Sun Microsystems Delivers Solaris 10 10/08 Release

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced the latest version of the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System (OS) – Solaris 10 10/08. The new version builds on the core strengths of the Solaris 10 OS to help customers maximize asset usage and systems performance, manage datacenter complexity, preserve business continuity and reduce costs. Solaris 10 10/08 includes numerous product updates and enhancements, several of which were done through the OpenSolaris(TM) community (http:www.opensolaris.org). Solaris 10 10/08 is available now on Sun systems and will be available for download in early November at: http://www.sun.com/solaris.

“Now more than ever, companies are under pressure to do more with less – from deploying new services faster and complying with new regulations, to adding more servers within their same datacenter space – all while their budgets are shrinking and headcount is frozen,” said Jim McHugh, vice president of Datacenter marketing at Sun. “With the latest virtualization enhancements, updates to ZFS(TM) file system and Intel(R) system optimization, Solaris 10 10/08 is an ideal platform to help customers with consolidation and datacenter simplification.”

The Solaris 10 10/08 release is the result of the collaboration between Sun engineers and OpenSolaris community members. All the new features Sun is delivering with this release were first delivered into OpenSolaris before being included in the enterprise Solaris 10 10/08 release.

New Features in Solaris 10 10/08

• ZFS File System Enhancements: The ZFS file system has been enhanced with recent work from the OpenSolaris community, providing ease of data management with no additional cost for acquisition or support. The new version of Solaris ZFS file system offers increased data integrity and fully integrated disaster recovery capabilities. ZFS file system can be used as the sole file system for any class of system, with support for booting and/or for use as a root file system.
• Virtualization and Solaris Containers Updates: Solaris 10's virtualization technologies, such as Solaris Containers, have been enhanced with new features to make it even easier for customers to migrate workloads among Solaris systems and reduce the administrative overhead necessary to move a container between unlike system configurations.
• Intel architecture optimization: Sun and Intel continue to collaborate to help ensure Solaris 10 will support Intel's latest Intel Xeon(R) processor line so customers can benefit from the improved functionality, power efficiency and reliability of systems that contain those CPUs. In addition Sun and Intel have achieved several new world records(a) for Solaris 10 on Sun Systems powered by Intel Xeon processor 7400 series.

Compatibility continues to be a key feature of the Solaris 10 OS. Through the Solaris OS update model, customers can easily upgrade to Solaris 10 10/08 without requiring additional hardware/software upgrades or recertification of existing projects and applications. In addition, Solaris 10 10/08 preserves full compatibility with over 7,000 third-party products and customers internally-developed applications.

With built-in, open source, no-cost virtualization via Solaris Containers and Sun(TM) Logical Domains (LDoms), Sun and Fujitsu's recently announced Sun SPARC Enterprise(R) T5440 server is an ideal platform for consolidating hundreds of existing enterprise class workloads onto a single system. Additionally, for existing Solaris OS customers, the Solaris(TM) 8 and 9 Containers capability enables customers to run multiple Solaris 8 or 9 environments on a single SPARC-based system. As a result, customers can quickly and easily move existing physical environments to virtual containers on Solaris 10 and take advantage of the performance, scale and cost savings of new SPARC Enterprise CMT-based servers today.

(a) Sun Platforms Deliver World-Record Results

• x86 world record on SPECjbb2005 benchmark with a single Java Virtual Machine (JVM) running Solaris 10 OS on a Sun Fire X4450 server powered by Intel Xeon processor 7400 series. This result complements the multi-JVM 4 processor record on the same platform and highlights the well-rounded performance implementation of the Java HotSpot (version 1.6.0_06 Performance Release) software.1
• World record 4-processor result for UNIX on the two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark, as of September 12, 2008. The Sun Fire X4450 server with four Intel Xeon processor X7460 (24 cores, 24 threads) that was running the SAP ERP application Release 6.0 with Unicode software and MaxDB 7.6 database on top of the Solaris 10 OS, was able to support 4,600 SAP SD Benchmark users. This benchmark result highlights the optimal performance of SAP ERP on Sun Fire servers running the Solaris OS and the seamless multilingual support available for systems running SAP applications.2

For additional details on these and other record-setting benchmarks by Sun's Intel Xeon-based platforms, please visit: http://www.sun.com/intel/benchmarks

About Solaris 10

The Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) is a proven,industry-leading operating system designed to help customers maximize asset usage and systems performance, manage datacenter complexity, preserve business continuity and reduce costs. The Solaris 10 OS includes key components such as: DTrace, Solaris Containers, ZFS file system and Solaris Predictive Self-Healing, along with advanced security features. The Solaris OS is supported on over 1,000 x86 and SPARC-based platforms and runs over 7,000 unique applications - more than any other open operating system. The Solaris 10 OS is used by customers around the world in industries such as: financial services, government, web infrastructure and manufacturing. In addition, Solaris Subscriptions provides expert technical support, interoperability assistance,and online resources to help customers optimize performance and improve availability for the Solaris OS on x86 and/or SPARC systems. For more information visit: http://sun.com/solaris.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer"(TM) -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Solaris, OpenSolaris, ZFS and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Intel and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks of SPARC international, Inc. in the US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

SPEC and SPECjbb are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from www.spec.org as of 9/12/2008 and this announcement. For comparison purposes, the terms CPU, chip and processor are used interchangeably. For the latest results visit: http://www.spec.org.

(1) Sun Fire X4450 (4xIntel Xeon X7460, Solaris 10, 1 JVM) - 448,262 SPECjbb2005 bops, 448,262 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM. Sun Fire X4450 (4xIntel Xeon X7460, Solaris 10, 4 JVM) - 531,669 SPECjbb2005 bops, 132,917 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM.

(2) SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. For more details, see http://www.sap.com/benchmark. Two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark -- Configuration: Sun Fire X4450, 4 Intel Xeon Processor X7460 / 24 Cores / 24 Threads, Solaris 10, MaxDB 7.6, SAP ERP 6.0 with Unicode. Results: 4,600 SAP SD Benchmark users, 23,120 SAPS, certification number 2008051.