Sun Microsystems Inc set a base price of $4,000, UKP3,400 in the UK, for its 15 colour SparcClassic with 16Mb of memory and 207Mb disk – but you must order 12 to get that price and it doesn’t include a floppy disk. With a floppy drive the price goes up to $4,145 by the dozen. […]
Sun Microsystems Inc set a base price of $4,000, UKP3,400 in the UK, for its 15 colour SparcClassic with 16Mb of memory and 207Mb disk – but you must order 12 to get that price and it doesn’t include a floppy disk. With a floppy drive the price goes up to $4,145 by the dozen. The 26.4 SPECint92 and 21 SPECfp92 box is $4,300 and UKP3,660 in single quantities. A server version with 16Mb RAM, 1Gb disk and built-in Ethernet is $5,300 – UKP4,500 and ships in January. The company is forswearing Sun Express as a distribution point for the Classics and will go through its usual channels instead. The Sparcstation LX, also driven by a 50MHz MicroSparc, is $8,000 – UKP6,900 – with 424Mb disk, GXplus graphics, 16-bit audio, ISDN and a 16 colour monitor. The SparcCenter 2000 server starts at $95,000 – UKP86,400 – with two SuperSparc modules, 64Mb RAM and 4.2Gb disk. Two-to-eight processor versions ship from next April. It is rated at 8,047 SPECrate_int92 and 10,600 SPECrate_fp92 in eight-way configurations. And 20-way systems are due in November next year. Upgrade programmes for users of existing low-end boxes and MP series servers will be available. Sun’s Dragon server line gets its own handler in the form of SunService 2000, a new support programme for business users guaranteeing 99% up-time on the SparcCenter 2000. It’s an all day, every day operation promising two-hour on-site response along with personalised hand-holding. Sun also has the Compact Disk-based SunSolve and SunTutor program for the do-it-yourselfers. Ever Dennis Peck’s Bad Boy, Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy got some mileage out of the fact that Sun, Digital Equipment Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co all made their announcements the same day last week: there’s a lot of noise out there right now, he told his worldwide by-satellite audience. What you’re hearing is the sound of sacred cows dying. He also likened the tripartite event to a three-ring circus, characterising Hewlett as juggling a wide assortment of mis-matched architectures, hardware and software and DEC as a magic act with more illusions than Siegfried & Roy. Sun on the other hand he called belligerently consistent.
