Available immediately, these new systems not only outperform similar offerings, but also deliver dramatically improved application performance. As a result, users can shorten the time needed to perform the most complex tasks dramatically reducing their product time to market.

"The new Ultra 2 Model 1300 and Ultra 2 Model 2300 are killer performance systems, allowing users to fly through applications in dramatically less time. For example, running Fluent, a popular MCAE application, takes 7,893.44 seconds on an SGI Indigo2 R10000, 5,134.60 seconds on an HP C180XP and 6,902.2 seconds on a 200MHz Pentium Pro, whereas running the same tests on an Ultra 2 Model 2300 takes just 2,485.65 seconds," said Robert Novak, Group Manager, Power Desktop Product Marketing for Sun. "Sun has consistently improved the performance of its UltraComputing^TM systems since its first introduction in late 1995. In keeping with this commitment, these new systems offer double the processor megahertz and almost triple the system performance."

The new Ultra 2 Model 1300 and Ultra 2 Model 2300 offerings are the new flagships of Sun's workstation line and bring 300MHz performance to the family of Ultra computers announced in November 1995. As a result, customers can take advantage of this high-quality, tried-and-true architecture at a price/performance point unmatched anywhere. The Ultra 2 Model 2300 delivers a 12.3 SPECint 95 and a 20.2 SPECfp 95, while the Ultra 2 Model 1300 delivers a 12.1 SPECint 95 and a 15.5 SPECfp 95.

Workstation
	Ultra 2 Model 1300	Ultra 2 Model 2300	SGI Indigo2 R10000	HP C180XP	200Mhz Pentium Pro workstation
MCAD Applications
SDRC IDEAS	625.70	592.00	962.00	1,021.70	1,595.20
EDS Unigraphics	1,024.50	955.90	N/A	1,927.40	N/A
MCAE Application
Fluent	3,944.19	2,485.65	7,893.44	5,134.60	6,902.20

Workstation
	Ultra 2 Model 1300	Ultra 2 Model 2300	HP C180XP
EDA Applications
Cadence Verilog-XL lfsr 150K test	1,648	1,598	2,555
Synopsys Design Compiler	9,710	9,347	14,407
Mentor QuickSIM	3,529	3,266	4,396

Note: all times are in seconds, with lower numbers being better.

Meeting the Needs of High Performance

In addition, Sun has enhanced graphics performance by using its Visual Instruction Set (VIS^TM) on the more powerful 300MHz UltraSPARC-II processor. Unlike MMX, VIS allows graphics work to be done in a register on the processor without slowing down compute-intensive applications. VIS is a separate functional unit with an independent floating point to accelerate a user's system, while MMX shares a floating point, often bottlenecking the entire system. Sun has also doubled the external cache (E cache(2)) from 1MB to 2MBs on the new Ultra 2 systems, and can support up to 2GB of memory. This allows larger amounts of data to be processed and, again, leads to higher system performance.

"We rely heavily on the high performance of the Sun Ultra platform for our high-speed publishing systems. This technology has enabled us to have the highest performance in the industry, giving us printing speeds of up to 135 pages per minute and greater," said John Kavazanjian, Vice President and general manager of the Network Software group at Xerox. "As the demands of higher speeds, greater bit densities and deeper patterns increase, SPARC technology enables Sun and Xerox to keep pace with the computing power required. We are looking at Sun's new 300MHz-based Ultra 2 workstations and are very impressed with the performance and reliability of these machines. As a result, we are incorporating them into our next family of products."

The new workstations take full advantage of the robustness of the Solaris^TM 2.5.1 operating system. The Solaris operating system is the OS of choice for more UNIX® software developers than any other flavor of UNIX. It brings to the table 100 percent binary compatibility - the ability to use the same applications and operating system version regardless of what Solaris-driven system is being used. Solaris is an established operating system that is known for its reliability and its multiprocessor capabilities.

"Software developers, Wall Street number crunchers and design engineers will find that the new Ultra 2 systems can't be beat in terms of application system performance. We have taken the operating system to which many high performance applications are native and combined it with a hardware and system architecture that allows for performance that has not been achieved to-date," Novak added.

System Configurations

Pricing and Availability

About Sun Microsystems

Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, "The Network is the Computer," Ultra, UltraComputing, VIS 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.

Footnotes:

1. UPA is Sun's Ultra Port Architecture. It is the first supercomputer interconnect in a desktop computer. Dramatically reduces memory latency, which means users experience fewer delays running complex tasks.
2. E cache refers to external cache. Caches reduce latency from a memory access to a cache access whenever data items are found in the cache. The likelihood of finding data in the cache depends on the size and organization of the cache. When working with large data sets, the larger the cache, the better the performance users can expect from their applications.

Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web using a tool such as Netscape or NCSA Mosaic. Type http://www.sun.com at the URL prompt.

Copyright 1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 2550 Garcia Ave., Mtn. View, CA 94043-1100 USA. All rights reserved.