Sun Highlights New Features of Carrier-Grade Solaris 10, Demonstrates Continued Leadership in Telecom Market

Recent Customer, Partner and NEP Wins Showcase Broad-Based Adoption of Most Advanced Open Source Operating System on the Planet

SANTA CLARA, Calif.
June 23, 2005

As an established leader in the telecommunications industry, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) continues to set the standard for carrier-grade operating systems with Solaris 10. Sun has certified its Netra server line of telecom hardware for the Solaris 10 OS. Additionally, more than 50 telecom software and hardware partners have announced support for Solaris 10 allowing them to deliver faster, more scalable and more secure solutions to a broad range of telecom customers. Customers such as Lucent Technologies and Verizon Communications Inc. highlight the widespread adoption of Sun’s latest carrier-grade, open source operating system.

“Used by the ten largest telecom equipment providers worldwide, Solaris is the most widely deployed and most secure carrier-grade operating system on the planet,” said John Loiacono, executive vice president, Software Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “With in-kernel support for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and unique features such as Solaris Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), Solaris Containers and Predictive Self-Healing, for SPARC(R), x86 and x64 systems, Solaris 10 is the ideal platform for next-generation telecom services, such as 3G network infrastructure and converged IP-based network services.”

“My team is very excited about the new features contained in Solaris 10,” said Ron Watson, Platform Development director at Lucent. “The new architecture will allow us to deploy and upgrade systems and applications more reliably and seamlessly, with greater precision. The anticipated improvements in availability, fault detection, and performance are key for our carrier-grade customers.”

Sun recently made the source code to Solaris available at opensolaris.org under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). This OSI approved open source license allows network equipment providers (NEP’s) to safely develop innovative new solutions for distribution under their own terms. Solaris 10 is indemnified by Sun, providing its customers and partners with patent, copyright and trademark infringement protection.

“As we work to complete our final evaluation of Solaris 10, we are impressed with the next generation, enterprise-class, carrier-grade services that Sun is now delivering as part of the core operating system. Solaris 10’s rich features and architecture will provide enhanced performance and security,” said Shadman Zafar, senior vice president, Architecture & Services, Verizon. “For example, DTrace’s ability to provide insight into performance and reliability bottlenecks will allow us to improve operations and availability. Also, the ability to restrict resource accessibility to both tasks and users will greatly improve security.”

Rapid Adoption by Telecom Software and Hardware Providers

More than 50 hardware and software partners in the telecom industry have announced support for Solaris 10. These include: AC Corporation, Adax, Appium, AsiaInfo Technologies (China) Inc., BOCO Inter-Telecom, Cntomorrow, DigitalChina, Flextronics Software Systems (FSS), Hurray! Times, Infozech Software Ltd., jNETx, Jaatayu Software, Kabira Technologies, Lenovo, LHS Telekom GmbH & Co. KG, Longshine, Metarnet, Mpathix, Neusoft, NMS Communications, Object Computing, Inc., Open Cloud, Poson, Pronto Networks, Runway, Shanghai Ideal, Sleepycat Software, Subex Systems, Syndesis, TransNexus, Ubiquity, UshaComm, Ulticom, Veraz Networks, VoiceGenie, Wayout, Xbell, ZCXC, Zhongyin-Unihub, and Zznode.

Since the launch of Solaris 10, 870 partners have joined Sun’s “10 Moves Ahead” partner initiative and will support 1300 applications on Solaris 10. Sun’s Ten Moves Ahead initiative is making it easier for ISVs to port to the Solaris 10 Operating System by offering technology, marketing and co-selling benefits. Details on the Net: http://sun.com/partners/10moves.

“Sun is a leader in the carrier-grade telecommunications infrastructure equipment due to its outstanding reputation for reliability,” said R. Paul Singh, vice president of Business Development at Veraz Networks. “We are excited about the new unique carrier-grade features in Solaris 10 and look forward to making them available to our customers.”

Sun’s Solaris OEM and System Builder Program helps telco providers and other businesses deliver competitive offerings on AMD Opteron-based and Intel Xeon-based systems. Solaris system builders and OEMs benefit from the many program features, including flexible licensing, low cost of entry, competitive pricing, free hardware compatibility testing, back-line support from Sun’s worldwide support organization, developer support, low-cost training and tools, and more. Details on the Net: http://sun.com/solaris/oem/.

“PDSi’s broad line of SPARC, AMD, and Intel-processor-based servers, combined with Solaris, are designed to meet the stringent demands of telecommunication equipment providers and carriers,” stated Chris Winslow, president and COO from PDSi. “This announcement further validates the superior quality and performance our customers have come to expect from our combined solutions.”


About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Netra, OpenSolaris, iForce and The Network Is The Computer 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. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices.


QUOTESHEET

Adax
Specializing in signaling infrastructure, Adax offers a complete set of solutions for today’s evolving telecommunications networks. “Being a Sun partner has been critical to Adax’s success in the telecommunications space,” stated Barry Zuckerman, president, Adax. “Sun’s hardware platforms and the robustness and reliability of Solaris has provided a carrier grade solution for ADAX customers. ADAX is committed to Solaris 10 and assuring ADAX products are fully supported on Solaris 10.”

Continuous Computing
Continuous Computing, a global telecom provider, provides High Availability platform solutions running the Solaris OS that enable telecom equipment manufacturers to rapidly deploy converged communications, “Continuous Computing has been building solutions on the Solaris OS for years,” stated Simon Waters, vice president of Business Development for Continuous Computing’s Platforms business unit. “Solaris 10 — with support for x86 architecture — will enhance Continuous Computing’s approach to ATCA platform development due to its emphasis on carrier-grade OAM&P through advanced features such as Solaris Containers, Predictive Self Healing and Process Rights Management.”

Pronto Networks
“Solaris 10 provides the most robust and scalable service delivery software platform to Pronto’s large scale carrier customers as they deploy Broadband Wireless Access networks using the Sun iForce(sm) WiFi OSS platform,” stated Raj Sundar, vice president of Engineering, Pronto Networks.