB), an association of the three Swiss stock exchanges (Basle, Geneva and Zurich). * SMCC client-server systems have been selected by the Thai Insurers Datanet Company, a part of Thai Reinsurance Company Limited. The SPARC workstations and servers will be used to store automobile insurance data and will run a turnkey solution based on a relational database management system provided by Datamat Company. * SMCC and Xerox signed a joint marketing and sales agreement to develop document and information management solutions and integration services targeted at the manufacturing and utilities industries. These solutions will combine SMCC's SPARC-based workstations and servers with integration expertise and document/information management software applications from Xerox. * SMCC shipped the first in a series of on-line interactive training tools, condensing more than 16 hours of classroom lecture into a lively multimedia experience. Called "SunTutor: OpenWindows Environment for Users," the new course is designed for first-time users of Sun workstations, allowing them to be trained on a Sun system in the convenience of their own office. * Mentor Graphics Corp. is migrating its industry-leading electronic design automation software to the Solaris 2.0 operating environment. Mentor Graphics is porting its Sun-based products to SunSoft's new operating environment and expects to complete most of this effort in 1993. * PRC and SMCC plan to jointly market technical document managememnt imaging solutions to petrochemical industries worldwide. The systems integration agreement includes SMCC's SPARC systems and PRC's RoleModel TDMS (technical document management system). RoleModel TDMS is PRC's object-oriented technical document management application and software integration strategy for interfacing a variety of commercial applications, using multiple data formats, and diverse hardware platforms, to manage technical drawings and related information. SunConnect Highlights -------------------------------------------------------- * SunConnect introduced SunNet Manager Version 2.0, which provides new management capabilities that allow users to manage complex multi-vendor networks quickly and efficiently. Today, SunNet Manager runs on SPARC/Solaris systems; in the future, it will also be available for other UNIX systems, including those running Solaris 2.0 for the 80X86 platform, IBM RS/6000 and HP 9000 series systems. * SunConnect also announced that more than 35 new development and distribution partners have been added to SunConnect's Partners Program for network management, bringing the current total to 68 vendors worldwide. * SunConnect expanded its worldwide operations by opening two new offices in Europe. The offices are located in France and the United Kingdom and will market the full line of SunConnect UNIX integration, LAN/WAN connectivity and network management products throughout Europe. SunConnect will have a presence in Germany by the end of 1992. * SunConnect, along with Intel, Microsoft, Novell and SynOptics Communications, jointly announced that they are working together to address PC workstation management issues. Specific customer concerns that the group expects to address include: resource management, configuration management, performance analysis, software monitoring and security. The group intends to specify PC workstation information that can be integrated into a variety of network management environments. SunExpress Highlights -------------------------------------------------------- * SunExpress unveiled dramatic price reductions across its entire U.S. product line, moving from list pricing to highly competitive non-discountable "street" prices that are typically quoted by direct sales organizations. The pricing is part of SunExpress' new business direction, which is to focus on satisfying end user demand by being the low-price, direct source for Sun and third-party customer-installable non-system products. * The Tadpole Technology SPARCbook, a notebook computer, is available to end users and resellers in the United States through the SunExpress telemarketing sales channel. * SunExpress has expanded its operations to Japan and will initially support the end user education market. SunPics Highlights ----------------------------------------------------------- * SunPics, with Nihon Sun, has signed an agreement with two additional Japanese type vendors, who will produce Kanji fonts in F3 format. Type suppliers in Japan have announced the availability of 25 F3 Kanji typefaces by the end of the year. * SunPics, in cooperation with ICON, shipped a version of NeWSprint for Korea. With this localized version available, NeWSprint is providing open network printing for the emerging Korean market. * A BIS International study reported that the SPARCprinter has a 77 percent share of unit shipments in its UNIX market performance class. The next closest competitor is the H-P LaserJet IIIsi, with a 17 percent market share. SunPro Highlights ------------------------------------------------------------ * SunPro's SPARCworks Professional family of development environments has been enhanced to improve performance of applications running on SuperSPARC-based workstations by 8% to 12% over the previous release. * SunPro introduced the C Transition Pack - a combination of compilers and development tools that ease the process of migrating C applications from Solaris 1.0 to Solaris 2.0. Transition Packs were also introduced for C++, Pascal, and FORTRAN. Each Transition Pack combines a compiler and development tools for use on Solaris 1.0, with the latest version of the SPARCworks Professional development environment for use on Solaris 2.0. * SunPro established its European headquarters in Velizy, France. SunPro plans additional regional offices in the United Kingdom and Germany by the end of 1992. SunSelect Highlights --------------------------------------------------------- * SunSelect established its European headquarters in Bagshot, United Kingdom. It is responsible for the marketing, service, support and distribution of the PC-NFS, SunPC and NetWare SunLink product lines in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. * SunSelect is shipping its NetWare SunLink software for integrating Novell NetWare networks with SPARC and Solaris environments. The NetWare SunLink product allows DOS, Microsoft Windows and OS/2 NetWare system users to share data, files and print services with UNIX system workgroups. * SunSelect, FTP Software, Inc., JSB Corporation and Microsoft Corporation unveiled the Windows Sockets API, a public interface specification for TCP/IP applications running under Microsoft Windows. The Windows Sockets API specification defines a standard interface between a Microsoft Windows application and a TCP/IP protocol implementation. An application written to this interface will be able to run unchanged over TCP/IP implementations from many different vendors under Windows and Windows NT. SunSoft Highlights ----------------------------------------------------------- * SunSoft shipped Solaris 2.0 for SPARC, culminating one of the computer industry's most ambitious software undertakings. * SunSoft demonstrated its Solaris 2.0 distributed computing solution operating on X86-based computers at PC Expo, running the full 32-bit environment on systems from leading personal computer manufacturers including Dell Computer, Zenith Data Systems and CompuAdd. * Five additional computer manufacturers - NCR Corp., Everex, Zenith, Olivetti, and ICL - announced their intention to support Solaris 2.0 on their X86 systems. These companies join the growing list of vendors that have announced support for Solaris 2.0 software, including some of the world's most powerful PC and server suppliers such as Dell Computer, Toshiba, AST Research, CompuAdd and NetFRAME. * SunSoft introduced Solaris Federated Services, technology that allows third-party network services to plug into the Solaris software. These include Novell's NetWare, the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and the International Standards Organization's Open Systems Interconnect (OSI). * SunSoft enhanced its existing Solaris networking technology to feature new naming, filing, distributed application and security services. Now called ONC+, the technology builds on the largest installed base in the heterogeneous networking arena - according to Dataquest, ONC technology currently has an installed base of 3.1 million nodes, a 42 percent growth increase since 1990. * SunSoft introduced the industry's first foundation imaging library with open hardware and software interface specifications - XIL. The new API (application programming interface) provides software and hardware developers with a standard interface for developing imaging and full-motion video products that are portable and scalable across Solaris-based systems. XIL adds to SunSoft's XGL interface for 2-D and 3-D geometries, increasing the company's graphics offerings for the Solaris environment. * Guy (Bud) L. Tribble, one of the industry's noted experts in software development and object-oriented programming, joined SunSoft as vice president of end user software. Tribble was most recently vice president of software engineering and one of the six founders of NeXT Computer. * According to PC Magazine (May, 1992), "Solaris is one of the slickest and most elegant UNIX implementations on the market, and it feels much more like System 7 than Microsoft Windows 3.0. The GUI is elegantly designed and FAST, and it will be familiar to Windows users." SunSolutions Highlights ------------------------------------------------------ * SunSolutions, a product development venture within Sun Technology Enterprises, introduced ShowMe, an easy-to-use computer conferencing software product. ShowMe software lets SPARC workstation users conduct on-line meetings, allowing groups to view and interactively collaborate on documents, graphics, spreadsheets and other images over a TCP/IP network. Using on-screen markers, participants in a ShowMe conference can annotate shared documents simultaneously in real time, so users interact and communicate much the same way they would in a meeting room. 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 Q4 FY92 revenues were a record $972.7 million, a 3% increase over the $942.5 million reported in the same period a year ago. * Net income for the quarter was $37.7 million, or $0.37 per share. * SMCC shipped a record 56,000 units in Q4. Cumulative installed base is more than 650,000 units. * Revenues per employee for the last 12 months were $280,000 - the highest revenues per employee of any computer company utilizing a direct sales business model. * Sun's FY92 revenues were $3.6 billion, up from the $3.2 billion reported in FY91. * Net income for FY92 was $173.3 million, or $1.71 per share. * 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 (49.3%), according to Fortune magazine, June 29, 1992. -- Standard & Poor's 500 -- Sun was added to the Standard & Poor's 500, formally known as the S&P 500 Composite Stock Price Index. The S&P 500 is considered an accurate indicator of the price movements of U.S. public company common stocks. Many institutional investors are not permitted to invest in any companies other than those on the S&P 500, and many index funds automatically own S&P 500 stocks. As a result, the number of potential Sun stockholders is now significantly larger than in the past. Sun was added to the S&P 500 Computer Systems industry group, replacing Wang Laboratories Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. -- Fortune Global 500 -- The Fortune Global 500 features the world's 500 largest industrial corporations. Sun is included in this list for the first time, ranked at 425. Facts related to this listing: - Highest first-time ranking for a computer company - Second most profitable computer/office equipment company in world based on profits as a percentage of assets (Apple is #1) - Second most profitable computer/office equipment company in world based on profits as a percentage of sales (Pitney Bowes is #1) The results also indicate that Sun increased sales and profits more than any other computer company on the Fortune Global 500. 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 600,000 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%. - More than 4,300 SPARC hardware and software solutions - More than 700,000 chips have been shipped to date - SPARC International has verified 23 SPARC systems as compliant with SCD 1.1 - SPARC International now has more than 250 members * 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. * The SPARC microprocessor architecture is implemented by 10 semiconductor manufacturers into a number of different microprocessors representing a broad performance range -- from 10 to 65 MIPS. * 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. * 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 * SPARC International completed the SPARC Architecture Version 9, which extends the SPARC address space to 64 bits. Developed cooperatively by leading SPARC microprocessor architects from over a dozen companies, Version 9 contains new instructions, enhanced support for the UNIX operating system, and continued improvements in multiprocessor support. * Chester Silvestri joined SMCC to head a new group devoted to securing technology design wins across a variety of industries, markets and geographies for SPARC. Silvestri comes to the company from Silicon Graphics, Inc., where he was most recently vice president and general manager of the Technology Products Group supporting the MIPS architecture. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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.