sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash HOT OFF THE PRESS SunFLASH Vol 59 #9 November 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59.09 HOT OFF THE PRESS Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation's Public Relations' newsletter. Statistics about Sun and its market and news from the Sun 'planets'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The editor of "HOT OFF THE PRESS" (HOTP) has asked for your comments. What do you like/dislike about HOTP ? Would you rather have a well-formatted, graphic 'newsletter' version (in PostScript) or this plain ASCII ? Both ? Do you forward HOTP (or parts of it) to colleagues ? Are you sometimes surprised by the facts presented (e.g. competitive market share data) ? Do you think it appropriate to post HOTP to SunFlash or should it have its own mailing list ? Please send your comments to me (flash@sun.com) and I will forward them to the HOTP editor. Thanks! -johnj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation --------------------------- HOT OFF THE PRESS --------------------------- Recent News October, 1993 Published by SMCC Public Relations ________________________________________________________________________ Contents: STATE OF THE BUSINESS MARKET SHARE STATISTICS DID YOU KNOW... THE OFFICIAL COUNT Sucessful Sun Installations Customer Quotables - Rightsizing at Work Sun's Got Graphics, Imaging and Multimedia SMCC Debuts the SPARCcluster 1 System RECENT INDUSTRY NEWS SUN AND AMDAHL ALLIANCE RECENT SPARC NEWS SUN'S MOMENTUM SUN MICROSYSTEMS COMPUTER CORPORATION HIGHLIGHTS SUNPRO HIGHLIGHTS SUNSELECT HIGHLIGHTS SUNSERVICE HIGHLIGHTS SUNSOFT HIGHLIGHTS SUNSOLUTIONS HIGHLIGHTS ________________________________________________________________________ Subject: STATE OF THE BUSINESS * Sun's Q1FY94 revenue was a record $960.5 million, a 12 percent increase over the $855.9 million reported in the same period a year ago. * Net income for the quarter was $16.6 million, or $.16 per share. * Revenue per employee for the last 12 months was a record $347,000 - the highest revenue per employee of any computer company utilizing a direct sales business model. * Sun's FY93 revenue was $4.31 billion, up 20 percent from the $3.6 billion reported in FY92. * Net income for FY93 was $156.7 million, or $1.49 per share. Sun is ranked #139 on the 1993 Fortune 500 list, moving up from #146 last year. * Total number of employees is 12,693 (as of September, 1993). * Nearly half - 44.4 percent - of Sun's total revenue in Q1, FY94 came from non-U.S. sales (Europe: 22.6%; rest of world: 21.8%). Subject: MARKET SHARE STATISTICS * SMCC remained the workstation/server market leader in 1992, with 38.7% of worldwide workstation/server shipments, according to IDC reports. (HP: 17.3%; DEC: 12.2%; IBM: 7.4%; SGI: 4.9%) * SMCC also lead the industry in terms of system revenue in 1992, with 31.8% of worldwide workstation/server revenue, according to IDC reports. (HP: 17.5%; IBM: 9.6%; DEC: 9.5%) * SPARC-based systems are the highest-volume platform in the RISC workstation/server market, with SPARC having 57.2% of the worldwide installed base, according to IDC reports. (MIPS: 17.6%; PA-RISC: 8.3%; IBM Power: 7.7%) * Sun is the leading hardware supplier for UNIX RDBMS solutions, according to IDC reports. Sun experienced a 47.9% growth in RDBMS from 1991 to 1992, giving Sun a 24.9% share of the market (HP: 19.9%; IBM: 19.6%; DEC/Ultrix: 6.0%; and NCR: 4.6%). * SMCC servers accounted for the largest share of the "as sold" workstation server market in 1992 with 39.8% of the worldwide shipments, according to IDC reports (IBM: 20.9%; DEC: 13%; SGI: 6.2%; HP: 5.6%). * Sun remains the technical market leader, according to Dataquest reports: - Sun is the leader in the MCAD market, with 33% of 1992 worldwide MCAD unit volume (HP: 23%; IBM: 8%). - Sun leads the industry in the EDA market, with 60% of the worldwide EDA shipments (HP: 25%; IBM: 2%). - In the CASE market, Sun leads with 62% of the worldwide CASE market (IBM: 14%; HP: 5%). Subject: DID YOU KNOW... * Sun received top ranking in a recent survey of chief information officers conducted by CIO magazine? Sun was ranked No. 1 in five out of seven workstation categories in the Reader's Choice Award: best return on investment, leadership in technology, best price/performance, and brand awareness. CIOs also voted Sun as the company they would most likely consider purchasing products from within the next 12 months. * Sun shipped its millionth system in September. At a ceremony held at a Sun manufacturing facility in California, the millionth Sun system - a SPARCstation 10 - rolled off the production line and was presented to Tadashi Sekizawa, CEO of Fujitsu. * The Internet is the largest network in the world. The Internet is by far the largest network in the world, with its aggregate bandwidth more than doubling year-to-year. The Internet is built out of the same protocols that Sun uses, making Sun systems the preferred system-level gateway into the Internet. Some other interesting Internet statistics: - There are 2 million addressable Internet hosts (e.g., Sun is counted as one host) - 137 countries have electronic mail access for the 15-20 million users of electronic mail - There are 5 million users of TCP/IP, with 61 countries having TCP/IP access Subject: THE OFFICIAL COUNT * SMCC shipped 47,500 units in Q1. Cumulative installed base is more than one million units. * More than 7,870 SPARC hardware and software solutions are currently available from more than 3,330 vendors. * More than 1 million SPARC chips have been shipped to date by all SPARC vendors. * More than 34 vendors are currently shipping SPARC-compatible products. * SunSoft has distributed more than 1.4 million Solaris licenses. * ONC networking technology has an installed base of more than 4 million nodes worldwide and is available on major operating systems including DOS, MVS, VMS, OS/2, MacOS, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, A/UX and DEC OSF/1. More than 200 hardware and software vendors have licensed ONC technologies. * SunNet Manager has an installed base of more than 12,000 users. In addition, there are more than 62 SunNet Manager Partner products available for SunNet Manager from 90 vendors. * SunService supports more than 880,000 systems in 125 countries and employs the most UNIX-experts in the world, at 550 specialists. SunService also has 250 service partners and supports 100 education centers located in 20 countries. Subject: Sucessful Sun Installations PROVINCE OF TURIN, Italy's Department of Public Works uses a client-server network to coordinate the construction, maintenance and planning of various projects. The Sun solution was chosen because it offered a fully networked, scalable client-server system that gives department personnel immediate access to information from anywhere on the network. The department's computer system consists of a SPARCserver 690MP server running an Oracle RDBMS that contains all data necessary to manage the bidding and construction of public works projects. A SPARCcenter 2000 server runs all non-database and graphics applications such as environmental data, land and building maps. Networked via Ethernet, NFS, fiber optics, and more than 1,000 twisted pair connections are about 260 SPARCstation desktops, used by administrative, accounting, and engineering personnel. With the central RDBMS, networked configuration, and multi-processing capabilities, administrative processes for public works construction have been reduced 30 to 50 percent. Future plans call for a SPARCcenter 1000 server to manage an in-house-developed pollution analysis application. Subject: Customer Quotables - Rightsizing at Work "The SPARCstation 10 Model 30LC platform supports multiple SPARC microprocessors, which means that you can accelerate its performance simply by adding another chip to the motherboard. This is particularly important for environments that support multiple AutoCAD users via X terminals and for users who need to be able to increase system performance on a regular basis without purchasing new workstations." CADalyst, September, 1993 "Our goal was to install a computer system that could handle multiple users, from any type of computer, anywhere on campus. This meant that we needed strong multi-user networking capabilities...The SPARCstations can run applications for almost every discipline, from geography to math. They also support the basic productivity packages, such as Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and Word, that are familiar to DOS users." Dr. Frank James, Academic Dean at La Grange College PC Times, September 6, 1993 "Going with Sun also meant that Dialog [a provider of computer-accessible data] was committing to UNIX over either of the DOS-based systems or IBM's OS/2. Neither can handle the large quantities of data that Dialog offers online every day. The primary reason we started with Sun was their marketshare position. There was a larger base of experience and they were very competitively priced." Gordon Schick, Vice President of Systems and Operations, Dialog Financial World, September 14, 1993 "I just always thought Sun had the best software and they've had the best prices. I guess, if there was one big thing, it would be the upgrade program. They've got a very aggressive upgrade program that [allows him to stay ahead of the performance curve at a relatively low price]." Sam Kliger, CEO, Kliger-Weiss Infosystems (a third-party MIS shop for specialty retailers) SunExpert, September, 1993 "The beam forming network only took a day and a half to inspect. Without the new hardware [Sun workstations] and software, it would have taken two weeks. When you add up time savings for several hundred NC-programmed parts, you can see the kind of time it is possible to save." Roger Savard, Administrator, scientific systems and UNIX networking, Spar Aerospace Design News, September 6, 1993 "We have just decommissioned a Burroughs mainframe. And we're close to unplugging a Wang...in corporate, we use the Suns for traditional MIS applications - accounts receivable and payable, ledgers, that sort of thing. [The retail side is just now getting under way.] We'll be using the SPARCstation as a minicomputer. There is sufficient power here, right now, and the Solaris operating system gives us what we need in terms of things like security." Dave Bennett, Vice President of Information Systems, Dunkin Donuts SunExpert, September, 1993 Subject: Sun's Got Graphics, Imaging and Multimedia SMCC recently unveiled its most powerful graphics and imaging systems in the history of the company, and introduced two workstations that bring fully-configured, high-end multimedia capabilities down to a new low price range. SPARCstation ZX and SPARCstation 10ZX - the SPARCstation ZX has the fastest 3-D graphics performance in its class - three times faster than the competition - with 310,00 triangle mesh/sec. and 750,000 3-D vectors/sec. Both the SPARCstation ZX and the SPARCstation 10ZX are ideal for applications such as MCAD/MCAE, scientific visualization, geographic sciences, animation/simulation, industrial design and molecular modeling. With its MP capability, the SPARCstation 10ZX system is an ideal solution for power-intensive graphics applications. SPARCstation 10TurboGXplus - Sun's next-generation 2-D/3-D wireframe graphics workstation, the SPARCstation 10 TurboGXplus, offers more than 1 million 2-D vectors/second. SPARCstation 10SX - the SPARCstation 10SX delivers unmatched imaging performance among workstation platforms, as well as full 24-bit color, 3-D graphics and hardware-accelerated video playback. "There is currently no workstation on the market that comes close to it," according to Fred Geyer, vice president and general manager of the imaging division at Eastman Kodak. In addition, SMCC introduced the SPARCstation 10M, which offers all of the capabilities of the SPARCstation 10SX, plus real-time video capture/compression and a video camera. No other workstation vendor includes compression with a multimedia system. SPARCclassic M - the industry's most inexpensive, fully configured multimedia workstation. It includes a camera, a real-time video capture/compression card - enabling multimedia conferencing over standard networks - and a storage disk. Subject: SMCC Debuts the SPARCcluster 1 System The SPARCcluster 1 system is the highest performing, most scalable and affordable network file server in the industry. Leveraging the existing SPARCserver 10 platform, SPARCcluster 1 is a collection of SPARCserver 10 Model 40 systems that are configured with associated disks, tape, cluster software, and an Ethernet switch to provide a scalable, cost-effective NFS file server solution. World's fastest network file server: - Delivers up to 3,069 NFSops with exceptionally fast response time - 1 1/2 times faster than the Auspex NS6000 - Over three times the performance of HP 9000/H50 and four times the performance of IBM RS 6000/Model 580 Unmatched linear NFS performance scalability: - Starting at 240 NFSops, the system can scale to 3,069 NFSops - Delivers over 12 times the performance scalability of entry-level configuration - Ability to add system resources (disks, CPU, Ethernets, clients) as needs grow without response time degradation Optimized Network Throughput (ONT) technology enhances productivity of networked environments: - provides fast response time to workstation clients - reliable access to critical data and applications Subject: RECENT INDUSTRY NEWS * U.S. representatives from industry, academia, and government formed an industry-led consortium, National Information Infrastructure Testbed (NIIT), to turn the vision of a national information highway to reality. The group provides a nationwide, high-performance testbed environment for implementing a series of real-world applications. This will allow the NIIT members, including SMCC, to assess the pragmatic and technical issues associated with the longer-term creation and operation of a national information infrastructure. The goal of the consortium is to integrate existing technologies in distributed computing and advanced communications to enable unparalleled information access and use. Subject: SUN AND AMDAHL ALLIANCE Sun Microsystems, Inc., and Amdahl Corporation entered into a comprehensive set of agreements covering operating system software, servers, and customer service targeted at the enterprise computing marketplace, from desktop to data center. Software agreement - Amdahl and SunSoft will jointly develop and produce extensions to the Solaris Enterprise Server product in order to build an environment specially targeted at the needs of the high-end commercial server market. The development efforts will incorporate technology developed for Amdahl's UTS system, a commercial UNIX operating system for mission-critical mainframe applications, into Solaris. The two companies will also collaborate on unbundled software products that provide additional value-added, mission-critical features that are essential for commercial applications. Initial products developed under this agreement are scheduled to be available in the second quarter of 1994 and will be marketed by both companies. Hardware agreement - Amdahl will sell SMCC's SPARCcenter 2000 and SPARCserver 1000 systems. Amdahl will begin marketing and delivering the SPARCserver products immediately. Service agreement - Amdahl and SunService signed a comprehensive hardware and software support agreement. In addition, the companies intend to offer a wide range of consulting and professional services, to assist customers with enterprise-wide planning, installation, migration, education and management tasks, creating a comprehensive family of integrated business solutions. Subject: RECENT SPARC NEWS * SMCC revealed plans to sell SPARC microprocessors and system support ASIC chipsets through its SPARC Technology Business (STB), giving system designers worldwide an additional source for purchasing ASICs and CPUs. STB will sell all existing and future components based on standard SPARC designs developed by Sun, including all members of the microSPARC, SuperSPARC and upcoming UltraSPARC CPU families. As is the case with STB's CPUs, STB ASICs are available directly from original manufacturers, maintaining STB's commitment to keep SPARC open and available. In addition, STB is expanding its portfolio of design kit products to include a new system board design - the SPARCstation 10SX - with advanced on-board graphics capabilities. * SMCC shipped its new microSPARC-II CPU in sample quantities. The newest member of the microSPARC family of CPUs, microSPARC-II delivers low power consumption and two to three times the performance of the original microSPARC CPU for low-cost desktop, server, portable and high-end embedded markets. Samples of microSPARC-II running at 70 MHz are available through SMCC's SPARC Technology Business (STB) unit - among the first CPUs to be available through STB's new chip distribution program. Subject: SUN'S MOMENTUM Highlights from the Sun subsidiaries. Subject: SUN MICROSYSTEMS COMPUTER CORPORATION HIGHLIGHTS * Eastman Kodak Company and Adobe Systems Incorporated demonstrated their support for the new SPARCstation 10SX system through resale, bundling and licensing agreements with SMCC. - Eastman Kodak Company will incorporate the SPARCstation 10SX system in several imaging products that produce Photo CD discs. These products, to be introduced by Kodak over the next year, use compact optical discs to store, enhance and display everything from family snapshots to high-resolution satellite images. Kodak and SunSoft announced that Photo CD display and editing capabilities will be available on the next release of the Solaris operating environment. This enables all Solaris system users and independent software vendors to display and enhance Kodak Photo CD images. - The SPARCstation 10SX system will come with a coupon redeemable for a complimentary copy of Adobe Photoshop, the industry-leading image processing application from Adobe. Previously, Adobe Photoshop had only been available on personal computers and MacIntoshes. * SMCC narrowed the number of its master resellers authorized to sell SMCC equipment in the U.S. to two. As part of this effort, SMCC announced that Merisel, Inc., of El Segundo, California, has joined Access Graphics, Inc., of Boulder, Colorado, as an SMCC master reseller. Both Merisel and Access will have a dedicated SMCC support team comprised of sales, marketing and technical personnel. Merisel and Access will provide the majority of SMCC's value-added resellers (VARs) and certain original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with distribution and logistical and operational support. Under the agreement, master resellers will also help create business opportunities for SMCC's indirect resellers through ISV recruitment programs and vertical market development activities. * Control Data Systems joined the Sun Integration Alliance Program (SIAP) to provide open, integrated real-time solutions for the process control and test-and-measurement industries. Control Data and Sun have teamed with Lynx Real Time Systems, which will provide standards-compliant technology for high-performance real-time needs. As a result, Control Data becomes the first systems integrator to offer solutions worldwide based on open, volume technologies for real-time applications. * SAP AG, the eighth largest software company in the world, and SMCC signed an agreement to port R/3, SAP's suite of integrated business applications, to SMCC's SPARC computer systems running the Solaris operating environment. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will establish centers in the U.S., Europe and Japan to make R/3 available on systems from SMCC worldwide. The two companies will also closely cooperate on future product developments. * SMCC introduced a low-cost multi-port Ethernet controller card that enables customers to divide their local area network into multiple Ethernet segments for better performance and improved connectivity. The SBus Quad Ethernet Controller (SQEC) provides four fully buffered twisted-pair Ethernet ports. With SQEC, each of the Ethernet channels can run independently at 10 megabits per second. * SMCC appointed William T. Coleman III as vice president and general manager of SunIntegration Services, an SMCC organization created to develop and implement rightsizing solutions for customers worldwide. Launched last November, SunIntegration Services assists customers in planning and executing major technology transformations, selects the best integrators and technology partners for customers' needs and acts as a project manager or prime contractor when appropriate. * SMCC revealed major wins for the SPARCclassic and SPARCstation LX desktops at several leading universities worldwide, including Ohio State, University of Hertfordshire, Seoul National University, Nihon University, National University of Singapore, KyongBook University and University Malaya. With the new installations, Sun computers are present in over 1,400 universities around the world. * SMCC introduced the industry's highest-performance, lowest electromagnetic emission color monitor. This highly compact 20-inch color monitor is priced the same as the standard 19-inch color monitor it replaces. With a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 pixels at 76 Hz, this new monitor is stereo and multimedia ready. Subject: SUNPRO HIGHLIGHTS * Mike Ball has joined SunPro as chief technical lead. Ball, a C++ industry pioneer and former president of TauMetric Corporation, strengthens SunPro's C++ development team. Ball is chartered with guiding the future development of SunPro's industry-leading C++ development environments for SPARC and x86-based computers, including SPARCworks Professional C++ and ProWorks C++. Ball is also responsible for heading SunPro's participation in the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) C++ committee defining the emerging C++ standard. Subject: SUNSELECT HIGHLIGHTS * SunSelect released the final "golden master" of its Wabi 1.0 software to its OEM partners, paving the way for customer shipments. The partners include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, SunSoft, and Novell's UNIX Systems Group (formerly USL). The release gives these vendors the ability to ship their respective versions of the product to customers by the end of the year. * SunSelect signed agreements with four major distributors in Australia and the Asia/Pacific region to address a growing demand for PC-to-enterprise products and expand its global presence. The distributors signed include Mercuries Data Systems Ltd., based in Taipei, Taiwan; Mitsui Computer Ltd., of Sydney, Australia; ASL (Automated Systems Ltd.) of Singapore; and ASL of Hong Kong. The ASL offices are part of Computer Systems Advisers Group (CSA), one of the largest system houses and integrators in the Asia/Pacific region. * Intergraph Corporation will bundle SunSelect's PC-NFS networking software with the new Intergraph line of Intel-based TD-1 workstations. The TD-1 family of workstations provides built-in networking and is the first Intel-based system optimized for engineering and design applications. Subject: SUNSERVICE HIGHLIGHTS * SunService introduced enhancements to its SunSpectrum service and support program, including a Business-wide Pricing Option and new features in the SunSolve Online product. The Business-wide Pricing Option gives customers an easy way to cover all their new systems automatically and allows them to better administer and manage their support costs. The SunSolve Online support tool is now available through Internet and SprintNet, so users can now access software patches via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) over the network for fast problem resolution. * SunService introduced the latest addition to its SunTutor line of interactive learning products, Solaris 2.x System Administration. The CD-based course takes maximum advantage of the advanced multimedia capabilities of Sun workstations, and allows students to learn a wide range of system administration skills at their own pace. The easy-to-use course also serves as an ongoing reference tool, right on the desktop. * SunService now offers certification testing in the U.S. for system administrators who work with systems that run Solaris. Part of the SunService Education business, the program is the first in the industry that certifies Solaris system administrators. Subject: SUNSOFT HIGHLIGHTS * SunSoft introduced a new version of its Solaris 2 software environment - Solaris 2.3 - that features the highest networking performance in the industry, and significant performance increases in the areas of database transaction, graphics and windows system. In addition, Solaris 2.3 includes new Adobe Display PostScript, security, networking, system administration and multimedia capabilities, making Solaris the most powerful software solution for the enterprise today. * SunSoft unveiled significant enhancements to its Solaris x86 software environment, specifically designed to address the needs of the enterprise-wide computing market. These features include expanded multiprocessing support and additional security features. The company also announced that it has tripled the number of platforms and peripherals supported by the Solaris software, expanding its reach into the high-end x86 market. * SunSoft introduced a Software Developer Kit (SDK) and Driver Developer Kit (DDK) for the Solaris environment, enabling commercial and in-house developers to quickly and efficiently build products that exploit the power of the Solaris distributed computing solution. The kits offer a number of features, including development tools, sample code, on-line documentation, and training and support materials, designed to accelerate the development process. * SunSoft plans to ship SunSelect's Wabi 1.0 solution with the Solaris software environment, enabling users to run off-the-shelf Microsoft Windows applications with no performance compromise. Subject: SUNSOLUTIONS HIGHLIGHTS * SunSolutions introduced ShowMe 2.0, the industry's first complete, easy-to-use desktop video conferencing solution that enables workstation users to collaborate interactively, in real time, with a full range of video, audio and screen sharing tools. ShowMe 2.0 broadly expands the capabilities of ShowMe 1.1, adding video, audio, application sharing and enhanced whiteboard features to the shared whiteboard facility of the previous version. The capabilities work together, so customers can take advantage of any or all of the tools at the same time. ShowMe 2.0 will be available in December, 1993. ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au For Gopher and WAIS access: sunsite.unc.edu. (Login as 'gopher' for a simple gopher client, 'swais' for a simple WAIS client (over 500 databases). 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. Send brief articles (e.g. third party announcements) and include contact information (non-800#, fax #, email, etc) to: John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@Sun.COM. +1 305 351 4909