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Solaris 10 Brings 64-Bit Performance To Enterprise Apps

At its Network Computing '04Q4 launch, Sun Microsystems Inc announced Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) support for the company's complete line of development tools and Java technology development platforms, including support for the most recent version of the Java platform, Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0. These robust tools will enable software developers to immediately capture the outstanding performance gains and capabilities of the Solaris 10 OS today.

The company also announced today the successful collaboration with AMD in developing the industry's first Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that supports 64- bit systems powered by the AMD Opteron processor with AMD64 technology. The new JVM, which is included free of charge in the Solaris 10 Java Development Kit (JDK), will enable developers to build efficient and high performing Java technology-based applications for Linux, Windows and Solaris environments.

"The Solaris 10 OS is the richest platform for Java system development and deployment, with two of the largest commercial development communities involved, Solaris and Java," said Jeff Jackson, vice president of Java platform development and tools for Sun Microsystems Inc. "The Sun Studio compilers unlock incredible performance gains, even for applications written for previous versions of Solaris, and the universal support for the Solaris 10 OS ensures rapid developer adoption and innovation."

"The release of J2SE 5.0 supporting 64-bit systems based on the AMD Opteron processor means customers now have even more options when running large, sophisticated Java applications," said Ben Williams, vice president of AMD's Enterprise and Server/Workstation Business. "The combination of AMD64 technology with Solaris 10 and J2SE 5.0 enables more efficient performance along with price benefits."

Sun Delivers Robust Tools For Every Class Of Programmer

The new Sun Studio 10 development environment makes it simple to get outstanding performance when developing C, C++, and FORTRAN applications for the Solaris 10 OS. The product provides a comprehensive, productive environment for developing scalable 32-bit and 64-bit applications on Sun's newest UltraSPARC(R), Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron processor-based systems, including AMD64. Sun Studio 10 software consistently improves application performance by up to 60 percent over previous compiler releases and open source alternatives. An enhanced graphical user interface increases ease-of- use, reduces turnaround time for fixes and delivers greater debugging productivity -- plus seamless debugging of optimized, parallelized code and mixed languages (C, C++, FORTRAN, and Java).

All of Sun's developer tools currently run on the beta version of the Solaris 10 OS and Sun is including free trial versions of its entire tools product line with the Solaris 10 OS. Additionally, the popular NetBeans open source integrated development environment (IDE) supports the Solaris 10 OS and enables developers to take advantage of this fully featured, cross-platform IDE for the development of Java applications spanning J2SE, 2-tier Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4, desktop clients, mobile clients and Web applications.

The Sun Java Studio Creator product, which recently added support for the MacOS platform and multi-language support for Japanese and Simplified Chinese, currently runs on the beta version of the Solaris 10 OS. The Java Studio Creator environment has been designed and tested to meet the needs of skilled developers whose primary concern is the rapid turnaround of business-critical applications.

The Sun Java Studio Enterprise 7 product will also support the Solaris 10 OS, with a comprehensive, integrated offering that includes an intuitive, easy-to-use GUI to improve developer productivity. The offering consists of tools, software development kits (SDKs), application programming interfaces (APIs) and libraries and developer services. Java Studio Enterprise also includes a development copy of Java Enterprise System. Using Java Studio Enterprise, developers can rapidly develop applications and Web services across multiple platforms and environments.

"Data center architects and builders are seeking improved productivity and lower total costs through highly optimized application-to-platform performance," said Dana Gardner, senior analyst of application infrastructure and software platforms for Yankee Group. "The combination of Solaris 10's runtime optimization and application tuning, on industry competitive 64-bit silicon, with associated tools and the latest Java technology framework provides a tighter feedback loop benefit between design-time and runtime. The result is better upfront application design to and for specific deployment scenarios, which should improve performance, reduce total costs and cuts in application project development times."

Developer Kits, Programs And Insights For Migrating To Solaris 10

The Sun Developer Network (SDN) offers comprehensive resources for developers migrating applications to the Solaris 10 OS including:

About Sun Microsystems Inc

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems Inc to its position as a provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com/.