Sun Captures
Unix Server Market
Sun Surges Ahead in Server
Market, Commands First Place
for Total Unix Server
Shipments

Sun Tops Three Server Market Categories and Posts 75
Percent Growth Rate for Shipments, According to
International Data Corporation.

PALO ALTO, CA - Sun Microsystems, Inc.
has reached a major milestone, capturing UNIX« server market
leadership by outranking all competitors in UNIX server shipments
for 1997, according to new data released by International Data
Corporation (IDC). IDC reports Sun jumped from number three to
number one in the UNIX server market for total units shipped, in
the process dethroning the tied leaders from the previous year,
IBM and Hewlett-Packard (H-P).

Further illustrating Sun's explosive growth in the server market, the
company achieved a 75 percent year-over-year increase in total
server shipments, according to IDC. Sun's momentum in this
market roundly outpaced total unit shipment growth by competitors
IBM (27 percent), H-P (40 percent) and Compaq (45 percent) for
calendar year 1997 (CY97).

Overall, Sun's UNIX server market factory revenue increased 58
percent in CY97. According to IDC, Sun ranked third in total
server market factory revenue with an 18.6 percent market share,
beating all Windows NT-based and UNIX competitors other than
IBM and H-P.

Sun earned first place in two other key market segments identified
by IDC, topping the list for unit shipments in both the UNIX entry
market (systems priced at less than $100,000) and the UNIX
midrange market (systems from $100,000 to $1,000,000). This
translates to a 79 percent increase in UNIX entry unit shipments
and a 50 percent increase in UNIX midrange unit shipments for the
company over the previous year. In its first year competing in the
UNIX high-end market (systems priced above $1,000,000), Sun
ranked third in high-end unit shipments, outpacing ensconced
high-end systems vendors Silicon Graphics Inc. (fourth place) and
IBM (fifth place), according to IDC.

"Sun's aggressive server strategy has propelled the company up the
ranks, and the strength of this strategy is today substantiated by the
IDC numbers," said John Shoemaker, vice president and general
manager, Sun Enterprise Desktop and Server Systems. "Our
commitment to installing and servicing best price/performance
systems in every major industry has led Fortune 1000 powerhouses
to turn to Sun because we provide the best server solutions for their
mission-critical needs."

In 1997, Sun executed a dual attack that altered both ends of the
server spectrum, first by redefining the high end with the release of
the mainframe-class SunTM EnterpriseTM 10000 (also known as
StarfireTM) server, which has received large market acceptance.
The Starfire system broke new ground by being the first UNIX
server to offer mainframe-like dynamic system domains. Currently
offering an industry-leading maximum of eight domains, the
Starfire system allows network managers to partition and
dynamically reconfigure system components into separate domains,
thereby optimizing resource allocation and workload flexibility. In
the same year, Sun drove into the low end and successfully shook
up the Windows NT-based camp by introducing the power-packed
Sun Enterprise 450 workgroup server.

"Sun has made incredible strides in enterprise computing over the
past few years, and really caught competitors by surprise in 1997
with its success selling the enterprise server line to large
commercial sites and corporate workgroups alike," said Jay
Bretzmann, vice president of worldwide systems research at IDC.
"We believe Sun is likely to maintain this momentum in 1998 and
will continue to gain share at the expense of its competitors."

About the Sun Enterprise Server Family

The Sun Enterprise server family is a single, binary-compatible
product line featuring nine servers that range from one to 64
processors and are designed for workgroup, departmental and data
center computing environments.

In addition to the high-end Starfire and entry-level Sun Enterprise
450 workgroup servers announced last year, Sun this year launched
a new line of midrange servers. The powerful Sun Enterprise
3500-6500 midrange servers are the first in their class to offer data
center-level RAS (reliability, availability, serviceability) capabilities
with dynamic reconfiguration and alternate pathing for online repair
and configuration, which minimize both planned and unplanned
downtime.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The
ComputerTM," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:
SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of high-quality
hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide
intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than
$9 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150
countries and on the WorldWide Web at http://sun.com.
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