04/22/96 SUN PUTS HEAT ON THE MAINFRAME

SUN PUTS HEAT ON THE MAINFRAME

FOR YEARS, SCOTT McNEALY, chief executive of Sun Microsystems Inc., has declared that the mainframe computer is dead--while conceding that it could take years to bury the body. On Apr. 16, Sun will introduce the bulldozers McNealy hopes will hasten the job: a new line of server computers that analysts say will help Sun strike into the heart of mainframe territory--large corporate data centers.
The machines, dubbed the UltraEnterprise line, will gang together as many as 30 of Sun's speedy new UltraSPARC microprocessors--up from 20 slower chips in Sun's biggest system today. The servers also employ a much faster method of zipping data inside the system. The result: three times the speed of Sun's current line. While the high-end systems aren't cheap--up to $1 million--they get Sun back in the performance game, after years of trailing rivals Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment, IBM, and Silicon Graphics. Even more important, they approach mainframe reliability by including double power supplies and other key components-- and allowing them to be replaced while the machine is running.
EDITED BY ROBERT D. HOF