Sun Microsystems Offers Virtually Free Solaris Source Code to Education Community

Future Versions of Solaris Will Incorporate Academia's Best Ideas

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 1997--Tapping into the rich knowledge base of universities and colleges, Sun Microsystems, Inc. today said it will make the source code for its Solaris(TM) operating environment, the industry's leading version of UNIX(R), available virtually free of charge -- for research and study purposes -- to the higher education community around the world

The source code will be offered free to customers who purchase an additional product from Sun. By providing the source code on this complimentary basis, Sun not only gives university researchers and students hands-on experience with Solaris source code, but will help ensure that future versions of Solaris benefit from the latest innovation and research at the world's top computer research labs.

As part of the program, Sun will institute a support and update program to share ideas for enhancing Solaris. The highly scalable Solaris operating system runs across Sun's entire line of Ultra(TM) workstations, and Ultra(TM) Enterprise(TM) workgroup and enterprise- class servers, making it the industry's most scalable operating system.

"By offering Solaris source code to universities in this way, we'll have the opportunity to reach more students and teach them the internal workings of UNIX from the ground up," said Paul Anderson, Edinburgh University. "Our students will also have the chance to integrate their findings into future versions of Solaris; proving to them the technology community supports and encourages their research."

"Making Solaris source code more easily accessible is good for everyone," said Barbara Gordon, vice president, academic and research computing, Sun Microsystems Inc.

"It allows students, faculty and researchers access and builds up greater expertise and knowledge across the entire community. Over the years, much invaluable UNIX research has come out of universities, and this program will extend that proud heritage."

The Solaris source code program will be of special interest to university computer science, electrical engineering and computing services. Sun is offering a bundled package which includes source code for Solaris SPARC(TM) and Intel systems, and the Solaris device Driver Developers Kit.

The Driver Developers Kit will assist customers in the development of special software programs to interface Solaris code to input/output devices such as laboratory equipment and special purpose hardware controllers. Many universities may also wish to port the Solaris operating system to other computer systems to extend their usefulness or longevity, such as Apple or Acorn.

Sun will dedicate a Solaris source code specialist from its corporate headquarters to work closely with universities to ensure "code sharing" between research projects and to propose Solaris source code enhancements to future commercial versions of the operating environment.

Originally developed by AT&T in the 1960s, UNIX has undergone decades of refinement at many corporations and at universities. Sun's Solaris operating system is the industry's leading version of UNIX with more than 12,000 applications running on Solaris.

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 hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $8 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the WorldWide Web at http://www.sun.com .

Note to editors: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Ultra, Ultra Enterprise, The Network is the Computer, and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.