Sun Microsystems today introduced the company’s first-ever laptop computer, the Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation, which uses Sun’s Sparc microprocessor and the Solaris operating system (OS) and gives scientists and engineers the same computing power currently enjoyed on traditional mid-range servers and workstations.
The news came amidst a flurry of announcements by Sun at the JavaOne Developer Conference in San Francisco where Sun unveiled the next generation of its Java Enterprise Edition and produced a roadmap for its Java software. Sun also revealed closer ties with archrival IBM that will see the two extend a working agreement on Java.
Sun also revealed plans to strengthen its position in the business integration market with the acquisition of SeeBeyond for US$387m in cash.
Aimed at engineers on the move, the Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation extends Sun’s SPARC processor-based systems portfolio into mobile computing, enabling software developers, government agencies and system administrators to run the same applications across enterprise servers, midrange servers, workstations, thin clients, and now mobile workstations.
Entry-level pricing for the Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation begins at €2,800. It is pre-loaded with the Solaris 10 OS, includes 550MHz, 512MB Ram, 40GB disk drive, entry 2D graphics and wireless 802.11b, and will be generally available from next month.
By John Kennedy
