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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (34460)	8/16/2000 9:13:06 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Those bids are very often bought for bragging-rights. The customer wants something that doesn't exist and it's a battle between the bidders' engineering and sales departments: do we lie about what we can deliver and get the win (the MSFT approach), or do we tell the truth and lose out to our lying competition. I had read earlier articles about this. Sun was bidding small changes to speed up interconnects between systems they already had. Whether Compaq bid blue-sky stuff or not I don't know. --QS

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (34460)	8/16/2000 9:22:31 PM
From: E_K_S	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Charles - If CPQ had to use a UNIX OS, it would further confirm to the workstation community that SOLARIS is the OS of choice. Furthermore, depending on how CPQ configured this "supercomputer" (ie how many Intel P4's in parallel?), I wonder if SUNW could duplicate the INTEL configuration using SOLARIS as the OS. Wouldn't it be a huge win for SUNW if they could duplicate CPQ's design with either (1) INTEL based processors or (2) Ultra III processors integrating SOLARIS and SUNW storage arrays into the design. It would demonstrate the flexibility of the SOLARIS OS (even the ported "INTEL" SOLARIS to run on INTEL microprocessors) and SUNW's network storage solutions. I suspesct that SUNW has it's hands full with the current business at hand than to be building a prototype "supercomputer". However, a $100 million contract is a big chunk of change! ======================================================== Some news from yesterday.... "... Sun Indicates Server Biz Is Very Strong; Stock Jumps By Thomas Lepri Staff Reporter 8/15/00 7:27 PM ET Investors assuming that things couldn't get any better at Sun Microsystems (SUNW:Nasdaq - news) were blindsided Tuesday by a new wave of optimism over the company's prospects in the already booming server business. Sun, one of the Nasdaq's highest-flying issues, surged after the company held a conference call to update analysts on the progress of its fiscal first quarter, which ends in September. Sun wouldn't divulge details of the update, but a company spokesman said "it was a pretty positive phone call." If SUN is doing well, you can bet on that ORCL will be just as well also. Sun's servers and Oracle's database and applications softwares are the prefered systems for running Internet related applications. thestreet.com "Sun said that demand was strong in all sectors and ahead of their forecast," said Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Doug Van Dorsten, who rates the stock a buy. "And typically they have [an internal] forecast that's ahead of what they tell investors." Thomas Weisel Partners has no underwriting relationship with Sun. Clearly. The stock, already flying at all-time highs, rose 3 5/16, or 2.9%, to close at 117 3/8 following the conclusion of the conference call. ========================================================== EKS P.S. My After Hours quote show SUNW Bid $116 7/8 Ask $117.

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (34460)	8/17/2000 6:33:25 AM
From: JDN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Dear Charles and all: I am not impressed with the supercomputer from a business viewpoint (and I do own CPQ as well as SUNW so this isnt sour grapes talk). The truth of the matter is that I do not believe it possible to get any kind of reasonable profit upon the manufacture of same. These, as you all well know, are very special computers requiring a considerable amount of time, effort and money to assemble and fine tune. Yet, for the most part they are government related and generally limited to a very small profit margin to begin with. I have heard there is a market worldwide for maybe as many as 100 such computers dont see how you can spread the overhead costs over such a little market. JDN