Sun is introducing the 110MHz microSparc on to the mid-range, high-volume Sparcstation 5, rating the unit at 78.6 SPECint92 and 65.2 SPECfp92. With 32Mb to 256Mb memory, 535Mb to 42Gb disk it starts at $9,600 with a 17 screen and 1Gb disk. Servers are from $10,600. Sun has moved the 85MHz microSparc II down into its new low-end offering, the SparcStation 4, which is rated at 65.2 SPECint92 and 53.1 SPECfp92 and costs $4,000 with 16Mb memory, 535Mb disk and a 15 colour screen or $4,700 as a server. Although under target for the quarter, Sun claims it is shifted tens of thousands of the $4,000 Sparcstation 4s in the couple of months they’ve been shipping. It will not attempt to go any lower down the pricing scale, believing that under $4,000 and you are there. It is taking three to four months to ramp up to volume ships after initial delivery dates, Sun says. Sun is also introducing a new SparcStorage Array Model 102 RAID subsystem for use with SparcServers and SparcCenters that has up to 30 2.1Gb drives at from $26,200 for 12.6Gb and $62,600 for 63Gb. It has added an optional second power supply for the 2000E SparcCenter and a redundant cooling fan unit which has four blowers in case of failure.
