Dow Jones Newswires -- April 7, 2000
Dow Jones Newswires
Sun Denies Speculation That UltraSparc III Is Delayed
By MARK BOSLET
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems Inc.'s (SUNW) widely anticipated UltraSparc III
computer systems might be delayed, several analysts and market researchers said.
But Sun on Friday denied the speculation, saying its midyear time frame for first shipments is
unchanged.
The new, more powerful UltraSparc III chips, and the family of workstations and servers that will run
them, are important components of Sun's ability to offer next-generation technology to the Internet
companies that have helped fuel Sun's recent success.
Several analysts said they didn't expect high-end systems running UltraSparc III to reach the market
until the end of the year. Some had expected the systems by midyear.
Others said low-end systems may start coming out in the second quarter, but that volumes won't
increase significantly until September. Low-end systems had been expected by the first quarter of
2000, these analysts said.
Doug Van Aman, a Sun director of public relations, said the Palo Alto company anticipates that
UltraSparc III workstations would start shipping by the middle of the year. The company has a
window of seven to 10 months to bring out UltraSparc III systems across its entire product line.
Analysts were divided over what affect a delay could have on Sun's sales. Laura Conigliaro, an
analyst at Goldman Sachs, said she didn't expect an impact on Sun.
It isn't unusual for a company to take nine months or so to roll out a whole line of new computers.
Conigliaro said she believed the first "drizzle" of workstations would be available in June and that
volumes of the machines would increase in September.
Brian Eisenbarth, an analyst at Collins & Co., said he too was unconvinced there would be a
damaging impact on sales. Sun's orders have been strong in the past couple quarters and customers
have projects they can't wait to deploy, he said.
Other analysts said they expected the profitable high-end Serengeti computers running UltraSparc III
chips - machines that would update Sun's E10,000 or Starfire line of Unix servers - to be delayed until
the end of the year.
That raises the question of whether customers will wait for the systems or turn to competitors, one
analysts said,
A spokesman for International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said Big Blue saw any Sun delay as
an opportunity for it.
Sun's Van Aman said Sun has 750MHz UltraSparc III chips working in the lab and a 1GHz
UltraSprac III prototype running.
-Mark Boslet; Dow Jones Newswires; 650-496-1366 |
