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New Eco-Friendly Sun Desktop Consumes Fewer Watts Than a Night Light


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Sun Ray Clients Deliver Secure, Low-Cost Access to Solaris, Linux and Windows.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. April 12, 2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced its next generation of Sun Ray hardware and software products. Consuming as little as four watts, the expanded Sun Ray offering takes secure and environmentally friendly “thin” computing to a new level, with lower cost and higher performance options, and support for the Windows desktop environment. Sun’s new Sun Ray 2 and Sun Ray 2FS clients and infrastructure software provide a secure alternative to vulnerable desktop personal computers.

Sun Ray clients provide customers with a desktop computing solution that reduces the maintenance, upgrading, and operational costs associated with most “fat” PC client environments. Using smart cards that contain Java Card technology, users are authenticated with a server-based infrastructure that protects the desktop environment, making Sun Ray clients virtually immune from virus attacks. “IT infrastructures must work seamlessly and securely across geographical boundaries, without device limitations,” noted Alan Brenner, Vice President, Sun Client Systems Group. “With regular headlines about the latest data loss or security breach resulting from misplaced laptop computers, and increasing frustration with the complexity of managing the applications on individual desktops, the benefits of Sun Ray technology are becoming more clearly evident.”

“We rolled out the Sun Ray architecture in 2001 and have since lowered our desktop support costs and increased productivity considerably,” said Mike McLaughlin, CIO, Access Distribution. “We continue to support virtual display technology as a way to maximize efficiencies across our organization by improving user performance and decreasing the amount of support time required of IT.”

New Sun Ray Clients

The new Sun Ray 2 and Sun Ray 2FS clients are based on the proven Sun Ray architecture deployed by governments, financial institutions and other enterprises world-wide. The low-cost, small footprint Sun Ray 2 and the high-security, high-resolution, dual-head Sun Ray 2FS extend the family of clients with lower cost and higher performance options.

The new Sun Ray 2 clients deliver state-of-the-art, military grade security features, a full compliment of peripheral ports and an integrated smart card reader. The eco-friendly Sun Ray 2 client boasts extremely low typical power consumption -- approximately four watts, compared to a typical PC which consumes over 80 watts. The Sun Ray 2FS model provides dual monitor ports which enable two monitors to act as a single, unified display. This feature helps reduce costs and improves worker productivity for software developers, secure government workers, and other demanding users. In addition, Sun Ray 2FS includes a built-in fibre port for increased security.

“In the Defense Intelligence Community, we have been using the Sun Ray environment for the last three years now,” noted Dr. Ryan Durante, the DTW Program Manager at the Air Force Research Laboratory. “The dual head capability, combined with the security of fiber to the desktop, sets Sun’s newest offering apart from anything else on the market. We expect to save $5.6 Million over the next two years by migrating to the SunRay 2FS.”

Sun Ray 2FS clients offer 1920x1200 high-resolution on both monitors -- the highest resolution available for a thin client from any major vendor, and well-suited to government and electronic design applications. Sun Ray 2 or Sun Ray 2FS provide savings in both management and power usage, allowing enterprises to deliver a full-screen Windows, Linux or Solaris environment without the management challenges of a desktop PC.

Expanded Desktop Software Portfolio

The upcoming version of Sun Ray Software, scheduled for release this quarter, will include a Sun-developed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client for connection to the Microsoft Windows environment. Sun’s implementation of the RDP client is based on Microsoft’s RDP specification that Sun licensed from Microsoft last year. The new implementation enables the Sun Ray clients to access Windows Terminal Services. The new Sun Ray Software provides a complete infrastructure to deliver highly secure Windows, Linux and Solaris applications to a wide array of users.

Also included as part of the new Sun Ray Software release are new desktop management capabilities which enable IT administrators to deliver a securely controlled open source desktop environment over the network to Sun Ray clients. The new administration tool provides simple point and click control over the privileges and settings within the Solaris10-based GNOME, Mozilla and StarOffice open source desktop environments. This centralized privilege and policy control enables the enterprise to track and log activity for improved auditing and compliance based on each user’s identity, and offers more secure protection for classified information such as intellectual property.

Sun Ray 2 and Sun Ray 2 FS Pricing and Availability

Sun Ray 2 and Sun Ray 2 FS are available today from all Sun sales channels. The Sun Ray 2 is list priced at U.S. $249 and Sun Ray 2 FS is list priced at U.S. $499. More information about Sun’s new desktop offerings can be found at http://www.sun.com/software/sdis/

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, Solaris, Sun Ray, Java Card, the Sun logo, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Mozilla is a trademark or registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries.



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