Sun Sets the Mark High With Fastest ECperf Benchmark

Eight-Way Sun Fire V880 With 16 GB of Memory is World's Largest System Ever To Run ECperfs; Delivers World-Record Performance

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - news) today announced it has demonstrated the world's largest system ever to run ECperf Benchmarks using an Eight-way Sun Fire(TM) V880 server with 16 GB of memory, running the Solaris(TM) 8 Operating Environment (OE). This test resulted in a world-record performance of 5961.77 BBops/min@Std and $51/BBops running Borland AppServer 4.5 with Oracle 8i and Java 1.3.1.

The ECperf focuses on the application-tier performance, modeling a Fortune 100 manufacturing business. It is specifically designed to test the performance of Java(TM) 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE(TM)) in a standard platform for development of portable, scalable, multi-tier enterprise applications. As businesses increasingly use the Web to allow customers direct specification of product configuration, ordering, and status checking, the ECperf benchmark models these business functions -- order taking, CRM, manufacturing plant and supply chain -- using XML messages sent to simulated suppliers to represent real-world business-to-business Web interactions.

As the results of the ECperf benchmark demonstrate, the Sun Fire V880 server is up to the task of handling a complex and realistic application-tier simulated workload, with active users accessing an Oracle 8i database server through Borland Application Server. Borland is a leading provider of e-business platform solutions, including the Borland AppServer, which plays a key role in delivering a positive impact on time-to-market, scalability, and reliability of e-business applications. The ECperf benchmark further illustrates the extreme efficiency of the Sun Fire V880 server using Sun's Solaris OE in running mission-critical Java solutions. As the application server, it demonstrated a superior average response time, handling a complex set of transactions at 5961.77 BBops/min@Std.

About the ECperf Benchmark

ECperf is a benchmark and implementation for measuring performance and scalability of J2EE servers. The benchmark was created under the Java Community Process by leading J2EE server vendors and Sun as the specification lead of the JCP Expert Group for the ECperf Benchmark specification. The ECperf metric, BBops/min, is Benchmark Business Operations/Minute and is the sum of the number of transactions performed in the customer domain and the work orders completed per minute in the manufacturing domain. The transactions in ECperf are very heavy-weight and contain substantial business logic and therefore should not be compared to other benchmark metrics. ECperf uses the portability of Java to ensure all vendors run the same code without change.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network Is The Computer(TM) -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

NOTE: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Solaris, Sun Fire and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries.

CONTACT: Bryan Taback of Sun Microsystems, Inc., +1-650-786-9603, or bryan.taback@sun.com; or Bill Sullivan for Sun Microsystems, Inc., +1-415-677- 2708, or bsullivan@alexanderogilvy.com.