Feature Story

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. .- November 30, 2001 --Sun Microsystems' new Design Compute Ranch accelerates microprocessor chip design to warp speed and does it with the real world in mind.

Unveiled on November 30th, 2001, Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s new Compute Ranch, located in Sunnyvale, CA, is designed for the sole purpose of developing Sun's UltraSPARC microprocessors.

SUN BUILT ON SUN

At the Compute Ranch, Sun designs its processors using a 100% all-SPARC, all-Solaris, all-Sun storage infrastructure, with systems ranging from desktop Sun Ray appliances to Sun Blade workstations, through Sun's latest Sun Fire Midframe multi-processor servers.

The new Sunnyvale facility is one of the world's most advanced compute ranches. The ranch virtually unites over 2500 Sun servers running 125+ commercially available Electronic Design Automation (EDA) applications along with 125 internally developed tools across locations in Sunnyvale, Chelmsford and Austin. Together these facilities comprise over 10,000 UltraSPARC processors, over 25 terabytes of RAM and over 650 terabytes of Sun StorEdge disk arrays, all housed in a 15,000 square foot state-of- the-art facility.

With sophisticated software management tools, the ranch manages tens of thousands of job requests for numerous, simultaneous design projects while running at greater than 98% utilization (24 by 7 by 365) - an unheard of number at other compute farms.

The Mayor of Sunnyvale, Fred Fowler, commended Sun for its continued leadership in Silicon Valley, "With Sun's Compute Ranch, they are not only continuing to illustrate their leadership in the technical community around the world, but Sun is opening up the realm of opportunities for innovation, jobs and advancements right here in Sunnyvale, CA."

DESIGN and DELIVER

Sun's Award winning UltraSPARC III, named Microprocessor Report's Anaylst's Choice "Best Server/Workstation Processor"- 2001, is the cornerstone of Sun's SPARC/Solaris computer systems and is considered one of the most important pieces of intellectual property that keeps Sun ahead of its competitors. Sun has 55% worldwide marketshare in UNIX shipments -- more than IBM, HP and Compaq combined (DataQuest WW Server Marketview Statistics, 3QCY01, 11/15/01).

"The UltraSPARC microprocessor is at the heart of our strategy moving forward," said Ed Zander, President and COO. "We're absolutely focused on making the people, technology and brick-and-mortar investments to keep the UltraSPARC architecture well ahead of the competition."

700 PROCESSOR YEARS IN A MONTH

With more than 1300 engineers, the UltraSPARC processor design team (the 2nd largest in the world), is able to run computations around the clock, performing the quadrillions of calculations required in the design process. What does this mean to the development cycle? The time required for design engineering, simulations and testing for a processor design is measured in "man years". Utilizing the Compute Ranch's system performance, load balancing and 98% availability means that what would take a single processor system 171 years, can be done in a month at the Ranch.

The number of CPUs working in concert with the speed of Sun's mid-size servers enables Sun to bring UltraSPARC processors to market exponentially faster and more efficiently than its competitors.

"In processor design, you either manage complexity or complexity manages you. Sun's Compute Ranch accelerates time-to-market for UltraSPARC processors by acting as a kind of time machine--shrinking product development phases by applying quadrillions of well-managed, compute cycles to the effort every day." David Yen, Vice President and General Manager of Sun's Processor Products Group explained, "This buys UltraSPARC customers a lot of time, not only to stay ahead of their competition, but to build system architectures that are scalable, reliable, available and serviceable with throughput and critical-to-quality features - Sun customers can't find this in other processor architectures."

EVERYTHING DESIGNED WITH CUSTOMERS IN MIND

Sun knows that customers need systems and technologies that will increase their service levels and decrease service level costs. It's Sun's own understanding of efficient technology design and deployment - everything from UltraSPARC processors to massive system architecture - that enhances Sun's competitive advantage. Sun delivers end-to-end systems architectures to its customers, but first Sun develops its own processors.

Compute Ranches are not limited to microprocessor design; numerous industries benefit from this advanced form of computing. "Eleven years ago [ranch computing] was a very radical idea. Now the industry is embracing it, and we are constantly seeing customers who want to learn how to set up and manage a farm." said Jim Gateley, Director of Compute Resources for Processor Products Group. "Examples of [real-world] industries that can benefit from the power of pooled computing include mechanical engineering, architecture, biotechnology/genomics, civil engineering, control systems, aerospace, oil and gas exploration, defense, signal and image analysis, and film and video production."

RAS ON THE RANCH

Real-world applications are the design focal point of Sun's End-to-End Service Architecture. UltraSPARC processors are designed with balance, enterprise-class RAS features, massive scalability and real-world performance rather than focusing on specific processor components such as clock speed.

Reliability, Availability and Serviceability is in Sun's DNA. Sun is the leader in the UNIX market with its 3rd Generation 64-bit architecture and #1 UNIX Operating Environment, Solaris Rated #1 UNIX[R] by D.H. Brown, and Sun is 100% binary compatible which gives customers real investment protection.

The real-world is looking to Sun and its new Compute Ranch to deliver real-world value and real-world solutions.

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